Touch Typing with VoiceOver in iOS 6
— ♣In addition to the more significant changes detailed in our First Look at VoiceOver in iOS 6, there are other minor tweaks to accessibility in Apple’s sixth version of its mobile operating system. We plan to make note of these in a series of shorter posts over the coming days, as well as tips and tricks for taking advantage of them effectively.
VoiceOver’s Touch Typing feature has been subtly tweaked to make text entry quicker and more efficient. Users may find better responsiveness from the keyboards as they type in general, but the behaviors of some keys has also been tweaked.
Previously, several keys on the keyboards were excluded from being used with the Touch Typing feature. These included the Delete, Shift, “More Numbers…”, “More Symbols…”, and Return keys, among others. These keys needed to be activated by either a VoiceOver double-tap or split-tap.
In iOS 6, many of these keys can now be entered by Touch Typing’s simple touch and release method, just like the letter keys. The only keys now excluded from Touch Typing are:
- Return (and its variations)
- Hide Keyboard (iPad only)
- Dictate (Dictation enabled devices only)
- Next Keyboard (when international keyboard layouts are enabled)
Hint: To press and hold the Delete key in order to remove large amounts of text at once, touch it, perform a split tap to cancel the touch, and then double-tap-and-hold. This also works for keys which have alternative characters available when held down.