Assistive technologies for mobile devices at IU

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Screen readers

While there are many different screen readers available for desktop machines and laptops, similar technologies are also available for mobile devices. Both Android OS and iOS offer mobile screen readers for their respective operating systems.

Android OS

The Android OS has a built-in, gesture-based screen reader called TalkBack, and it is available on any devices running Android 4.0 and above. To use it, move your fingers across the device in a particular direction in order to guide the screen reader. These movements are called "gestures".

For more, see:

iOS

Devices running iOS have a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver. Similar to TalkBack, this is a gesture-based screen reader. To use it, move your fingers across the device in a particular direction in order to guide the screen reader. These movements are called "gestures".

To turn on VoiceOver, tap the Home button three times.

Text-to-speech

Text-to-speech, commonly abbreviated as TTS, tools are similar to screen readers in that they dictate text that appears on your screen. This feature strictly dictates text so, unlike screen readers, it does not help you navigate a device.

Android OS

Devices running Android OS have a built-in TTS service called Google Text-to-Speech. Google Text-to-Speech can be used in combination with TalkBack, a screen-reader service mentioned above.

For more, see Text-to-speech output.

iOS

Devices running iOS have a built-in text-to-speech service called Speak Screen. Some text-to-speech services require you to manually highlight the text you wish to have dictated. However, with Speak Screen, you just need to swipe down with two fingers; this will prompt Speak Screen to begin dictating the on-screen text.

Additional resources

Related documents

Campus accessibility resources at IU

This is document anpu in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2023-03-28 10:19:14.