[NFBCS] IOS 17 rolling out tomorrow

sonfire11 at gmail.com sonfire11 at gmail.com
Mon Sep 18 01:06:54 UTC 2023


I could care less about how many notifications are sitting around when I am out on the road and just want the time.


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Doug Lee via NFBCS
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2023 7:08 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Doug Lee <dgl at dlee.org>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] IOS 17 rolling out tomorrow

I find two issues in that list that I often see in iOS 16 as well:

1. VoiceOver dying after a phone call.

2. The notification count instead of current time speaking on waking a phone.

I've always assumed that the second of these is a design change and not a bug, but that the first is an actual bug.

On Sun, Sep 17, 2023 at 05:07:41PM -0500, NFBCS mailing list wrote:
   Hello:


   Here are the bug reports as shown on the Applevis website.


Serious Bugs

   Some users may encounter [1]an intermittent issue that affects the
   operation of the VoiceOver double-tap gesture on iOS 17. When
   attempting to double-tap an actionable interface element, the resulting
   behaviour experienced is as if the user touched with 1 finger the area
   of the screen where they performed the gesture, rather than performed a
   double tap on the element that VoiceOver focus was on.

   For instance, with VoiceOver focus on a button within Safari's toolbar,
   performing a double tap might result in VoiceOver speaking the text
   content of the webpage that was under your finger at the time you
   performed the gesture, instead of activating the intended button in the
   toolbar.

   When this behaviour occurs, VoiceOver focus typically moves to the
   interface element that was spoken. It's necessary to relocate focus
   back to the intended element before attempting the double-tap again.
   While this movement of focus may sound similar to the longstanding
   issue for many users involving VoiceOver focus, the issue described
   here is new and noticeably different when experienced.

   This issue is not limited to specific apps; it occurs across native and
   third-party applications. It impacts various types of actionable
   interface elements, including activating items on the VoiceOver rotor's
   action menu.

   In some cases, the double tap might function correctly on the second
   attempt, while in others, it might require multiple tries before
   registering accurately.

   The underlying issue can also cause problems with the operation of the
   1 finger triple-tap gesture and the 1 finger double-tap and hold.

   It is important to note that this behaviour is not consistent—it
   doesn’t happen every time. Based on our testing, there is no
   discernible pattern to predict when it will occur or how frequently.
   But based on experience, it likely won't be highly frequent for
   impacted users.

   While serious, this issue does not appear to be widespread Based on our
   tracking of user experiences during the beta cycle. It has been
   encountered by five members of our Editorial Team. Additionally, A few
   other users across the wider community have reported experiencing this
   behaviour, including Jonathon Mosen and a listener to his [2]Living
   Blindfully podcast. Beyond these known cases, there has been no
   indication that a significant portion of users are affected. Overall,
   current evidence suggests this is an intermittent issue impacting a
   small subset of users rather than something everyone should expect to
   encounter.

   Adjusting the Double-Tap Timeout in Settings > Accessibility >
   VoiceOver has been [3]suggested as a partial workaround for the
   issue. However, based on limited testing, changing this setting does
   not appear to resolve the underlying problem. While you may want to
   experiment with adjusting the Timeout interval, keep in mind that this
   could disrupt your natural double-tap muscle memory which is accustomed
   to the default timing. Any benefits in reliability would need to
   outweigh the effort required to learn the new timing. At this point,
   the setting change seems unlikely to provide a sufficient or permanent
   fix.

   We chose to rate this issue as serious because of the importance of the
   double-tap gesture and its frequency of use. Moreover, our assessment
   has taken into account the potential impact of this behaviour on
   individuals who are new to or less familiar with iOS. These users might
   reasonably assume that the behaviour is due to them not correctly
   performing the double tap gesture, possibly leading them to conclude
   that using an iPhone is more difficult than it actually is.

Moderate Bugs

    1. [4]When using VoiceOver to navigate the main screen of the native
       Weather app, the movement of focus is inconsistent and
       unreliable. Specifically, focus can become stuck on an interface
       element, falsely suggesting there are no further elements to the
       right or left. Or focus may unexpectedly jump over elements as if
       they don't exist on the screen. As a workaround, you will need to
       explore the screen by touch in order to locate all weather data.
    2. [5]Using the "drag" action in the VoiceOver rotor to rearrange app
       icons on the Home Screen often does not work as
       expected. Specifically, when attempting to drag an app icon to a
       new position and place it before or after another app, the dragged
       app frequently ends up in a folder with the target app rather than
       moving to the desired location. It's also been reported that on
       occasions some drag action options, such as “drop before” or “drop
       after”, may not always be available.
    3. [6]An intermittent bug can cause VoiceOver speech to stop after
       ending a phone call, while sound effects remain. There is no clear
       pattern as to when this issue occurs. Similar behaviour has also
       been reported when using WhatsApp.
    4. [7]Incoming banner notifications interrupt VoiceOver speech when
       the “Speak Notifications” accessibility setting is
       enabled. Specifically, any time a new notification banner appears,
       VoiceOver will immediately stop reading the current on-screen text
       or menu to announce the notification. This interrupts VoiceOver
       mid-sentence or mid-menu in a disruptive manner. In previous iOS
       versions, VoiceOver would finish reading the current paragraph,
       sentence, or menu before speaking a new notification. This
       prevented jarring mid-sentence interruptions.
    5. The new predictive text feature in iOS 17 provides recommended
       words inline as you type using the onscreen keyboard. There are
       verbosity settings that allow VoiceOver users to control what
       happens when predictive text appears and when predictive text
       feedback is entered. However, [8]some users report that these
       verbosity settings are not being applied consistently across
       different apps. When the predictive text verbosity setting is set
       to speak recommendations, some VoiceOver users report that
       recommendations are silent in certain apps, even though they expect
       them to be spoken. Conversely, other users have found that with the
       predictive text setting configured to not speak recommendations,
       VoiceOver will still read out the recommendations in some apps like
       Mail.
    6. [9]It is not possible to mark certain actions as favourites in the
       system share sheet due to the ‘Insert’ button and checkbox being
       recognised as part of a single element. Specifically, when editing
       the list of actions to be shown in the Share sheet and focusing on
       an action that can be enabled/disabled via a checkbox, VoiceOver
       announces the checkbox state and "Insert" together rather than
       separately. Double tapping toggles the checkbox but does not allow
       inserting the action as a favourite.

Minor Bugs

    1. [10]VoiceOver no longer announces the time when the device wakes if
       there are pending notifications. Instead, it states the number of
       notifications present.
    2. [11]When using VoiceOver Find with a braille display, searching
       does not function as expected. Specifically, pressing dot 8 does
       nothing after typing in a VoiceOver Find query with a connected
       braille display. The search is not carried out. As a workaround,
       prior to pressing dot 8 to execute the find function, press dots
       2-7 followed by space with dot 8. Your search will now work as
       expected.
    3. [12]When using the VoiceOver rotor to mark an email as read in the
       native Mail app, VoiceOver fails to provide clear confirmation
       feedback. Instead of announcing "read" to confirm the action,
       VoiceOver speaks an unclear and incomprehensible word or phrase.
    4. [13]When you adjusts the volume slider in Control Center using the
       flick gesture, VoiceOver announces the previous volume level rather
       than the new level after the adjustment. Specifically, when a user
       focuses on the volume slider in Control Center with VoiceOver
       enabled, then performs a 1 finger flick up or down to change the
       volume, VoiceOver speaks the volume percentage. However, instead of
       announcing the new volume level, VoiceOver reads out the volume
       level prior to the flick gesture adjustment.
    5. [14]When editing Safari bookmarks, the bookmark names and reorder
       icon label are incorrectly announced with "remove" prepended.
    6. [15]Double tapping on a bookmark or folder title in Safari's edit
       bookmarks screen incorrectly activates a delete button rather than
       opening the edit view. As a workaround, the contextual menu for
       actions includes an Edit option.
    7. [16]Some users may experience inconsistent and less descriptive
       labelling of Control Center toggles. For example, the toggle for
       locking device screen orientation may simply be announced as
       “Locked” or “Unlocked” rather than using the more descriptive label
       “Lock Rotation” that was present in previous iOS versions. This
       degraded labelling does not appear isolated to any specific
       VoiceOver voice. Users of the Alex voice have reported experiencing
       the unclear labels, while others using Alex still hear the expected
       descriptive labels. Additionally, isolated reports indicate similar
       degraded labelling for other Control Center toggles beyond just the
       orientation lock. This bug seems to manifest unpredictably,
       affecting only a small subset of iOS 17 users. The inconsistent
       experience suggests an underlying issue, rather than a deliberate
       change in labelling.

Other Reported Issues

   The Messages app will now automatically transcribe audio messages into
   plain text, a valuable addition for deaf-blind users. However, some
   users report the transcript preview and ‘Show More” button appear
   visually but cannot be accessed through Braille commands, VoiceOver
   gestures or menus. Our testing could not reproduce this inaccessibility
   - VoiceOver consistently announced no transcription available for our
   audio messages. As we were unable to independently validate the issue,
   we have not filed a formal bug report yet. We will continue
   investigating this issue to clarify its specific behaviour.

   Additional user-reported issues that we have not independently
   validated are discussed in these forum threads. While our team has not
   personally reproduced or confirmed these bugs, the threads are worth
   reading to potentially identify other problems you may encounter:
     * [17]RC's are now available for iOS 17, macOS 14, watchOS 10, and
       more!
     * [18]Braille Screen input not reporting deleted word if cursor not
       at end of text
     * [19]While using Voiceover and a bluetooth keyboard, unable to
       review or edit text in notes


   Cordially,


   Curtis Chong


   From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of nancy.l.coffman---
   via NFBCS
   Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2023 4:59 PM
   To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
   Cc: nancy.l.coffman at gmail.com
   Subject: [NFBCS] IOS 17 rolling out tomorrow


   Hello:


   There are some factors you may want to consider before you install IOS
   17 which will begin rolling out on Monday, September 18. The
   accessibility bug report can be found at

   [20]https://www.applevis.com/blog/ios-17-ipados-17-accessibility-report
   -voiceover-braille-low-vision-issues-improvements


   There are some Voiceover bugs that started in earlier IOS versions and
   have not been fixed. Others are new and should be taken into
   consideration before installing the update.


   Nancy Coffman


-- 
Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
"It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper."  --Rod Serling

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