Cheat sheet on VoiceOver gestures for iOS

As we established in this VoiceOver guide for SwiftUI, the Accessibility Inspector is really helpful during development, but doesn't replace testing accessibility with VoiceOver on a real device.

When VoiceOver is enabled, standard gestures behave differently, and additional gestures allow us to navigate the app and interact with elements.

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Activating the VoiceOver shortcut

We can activate VoiceOver through Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver. To be able to quickly toggle VoiceOver on and off, we can set up a shortcut on our iOS device by navigating to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut > VoiceOver.

To be able to quickly switch VoiceOver on and off, we can activate a shortcut on the iOS device by selecting Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut > VoiceOver.

Now, we can triple-click the side button to switch VoiceOver on and off. This is especially handy when we need to test specific parts of the app without keeping VoiceOver on constantly.

Frequently used VoiceOver gestures

Once VoiceOver is activated, the following gestures are helpfull to navigate and interact with the app:

• Drag the finger over the screen to explore items. VoiceOver will announce each touched item.
• Tap or touch an item to select it and let VoiceOver name it.
• Double tap to activate a selected item.
• Swipe right or left to select the next or previous item.
• Two-finger tap to pause or resume speech.
• Two-finger swipe up or down to let VoiceOver read the entire screen from the top or from the selected item.
• Three-finger swipe down, up, right or left to scroll.

These gestures are sufficient for testing most app features. For more advanced interactions, refer to Apple's official VoiceOver gestures guide.