Configuring an iPhone to be primarily a voice controlled phone.

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Level 1

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Configuring an iPhone to be primarily a voice controlled phone.

A family member, with failing sight and unsteady hands, needs a mobile phone. Full voice control is needed. Phones on the market for this don't do the complete job. They require either good vision, or steady hands. If I could disable haptics while keeping voice commands (Siri or Voice Control) available, that would be ideal. Obviously, it would still be necessary to be able to take the phone out of voice-only mode so it could be maintained by other family members, but then easily set back into voice-only mode.

Guided access would seem to be a good option as it does make it possible to turn off the haptics, but voice control appears to be automatically disabled, too (tested on both an 11 and 12 iPhone with Ios 16.1). Also, it would make messaging inaccessible, since it locks the interface to a single app. He would have to exit Guided Access, start the message app and then restart Guided Access. His haptic control is not good enough to enter the Guided Access passcode. (Voice control custom commands can't do this either. As the passcode dialog doesn't respond to either spoken or gesture commands, only physical taps.)

There are some piecemeal configs I have found, like preventing the side button from hanging up, but there is no full solution. Short of reversing the case so it's over the screen and physically disabling the volume buttons, I'm not sure what to do.

Am I missing something?

Can Apple look at this as an accessibility use case and design a solution for it?

Thank you for any help

Posted on Dec 9, 2022 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

Alancito

Level 7

29,970 points

Dec 9, 2022 2:29 PM in response to EricMNelson

EricMNelson wrote: "Am I missing something?"

Perhaps Apple's Shortcuts app:

Shortcuts User Guide for iPhone and iPad

...You can create custom shortcuts which "Hey Siri" can activate. And 'Shortcuts'-type widgets can serve as large-size icons to reduce the chance of tapping the wrong app icon:

Use widgets on your iPhone and iPod touch

Here's one of my Home Screens for playing podcasts:

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

91,172 points

Dec 9, 2022 1:39 PM in response to EricMNelson

Without configuring anything you can use Hey Siri to make calls and send /read text messages. Or, enable voice control. There shouldn’t be much else needed. Why do you need to disable haptic feedback? Why do you want to use guided access? Apple already offers significant accessibility options, what exactly are you looking for?

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Answer 3

EricMNelson Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 9, 2022 2:21 PM in response to muguy

muguy, thanks for replying.

As I decribed, my family member has poor eyesight, and his hand control is unsteady. He invariably touches the wrong place on the screen, if he can even see it, and he grips the phone in ways that either turn off the screen or turn down the volume to zero. I know I can use Siri and voice control to do many, but not all. things needed. And I can create voice control custom commands for him as he needs, but he can't handle the phone without hitting irrelevant apps, getting confused, accidentally hanging up, accidentally calling someone, etc. Other phones on the market, such as MiniVision2, still require a sensitive touch to know what key your hand is touching, and he doesn't have that. I've spent months trying to coerce shortcuts, voice control and guided access into doing what I need, which is basically to make it impossible for him to mess up the phone by hitting the wrong app, or button. Just the fact of his holding the phone introduces problems if the haptics aren't off. There isn't someone with him all the time to get him out of trouble so it has to be a fairly solid solution.

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Configuring an iPhone to be primarily a voice controlled phone.

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