iOS Lesson 1: One Finger Gestures

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Good work, we are well on our way. Lets talk about how you use VoiceOver

You will normally use the VoiceOver gestures to navigate your screen to find an item that you would like to work with such as an app, link, or a button.

When you navigate to a new screen, VoiceOver will select and speak the name of the first item on the screen, usually the item in the top left corner of the screen. VoiceOver will also announce when the display changes to landscape or portrait mode, when the screen becomes dimmed or locked, and the active item on the Lock Screen when you wake your device.

The One Finger Swipe

The first gestures to learn are the One Finger Swipes. These move the VoiceOver Cursor horizontally Right and Left across your screen reading to you what it finds next. Why don't you try it, Swipe Right with One Finger.

Well done! That was a One Finger Right Swipe and it moved the VoiceOver cursor from the previous line, to the next line; this line, and it read it to you. Keep swiping right again as you read the text.

VoiceOver has gestures that will control how you move around the screen, and will let you perform actions on the items in the VoiceOver cursor such as clicking items, or starting to read from the top of the screen.

You can also start and stop your audio player, or read all of the information on your screen to you; you just have to know how.

To move backwards to read something again, you can Swipe Left with One Finger. This moves the VoiceOver cursor back towards the beginning of the page. Explore by going backwards and then use the One Finger Right Swipe to come back here.

Did it work? Ok great, as long as you keep making this gesture, VoiceOver will happily keep reading item after item until it reaches the last item and you hear a "bung" sound letting you know that there is nothing else to speak in this direction.

The One Finger Double Tap

The next gesture that you will need to know is the One Finger Double Tap. This gesture is used to click items on the screen that you want to interact with.

This gesture is performed by quickly tapping twice with one finger away from the edge of your screen so you don't accidentally hit the edge.

You do not need to tap near the item you are trying to click, once it is in the VoiceOver cursor, you can tap anywhere on the screen to click it.

The One Finger Touch

As we talked about earlier, a very important skill is to be able to touch and explore the screen.

Below, you will find a table full of individual letters. Touch the screen with one finger and explore to see if you can find a pattern. Keep moving forward and see if you can find and click the link to go to the One Finger Touch Practice area. I'll see you there!

Click to go to the one finger touch practice.

Explore the screen with your finger, move left and right, up and down, can you find any patterns?


Wasn't that fun? You can learn a lot by exploring a new screen. Once you know where the important items are, you can move to them very quickly.

If you would like more practice using the one finger touch gesture, visit the Touch Screen Practice link on the main VoiceOver page.

Click the link below to go to the Two Finger Gestures page.


Two Finger Gestures