Availability of VoiceOver in iPhone App on Virtual Musical Instrument?

Question

I received comments from blind users that some of my sound and music related applications only work with VoiceOver. Is this common and / or acceptable?

Thanks to the VoiceOver Accessibility feature available on your iOS device, can I turn on the music keyboard or touch pad area so that music sounds can play right away instead of VoiceOver prompts when a keyboard or virtual drum is installed (etc.) tapped? Just setting UIAccessibilityTraitPlaysSound AccessibilityTrait to a UIView view does not seem to do this. I get a VoiceOver click instead of a piano or drums with VoiceOver turned on.

A blind user can completely disable VoiceOver, but then all other buttons (tool selection, configuration, help, etc.) and / or controls will no longer have VoiceOver help.

Answer 1

Now I can answer my question.

IOS 5 adds a new API for this need:

[ mySubView setAccessibilityTraits: UIAccessibilityTraitAllowsDirectInteraction ]; 

disables VoiceOver just for this subspecies of the UIView, but leaves the other subtasks (other buttons, etc.) unaffected. This allows the application to receive adaptive touch handlers that are more suitable for inputting a musical instrument for a specified subset, even with VoiceOver turned on and providing assistance for other parts of the application’s user interface outside the specified preview.

Answer 2

I don’t think that for you, the developer can turn off VoiceOver, and since you find it inappropriate for users to play the instrument using voice interception gestures.

I find it acceptable to leave this in the hands of the user. It’s easy to switch Voiceover I / O by pressing the home button three times, although this is disabled by default (users can enable it through Settings> General> Accessibility> Triple Click). With this option, users can explore your interface using Voiceover on, then switch it when they are ready for music, and turn it back on when they are finished.

With this in mind, you just need to make sure that all interactive components (e.g. piano keys, parts of the drum kit) have meaningful labels.