How do I use Touch Accommodations on iPhone? With a touch, of course!
For people with motor skill impairments, Touch Accommodations is a useful and convenient accessibility feature that helps make using a touchscreen much easier and much less frustrating.
Here's how to set things up to work for you.
How to enable Touch Accommodations
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Touch Accommodations under the Interaction section.
Tap the switch next to Touch Accommodations to enable the feature.
How to enable and change Hold Duration
If you have tremors or tics that might cause you to tap your iPhone or iPads screen repeatedly, you can enable a Hold Duration so that you must hold an on-screen button for a certain length of time before it is activated.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Touch Accommodations under the Interaction section.
- Tap the switch next to Hold Duration.
Tap the plus or minus button to increase or decrease the Hold Duration.
How to enable and change duration for Ignore Repeat
Ignore Repeat works similarly to Hold Duration in that you can set a duration during which multiple taps will be recognized as only one tap. This is particularly useful if you're trying to enable settings or type a text or email.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Touch Accommodations under the Interaction section.
- Tap the switch next to Ignore Repeat.
Tap the plus or minus button to increase or decrease the Ignore Repeat duration.
How to enable Tap Assistance
Enabling Tap Assistance will allow any single finger gesture to perform a tap.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Touch Accommodations under the Interaction section.
Tap Use Initial Touch Location or Use Final Touch Location under Tap Assistance.
Questions?
Got a question about using Touch Accommodations? Let us know in the comments below!
Reader comments
How to use Touch Accommodations on iPhone and iPad
Any idea how to set up an iPad on iOS 10.0.2 so we can get past the home screen without having to push the home button twice? We tried setting up a switch with a head tilt but this is not working for my daughter. We really need to be able to swipe or just push the power and have the iPad on.
By default, you should only have to press the Home button once to unlock your phone. If you have a fingerprint set up, you just rest you finger for a moment and then press the Home button. If that's where you're having trouble, you could try disabling Rest Finger to Open, so that it just unlocks on one press of the Home button. Here's how: http://www.imore.com/how-change-home-button-opening-behavior-iphone-and-ipad
There isn't an option to swipe to unlock anymore, unfortunately.
Use the Assistive Touch. In Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch. It will be this little dot but shows up on the lock screen. I use the virtual home button to unlock my iPad Air. Pain really because the Smart Cover used to bring me to the Passcode but that changed in iOS 10.
Not sure if this helps for what you need but in Accessibility under Home Button, I turned on "Rest Ringer to Open" so I can just touch the home button with my finger to unlock it but not have to press it or press it twice.
I like that yellow/red tinted display in the top photo. Iphone7 ?
What about if the person's tremor keeps triple-clicking the home button and turning off touch assist!?