Is there any way to create a custom VoiceOver gest

Question

Is there any way to create a custom gesture in iOS specifically for VoiceOver users?

Thank you

Answer 1

I think this MIGHT be possible. The iOS Mail app (at least in iOS 6) seems to contain custom Voiceover actions (you can swipe up or down to enable a "delete" operation on a mail item in the list).

My guess is (and I haven't verified this, is that if you add a swipe recogonizer only when UIAccessibilityIsVoiceOverRunning() returns true.

I haven't tested this yet.

Answer 2

I'm almost certain that this is not possible. That said, the accessibility APIs allow you to do things like speak content when a view changes, so maybe you could use this?

You mentioned a gesture specifically for Voiceover users - if Voiceover users are the majority of your audience, then you could just provide a standard gesture, which Voiceover users could invoke by double tapping and holding to pass the gesture through, and then performing the gesture itself.

For example, to "pull to refresh" a Voiceover user would double tap, hold, then pull down.