VoiceOver gestures for iOS cheatsheet

Below are a few key gestures to help you get around browsing the web on iOS with the VoiceOver screen reader. A more complete list is available at AppleVis.com or on Apple's official iPhone User Guide.

Basic navigation

Scanning via touch

Moving your finger across the page will cause VoiceOver to read anything you touch.

Next/previous item

A single finger flick right or left moves focus to the next or previous item on the page.

Read page starting at selected item

Flick down with two fingers to start reading from the selected item.

Read page starting at top

Flick up with two fingers to start reading from the top of the page.

Scroll up or down one page

Flick up or down with three fingers to move to the next or previous page.

Go back or close modal

To go "back" in Safari or dismiss a modal or notification, "scrub" with two fingers, making a "z" shape.

Rotor

Access Rotor

To access the rotor, turn with two fingers like you would a knob. Continue turning to change the rotor setting.

Next/previous item by rotor setting

To move through items on the page according to the rotor setting (such as by headings or links), flick up or down with one finger.

Item chooser

Access item chooser

To access the item chooser, tap three times with two fingers.

Next/previous page in item chooser

To move to the next or previous page in the item chooser, flick left or right with three fingers.

Interaction

Select without activating

Tapping once will select the item without activating it. VoiceOver will just read the item.

Activate an item

Tapping twice on the current item will activate it.

Start dictation

Tapping twice with two fingers will start voice dictation when a text input is active.