Forward

September 2021

Good afternoon <<First Name>>,

Spring is here! I think most Australians probably agree with me that it will be nice to see the end of this brisk weather and the start of some warmer days.

I'll keep it short and sweet and let you enjoy this month's e-newsletter. We are slowly transitioning over to our new branding as part of the AbleDocs family, so bear with us as we slowly change our social media platforms and if things start to look a little different. It's still us, we are still here and would love to hear from you as always.

Have a great month!

- Emma Murray

Romy I’Dell was diagnosed with autism and ADHD in 2018, only a few months before her 21^st birthday. She’s always had a passion for writing and editing, and has enjoyed expanding her passion towards website accessibility since she joined ADWebKey this year. She enjoys reading avidly, listening to music and spending time with her cat, Macavity.

Autism & ADHD

13th of September, by Romy I'Dell (Usability Analyst)

People read websites differently to how they read books. When we’re reading information on a website, we just don’t take in every single word in front of us; we’re much more likely to skim through paragraphs to find key words than process each word in a sentence because we want to find what we’re looking for. This scanning is helped by headings and images which give context to paragraphs.

As an autistic person with ADHD, I don’t stay on web pages long. If the information I’m looking for isn’t immediately obvious, I’ll move on. And when I open a webpage and just see paragraph after paragraph of text with no headers in sight? Well, unless I have to read the page, I’ll sigh and leave the site.

Walls of text are notorious for turning readers away from websites. The vast majority of people only read the opening words of a paragraph and decide whether it has the information they’re looking for — and if not, bye!

Then there’s the layout of the page. The columns are often too wide, stretching the text out and making it hard to keep your place, especially if you have to increase the magnification to read. Most paragraphs don’t have headers alongside them to provide information on the content of the page, so even if the information you’re looking for is on the page, it’s likely you won’t find it.

I definitely struggle when a page doesn’t have visual cues or a clear layout. I’m a skim-reader by nature so when I’m faced with a block of text, I often feel overwhelmed. Sometimes my brain doesn’t process the words I’m reading, so I have to backtrack and lose my place in the swarm of text. Other times I just can’t find the mental effort to focus on finding the information. It’s a very frustrating and upsetting experience, especially since I love to read and learn.

The best websites for me are ones that keep everything ‘short and sweet’. Paragraphs are kept to a maximum of three sentences and are broken up by headers, visuals like tables or images, and bullet pointed lists. But the true hallelujah moment is when the page has a search function.

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of struggling to find information on, for example, a government website. There are heaps of links to click and the language isn’t clear, so the search function is a godsend. I type a few words into the search bar and boom! All the pages that have the information I want is set out before me. I still have to struggle through paragraph after paragraph, but I rest assured with the knowledge that the information I want will be on the page.
Somewhere.

As both an autistic person and someone with ADHD, search functions help me streamline my reading and, if it works for me, it’ll work for almost everyone because, in reality, we all read websites the same way, and it isn’t how we read books.

Did you know when you capitalize the first letter of each word in your hashtag, it's easier for everyone to read?

And screen readers will announce each word separately.

Compare #MakeItEasyToRead to #makeiteasytoread

What Is iPhone Switch Control and How to Use It

By Danny Maiorca on 23rd August 2021
Originally published on Guiding Tech

For ease of reading, screenshots and images have been removed from the below article, but feel free to see the full tutorial here.

Our smartphones have long evolved beyond being useful for little other than texting, calling, and listening to music. Now, they’re an extension of our lives on our computers. Compared to the older phones, iPhones and their counterparts have also become more accessible to those with physical difficulties.

One often overlooked feature on the iPhone is Switch Control, allowing users to navigate their devices with greater ease. But what exactly is Switch Control, and how do you use it? Let’s take a look.

What Is iPhone Switch Control?
iPhone Switch Control is a feature that enables users to control their devices using an external switch. It was introduced with iOS 14 and is also available on the iPad and iPod Touch. Check our guide if you are facing troubles for updating your iPhone to iOS 14,

Apple introduced Switch Control to help users that couldn’t use their hands as easily as others to still get the most out of their devices. You can use the tool to perform several essential functions on your screen, including typing and clicking on tabs and buttons.

When using Switch Control, you can scan sections on your screen before picking your next steps. You can either choose to scan an area or use point scanning.

To use Switch Control on your iPhone, you’ll need to pair an external switch with your device.

How to Use iPhone Switch Control
When using Switch Control on your iPhone, you’ll first need to switch on the feature. To do this, follow these instructions.

Step 1: Go into your iPhone’s Settings and scroll down to Accessibility.
Step 2: Under Physical and Motor, click on Switch Control.
Step 3: At the top of the screen, turn the Switch Control button on so it shows up as green.

How to Add a New Switch to Your iPhone
One of the cool things about Switch Control is that, if you want to, you can use more than one switch to control your iPhone.
To add new switches when using this feature, you’ll to follow the steps below.

Step 1: Go back into your iPhone’s Settings before navigating through to Accessibility and Switch Control. The steps for this are identical to those in the previous section.
Step 2: Select the tab called Switches. This is the first one underneath Switch Control.
Step 3: Select Add New Switch.
Step 4: In the next window, you’ll see four source choices. Go through each of them and customize as you feel is necessary.

After picking the options, your selections should apply on your iPhone immediately.

How to Create New Gestures
You might find it easier to use Switch Control on your iPhone by creating gestures. Doing so is relatively straightforward; all you need to do is follow the steps below.

Step 1: In Switch Control, scroll to the bottom and select Saved Gestures.
Step 2: On the next window, choose Create New Gesture.
Step 3: Create your gesture by either tapping or swiping. Once you’ve finished, press Save.

A New Way to Use Your iPhone
In more recent iOS updates, Apple has made its devices easier to use for those who have difficulties carrying out basic actions with its devices. One of the best examples of this is Switch Control, which helps users manage their iPhones much better than would have otherwise been possible.

The methods mentioned above should get you started to use Switch Control on your iPhone.