Make your iPad or iPhone Easier to See
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I’m back with another Apple Accessibility tip! This week, I wanted to highlight options for making text and icons larger! I’ve written this article from the perspective of a user with an iPhone or iPad that has iOS 17 on it. If this article doesn’t match up with your experience, reach out and we can walk you through what’s available on your iOS device! All links will take you to a relevant Apple Support page. You can also visit our last newsletter on the Accessibility Shortcut.
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Settings to adjust the size of things are available in two places. In the Settings App, we’ll start by going to Display & Brightness. Midway down the page are the settings for Text Size. If you click on Text size, a slider will appear at the bottom of the screen, like the one pictured below.
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Image Description: There is a low contrast white dot sitting on top of a light gray line with smaller perpendicular lines. On the left side is a small A, and on the right is a large A.
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If you move the white dot towards the right, the text at the top of the screen will get larger. This represents what the font size will look like on the rest of the device, where “dynamic type” is supported. If the largest setting is still too small, keep reading!
If you need the font larger than the largest option, go back to the first page in the Settings app, and go to the Accessibility Settings. Today, we’re headed to the Vision Section.
Tap on Display and Text Size. Select Larger Text. Once inside, toggle Larger Accessibility Sizes on. Now at the bottom of the screen you will see the same slider, but with a lot more room to the right. Slide the white dot until you get a size that suits your needs.
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Image Description: a comparison of two different text size selections. The option on the left displays the text size when the font selection is on the 4th size on the slider. The one on the right displays the text size on the largest option. There are 12 total options. Text on the screen reads: Larger Text. Larger Accessibility Sizes (toggle button to turn on/off). Apps that support Dynamic type will adjust to your preferred reading size below. At the bottom of the screen is the slider.
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Changing the text size will not change the app icon sizes. To enlarge these, go to the first page of the Settings app, select Display and Brightness. All the way at the bottom is a setting called Display Zoom. If you tap on this, you are presented with two options – Larger Text and Default. Try out Larger Text to increase the size of the icons on your screen. When you select Larger Text, a confirmation screen will come up asking if you want to “Use Zoomed.” Select Use Zoomed. The screen will go black for a few seconds while it updates the look of your phone. Below is a comparison of the two options. It’s subtle but makes a pretty big difference. One thing to note is that there is no way to increase the size of the status symbols at the top of the screen, which include the time, your cell phone signal strength, your wifi connection, and the battery life indicator.
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Image Description: a comparison between the Standard (left side) and Zoomed (right side) displays on an iPhone with lots of apps and widgets. The icons and icon labels on the Zoomed side are about 50% larger than the icons on the standard size.
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Something else to check out, that we won’t get into today, is the “Zoom” feature, also available in the Accessibility menu. This feature allows you to zoom in on any area of the screen with a simple three-finger, double tap. We’ll review this next time!
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The contents of this newsletter were submitted by Tracy Roux; A.T Consultant serving Washington, Orange, Lamoille, Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia Counties.
Contact the Vermont Assistive Technology Program by calling 1-800-750-6355 or by emailing dail.atinfo@vermont.gov. For more information visit our website (www.atp.vermont.gov). And if there is a topic that you'd like to see covered, please feel free to let us know!
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