Accessibility: VoiceOver activated, iPhone needs passcode, result confusion

A friend called me to say they were completely stuck with their iPhone. When I looked it was on the passcode screen (after a restart - so bio recognition was inactive as well) with the six dots compressed in size. Every time she touched a key the phone spoke into her ear (she had a connected hearing aid). Siri would not help because it required the passcode as well before it would activate. It took me quite a while to work out what was going on. My friend had inadvertently enabled VoiceOver which meant that normal screen operations did not function (since VoiceOver seems to be designed for situations where you cannot see the screen). I found out later that there is a support page for the special VoiceOver gestures, but at the time I was faced with a situation whereby I could not find a way to enter a passcode. Somehow I finally worked out that the way to enter the passcode, say 123456, was to click once on the digit '1' to give it focus, then double-click on that digit to register it, and then repeat that for the other passcode digits, all the time the Voice telling you what you are doing and occasionally adding in 'JKL' and 'DEF' for good measure. This took a while i can tell you, but once done I could ask Siri to turn off VoiceOver and all was normal again. Alternatively you can navigate to Settings/Accessibility/VoiceOver. To do it this way remember to follow the single/double click routine, which takes some getting used to. VoiceOver is incredibly valuable for those who need it but is confusing if you activate it without realising it. Also I am not sure why the normal gestures are disabled.

I hope this helps someone!!