Slide-to-answer does not work for people with coordination problems

Question

Level 1

4 points

Slide-to-answer does not work for people with coordination problems

So I just discovered that one of the reasons my mother has been missing calls is because she can't answer her phone easily anymore. Prior to fairly recently, when her iPhone rang, she could either tap "accept" or "decline" to answer (or ignore) a phone call. Now she apparently has to slide her finger across her screen to answer the call, and she quite simply doesn't have the physical coordination to do this. I've been trying and trying to find a solution, but so far, the only ones I've found involve jailbreaking her phone. I'm baffled as to why Apple would swap out something as disability-friendly as tap-to-answer for a system that is so disability-unfriendly. Has anyone found any other workable solutions for this? Right now, it's looking more like our only options are either jailbreaking her phone or getting her something made by another company.

Posted on Jan 11, 2015 6:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

ssschmidt

Level 5

5,444 points

Jan 11, 2015 6:50 PM in response to LaraRebooted

So have you called Apple Care, and asked to speak to an accessibility specialist?

AppleCare US phone number: (800)-694-7466

Contact Apple for support and service

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

Reply

Answer 2

Marja E

Level 1

43 points

Mar 2, 2015 6:26 PM in response to LaraRebooted

I don't have an iPhone, but I have coordination problems, and I can't use toucscreens or fancy touchpad gestures such as tapping either way.

Reply

Answer 3

Jeshyr2

Level 1

5 points

Mar 3, 2015 11:34 PM in response to LaraRebooted

Lara, you should totally email accessibility@apple.com about this - it's absolutely an accessibility issue that isn't well addressed.

In the meantime, a possible workaround MIGHT be that if your phone's screen is on and the phone is unlocked then you don't get the "slide to answer" but instead the easier-to-access "accept"/"dismiss" buttons. Obviously leaving the phone's screen on all day is not a great solution, but if your mother isn't terribly active and often stays in one or two places then setting up powered iPhone docks in the right spots might mean that she could unlock the phone (taking as much time as needed) and then sit it on the dock. You'd also have to set the auto-lock to "Never" so that it wouldn't turn itself off, but I think it'd work.

Reply