Apple has today released iOS 9.3.2 to the public, bringing with it bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements.
At the time of writing, it appears that blind and low vision users will find little change to the known accessibility bugs present in iOS 9.3.1.
The only change that we are presently aware of is some improvement in the bug which may see VoiceOver switch to another text-to-speech language when announcing some characters. This appears to have been mostly addressed for punctuation, but may still be encountered when using the emoji keyboard.
It is disappointing to see some long-standing accessibility-related bugs survive another iOS update. However, it is also worth noting that we did not encounter any new bugs in this release.
As we always stress in these posts, it is impossible for us to test all devices, apps, and use cases. So, it is possible that we have overlooked some changes, regressions or improvements. With this in mind, we would greatly appreciate your help in ensuring that the information on this page is as complete and accurate as possible. If you spot any accessibility-related changes in iOS 9.3.2, please do let us know in the comments.
In terms of general fixes in iOS 9.3.2, MacRumors reports that this release fixes a long-standing bug in Game Center that renders many games unplayable:
The bug, which first appeared in iOS 8, affects many popular games of the sort and involves the Game Center app launching as a white screen, crashing games to a white screen, and/or the Settings app freezing when Game Center's options are selected.
According to Apple’s release notes via AppleInsider, this update fixes an issue where the newly launched iPhone SE could experience quality issues when fielding a call over a Bluetooth headset.
Apple also said iOS 9.3.2 fixes an issue where looking up dictionary definitions could fail, and it squashes a bug that prevented typing email addresses when using the Japanese Kana keyboard in Mail and Messages. The udpate also fixes an issue for VoiceOver users using Alex voice, where the device switches to a different voice to announce punctuation or paces.
Finally, Apple also said that iOS 9.3.2 fixes an issue that prevented MDM servers from installing Custom B2B apps.
As stated earlier in this post, the VoiceOver bug mentioned by Apple does not appear to be completely resolved in our initial testing. If you find otherwise, do please let us know in the comments.
iOS 9.3.2 is available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings> General> Software Update) or from iTunes on the Mac or PC. As always, we encourage you to make a backup before installing this update.
Comments
Possable bug fix
It seems like the bug that made Voiceover studder after a call was fixed. At least when using Daniel not sure if this bug was with other voices or not. I have had 2 calls so far and Voiceover has been working fine after the calls was ended. Fingers crossed!
Hello Setup Screen
I am extremely glad that the Hello setup screen was not there after my phone restarted after I upgraded. I only had to enter my passcode. I hope this fix without the Hello setup screen continues in future ios updates! It makes it a lot easier for me!
Safari.
I suppose this is to be expected. Particularly disappointing is the lack of movement on the behavior of Safari when going back on webpages. Being continually placed at the top of a page when navigating back I find especially irritating, primarily because this did not occur prior to 9.2, and has been reported frequently, at least by myself. A real pain in the backside. I'll simply keep sending e-mails until they get their finger out and address a ridiculous problem that never should have been introduced in the first place. Sloppy coding, lets say it like it is, in addition to the others I've not mentioned and are featured in the above post. IOS9 was vastly improved for Voiceover users, but this sitting on their hands leaving issues for considerable periods of time, is exasperating, especially as we're talking about small bugs ultimately.
I think that
I haven't upgraded yet, but I think that Apple focuses more on sighted people when releasing updates. I mean, compared to cited users, the portion of visually impaired people who use I devices are significantly smaller. I agree that these issues are extremely annoying. They should focus a bit more on voiceover. Just my thoughts.
bug partially fixed in ios update
One very welcome partial fix in this ios update is that when using UK English for your ios language but alex as your voice ios no longer switches to UK English for spaces or punctuation or reads nonsense when switching bac to alex for letters. However they still haven't fixed the issue when I switch keyboards that the UK Daniel voice is used when changing keyboards it says next keyboard with alex, then emogi with Daniel, and also the delete key on the emoge keyboard is read with the Daniel voice. so this is bac to how it was pre ios 9.3.1. wish apple would actually thoroughly test fixes, will have to drop them a message. still the partial fix is very welcome.