I have a colleague that has cataract surgery and as a result has very low vision with a high sensitivity to light due to retina damage. We have tried everything to get the settings down on the phone to where it's comfortable to use (iPhone se 2020).
Are there some suggestions to a more or less base set of preferences someone could recommend? I recognize that everyone's needs are different, but if we at least had it with a truly dark mode and white letters that didn't appear so harsh - color filter suggestions - color invert?
Any and all would appreciated. If we can get it set to a comfort level where it comes down to a slider to adjust after the core or base settings are defined - that would be ideal.
Comments
My old use case
From 2007 to 2014, I primarily used Invert Colors and Zoom on my iPhones.
This was before dark mode or smart invert. All we had was what we now call classic invert. To enable and disable it quickly, I assigned Invert Colors to the accessibility shortcut. Zoom can be left on all the time, and enabled or disabled with a 3-finger double tap. Many people can't tolerate harsh white on black, but for me it worked well.
In late 2013, iOS 7, with its thinner fonts and other contrast-reducing GUI changes, forced me to learn VoiceOver. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit my declining eyesight also motivated this switch. I continued to use Zoom and Invert Colors along with VoiceOver, but less and less over time. Today, I almost never use Zoom or Invert Colors. At this point, I may as well turn on the screen curtain. But I don't. I imagine that seeing the blurry, dim screen serves as a sort of security blanket.
accessibility - zoom - low light filter
hi,
under settings - accessibility - zoom, you can enable a low light filter.
under the color filter options. that makes things super dark and sounds like what your friend is looking for.
if your friend does not need actual zooming, then he can turn it off after activating zoom by double tapping with 3 fingers.
then the filter remains active, but the scree is not zoomed in.
also i would recommend setting the zoom type to fullscreen.
i use voiceover, and that tends to clash a little with some gestures used by both zoom and vo. but maybe he can give it a shot.
stay halthy,
thomas