Accessibility

Caring for someone is hard enough. The app you use to do it should not be one more thing fighting you. Accessibility in CareHaven is not a separate setting you have to dig for. It is built into the way every screen is made, and it works with the tools your iPhone already has.

If you turn on VoiceOver, make the text bigger, calm the animations, or navigate with a switch, CareHaven is meant to keep up with you. The same goes for anyone who picks up the phone after you, including a first responder who reads with a screen reader.

You turn most of these tools on in your iPhone's own Settings, under Accessibility. CareHaven listens for them and adjusts.

VoiceOver (the screen reader) Available

If you or someone in your care reads the screen by ear instead of by sight, VoiceOver speaks what is on the screen as you move through it.

CareHaven has been built so VoiceOver announces things plainly. When you land on a control, it tells you three things that matter:

• What it is in plain words, like "Mark done," not the name of a tiny icon.
• Its state, so a toggle says whether it is selected or off, and a slider says where it sits ("level 3 of 5").
• What happens when you tap it, when that is not already obvious from the name.

Rows that look like one thing read as one thing, so a person's entry is spoken as a single item instead of a scatter of words. The emergency screens get special care here, because the moment someone needs your SOS contacts or an allergy warning is the worst possible moment for a confusing read. On those cards, the warning comes first ("Allergy: peanuts"), so the alert lands before the detail.

You turn VoiceOver on in your iPhone Settings, under Accessibility, then VoiceOver. A common shortcut is to triple-click the side button so you can flip it on and off quickly.

Larger text (Dynamic Type) Available

If the default text is too small, you do not have to squint. CareHaven follows your iPhone's text size setting, so making text bigger system-wide makes CareHaven's text bigger too.

The app has been tested at the largest accessibility text sizes, and the screens you reach for most often reflow so the words still fit and nothing important gets cut off. Larger text and VoiceOver are built to work at the same time.

You can change text size two ways:

• In your iPhone Settings, under Accessibility, then Display & Text Size, then Larger Text. CareHaven follows along.
• Inside the app, in Settings under Appearance, there is a Text size control with a live preview, plus a "Follow system setting" switch if you would rather it just match your phone.

Reduce Motion Available

CareHaven has some gentle movement. Menus and cards drift slightly as you tilt the phone, so they feel like they float above the page, and a few moments animate in softly.

If motion bothers you or makes you queasy, turn on Reduce Motion in your iPhone Settings, under Accessibility, then Motion. CareHaven honors it. The floating tilt and the softer transitions settle down, so the app stays calm and still.

Reduce Transparency Available

CareHaven uses a soft, translucent "glass" look in places, where surfaces let a hint of what is behind them show through. If that is hard to read, or you simply prefer something plainer, turn on Reduce Transparency in your iPhone Settings, under Accessibility, then Display & Text Size. CareHaven honors it and swaps those glass surfaces for a solid, calm background, so the text sits on a clean, steady backdrop.

Color-blind-friendly palettes Available

CareHaven ships with eight color themes you can choose from. They were designed so that the colors stay distinguishable for people who see color differently, including the common kinds of color blindness. Meaning is never carried by color alone in the places it matters most, like urgent warnings.

You pick a theme inside the app. See Make it yours for how to switch themes and dark mode.

Switch Control Available

If you use a switch or another adaptive control to drive the phone instead of touch, CareHaven's menus and the screens where you write things down can be moved through one focusable item at a time, in order. You can reach the controls you need and act on them without tapping the glass directly.

You set Switch Control up in your iPhone Settings, under Accessibility, then Switch Control, where you connect your switch and choose how it scans.

Where to find these

Most of these tools live in your iPhone's own Settings, under Accessibility, not inside CareHaven. That is on purpose. They turn on once for your whole phone, and CareHaven respects them everywhere it can.

Inside CareHaven, the controls that are app-specific live in Settings under Appearance: text size, the color theme, and light or dark mode. The rest of this page describes settings that come from iOS itself.

A few honest notes

CareHaven works hard on accessibility, and it is treated as a first-class part of the app, not an afterthought. That said, no app is ever finished here. If you hit a screen that does not read well, a control you cannot reach, or text that gets clipped at a large size, that is something worth telling us. See Giving feedback for how to reach us. Your report makes the next build better for the next family.

Related pages

• Make it yours — themes, dark mode, and text size
• Finding your way around — the menus and how the app is laid out
• Safety & crisis plans — the emergency screens built to read clearly under pressure
• Across your Apple devices — the Apple Watch, widgets, and Siri
• Giving feedback — tell us what is and is not working