Accessibility

Last updated: 7 June 2026 · Applies to PhaseRings 3.0 and later

PhaseRings is a musical instrument: a screen of concentric rings, each mapped to a pitch, played by tapping and swirling. This page describes how the app works with iOS accessibility features, what its limits are, and how to send feedback.

VoiceOver

• Playing surface. The ring surface uses VoiceOver's direct touch interaction (the same approach as other instrument apps): touches pass straight through, so tapping and swirling play notes immediately rather than being intercepted by the screen reader. VoiceOver announces the surface and describes the layout — rings are ordered by pitch, rising from the lowest note at the centre to the highest at the outer edge.
• Controls. The on-screen controls (the setup stepper and the settings button, at the bottom centre of the screen) have descriptive labels and hints. The stepper announces the current setup — for example its scale and root note — as its value.
• Settings. The settings screen is fully navigable with VoiceOver: every picker, toggle, and slider is labelled, and changes take effect immediately so you can hear the result.

Audio-first design

PhaseRings produces sound in direct response to touch, with no visual-only feedback required to play it. Pitch is mapped to ring radius — the innermost ring is the lowest note, and pitch rises as you move outward — so the instrument's layout can be learned and played by feel. There is no time-limited interaction, no reliance on gestures more complex than tap and circular movement, and nothing in the app requires reading text while performing.

Display and colour

• Dark and light interface. The app follows the system appearance: controls and ring backgrounds adapt to light and dark mode.
• Colour is not the only cue. Ring colours indicate pitch, but the same information is available as text: turn on Show Note Labels in settings to print each ring's note name on the ring itself, and Show Setup Description to display the current scale and root note on screen.
• System colours. On-screen text and controls use the standard iOS label colours, which respond to the system's contrast settings.

Physical and motor

• Notes trigger on a simple tap anywhere on a ring — the rings are large targets that scale with the device screen, and there are no small touch targets, multi-finger requirements, or timing-dependent gestures needed to play.
• Sustained tones use a circular “swirl” movement at any comfortable speed; tapped notes also ring on naturally without being held.

Hearing

PhaseRings is a sound-making app, so its core output is audio. It works with standard iOS audio routing, including hearing devices, Bluetooth audio, and headphones. Visual feedback accompanies the audio: rings light up while they sound. The app contains no speech, dialogue, or video content, so captions do not apply.

Known limitations

• The note-name labels on the rings are sized relative to the rings themselves and do not yet follow the system Dynamic Type setting (the settings screen does).
• Show Note Labels and Show Setup Description are off by default to keep the performing surface clean — turn them on in settings if you rely on text cues.
• Playing the surface with Voice Control or Switch Control has not been the focus of testing; the settings screen and on-screen buttons work with these features, but performing music through them is impractical.

Feedback

If an accessibility barrier stops you from playing PhaseRings, that is a bug — please report it. Email [email protected] or open an issue on the PhaseRings GitHub repository, and mention the assistive technology you were using.