Hey everyone.
Just upgraded to IOS 26 on my IPhone SE and I noticed some HUGE problems, but I'm not sure if they have to do with Voiceover or not. What I ended up doing is, I Emailed [email protected], and am awaiting their response. My Email went something like this.
"Hello Apple Accessibility Team,
I am reporting multiple critical accessibility failures in iOS 26 on my iPhone SE (Home button model).
1. App Library focus bug:
Every time I unlock my iPhone or press the Home button, VoiceOver immediately defaults to the App Library, not my first Home Screen.
VoiceOver announces “App Library” before sometimes jumping to the first app, creating confusion and disorientation.
The App Library cannot be disabled, leaving no workaround. That's the worst thing in the world.
This effectively breaks normal iPhone navigation for blind users relying on VoiceOver.
If VoiceOver is turned off, the Home button works normally, showing the first Home Screen. This confirms that the App Library behavior is a VoiceOver focus bug.
2. Press-and-hold for Siri is now too slow:
The Home button requires a significantly longer press to trigger Siri than in previous iOS versions.
iOS 26 no longer provides a setting to adjust the press-and-hold duration on Home-button devices.
This makes invoking Siri slow and cumbersome, which is especially disruptive for blind users who rely on Siri for hands-free operation.
3. Instagram / Facebook Feed Refresh Regression in iOS 26:
In iOS 26, VoiceOver users can no longer manually refresh Facebook and Instagram feeds. The three-finger swipe down gesture that used to refresh content now only scrolls, even when the app version hasn’t changed.
Before updating to iOS 26, the same Instagram version allowed manual refresh with VoiceOver gestures. The change is entirely caused by iOS 26.
VoiceOver now announces “Page 1 of 20” instead of “Refreshing content,” leaving blind users uncertain whether the feed is updating.
This regression blocks blind users from accessing new content in real-time, reducing accessibility and usability of Instagram.
There is no alternative VoiceOver gesture or setting to restore this functionality.
Impact:
Combined with the Home button issues, this makes basic app navigation and content access unreliable and frustrating. Blind users are now effectively excluded from a core feature of social media apps.
All of these issues severely impact basic iPhone usability and accessibility. Blind users cannot rely on the Home button to navigate or access Siri efficiently. I urge you to escalate these bugs and address them immediately in the next iOS update.
Thank you for your immediate attention."
Anyone else noticing these problems with IOS 26 on a home-button-based IPhone? Looking forward to hearing from anyone on this for sure.
Thanks
Michael
By Michael Dunn, 17 September, 2025
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Comments
Re iOS 26 upgrade woes
Re issue #1. Have you turned off full keyboard access under settings/accessibility/keyboards and typing? If unsure please double check.
Christopher Ha…
Yes, suggest people do so if having issues with the app library showing all the time even when doing a restart. Some nice person on a blind group list for iPhone suggested and it works for me. No issues any more.
OMG HOLY MAZZILLO that worked!!!!!!!!!
Thanks a TON for this suggestion! I had no idea that removing full keyboard access prevents the app library from suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I've always wanted this fix since last year! That doesn't actually make too much theoretical sense in my logical opinion, so I'm curious as to how it all works.
Anyway, what about the lack of the pull to refresh feature? It's funny because I didn't even update the Instagram app and now that pull to refresh feature doesn't work when you're in pretty much any feed anymore. Wonder if the app now uses some sort of autorefresh sort of algorithm.
I did notice the one with a little bit I didn’t notice the one w
Hi, my secondary device is my iPhone SE third generation. Yes, I did notice that Siri is a tiny bit. Slow to respond now. I think it’s because they added in the listen for sound option when you have voiceover enabled so I think it does make the home button and a tiny bit slower to respond. It’s playing the haptic and the sound now so it just have a tiny bit of a slow response, but I didn’t think it was anything that was really shopping at least for me. But I do hope they resolve this for you soon because I didn’t notice that. I don’t know about the other bugs because I don’t really do that much with Facebook and I have never used Instagram. But hopefully nobody can get resolved in another update. So one of my weird experiences is that Karen premium disappeared today from Voice. So she literally like isn’t even able to be downloaded. She acts as though she’s being downloaded when you push the button to download her but then when she’s supposed to be all the way downloaded the file size is being reported as being there but then if you try to activate your voice, nothing happens so until Apple can resolve that issue which I did call him about report then I will just use regular carrying as my workaround for now and my iPhone 15. My iPhone SE I am using regular Samantha. I think this is why we have to have certain voices installed for things like this to happen. I didn’t notice that when I updated my iPhone 15, but it did go back to Samantha and I had to re-download Karen premium online yesterday. There was literally no delete option for her and then when I had restarted the phone she auto deleted and now is no longer able to be downloaded so I don’t know what’s going on with that. But I do hope they fix that issue soon. Karen and Samantha are my favorite voices. But you know what at least we have the regular variance pre-installed so I can still have Karen and Samantha to enjoy.