What's actually useful in iOS 26 that benefits voiceover users

First, there are a number of benefits. I encourage you to check out the podcast AppleVis did on the new features. One nice feature is the copied speech
feature.
Second and perhaps more important. Your message comes across as if Apple did nothing for accessibility. This is wrong.

I don't think a user asking a legit question needs to be treated this way. afterall, we're not all apple fanboys here and we'll keep raising constructive criticism no matter what. And while we're at it, what exactly did apple do for blind accessibility in IOS26 except for your speech suddenly disappearing when updating?

If you don't feel like updating yet, don't do it, you won't lose anything crutial either, I think we can agree on this, except if braille access is very important for you.
I am very neutral about ios 26, as far as VO is concerned. No positives or negatives. The more systemwide features are more useful IMO, hold assist and the phone app across the main ecosystem for example.
Read the ios 26 threads to have a better idea of a bug that could be a showstopper for you before deciding.
PS: it was never implied that apple didn't do anything for accessibility, it was rather a very legitimate question about is liquid glass worth it some troubles and accessibility bugs for fully blind individuals? Very valid question and framing of said question.

I'm sure my list will miss a few key points, but three things come to mind that I think are beneficial to VoiceOver users, although one of them is truly beneficial to everyone.

1. First and foremost, the ability to reset VO settings. This has been in macOS since like, forever, so it's nice to see it finally make its way to iOS.
2. The copied speech rotor item, that Dennis mentioned above. It streamlines copy/pace jobs, making word processing just a tad bit more convenient.
3. Last, but definitely not least, the ability to finally, finally, download and install ringtones, without any other third-party hardware or software. And it's free, so no more having to buy ringtones off of the iTunes Store.

HTH.

This user was just asking what the benefits of her Voice uses for iOS 26. There’s no need to be some negative and the very first, and this post say that somebody’s asking it is though Apple did nothing for Accessibility. Nobody saying that. If you care about this at all large, maybe a benefit possibly is that we did get two more new Indian English places. We got Amon and Tara. They’re just standard forms. There’s no enhanced their premium for those voices, but they’re pretty nice. But if you don’t feel ready to update yet, you don’t need to. That’s a purely personal choice.

I don't think there are any big-ticket items, aside from the Braille access mode, which is very cool if you use Braille and have a Braille display. don't think there are any big ticket items, aside from the brail access mode which is very cool, if you use brail and have a brail display. Though it's under the heading of voiceover, I'd probably argue that this isn't directly voiceover. The brail tab is getting quite busy these days and wonder if apple will, at some point, break it out into its own vision catogry.

there is the option to push your voiceover settings to other devices, which is quite useful... i guess. I'd still ike like to see voiceover settings tied to apple accounts so we just log in and there we go, everything is set up for us. It's a bit of a faff having to customise on resets.

I think this year was a year for little fringe updates they probably had in the 'nice but not necessery' pile, which is okay. Voiceover on IOS is pretty good, not flawless, but pretty good.

Question for OP... What would you like to have seen? I always have ideas, but then again, I'm never satisfied.

The benefits I've seen are system wide. Downloading ringtones that are less than 30 S from third party apps such as Zedge via the files app is cool. Hold assist is interesting some of the time. However when an automated prompt connects, hold assist is disabled. This is missleeding because the user thinks a human is on the line when in fact it is the automated prompt. When hold assist works properly it is cool. I still hafve to play with the copy speach feature. Also apparently you can customize the snooze duration for alarms.

I have a big problem with hold assist, whenever I use it and the call gets picke up, I need some time to get to my phone and when I pick up the user on the other end hang up because they thing no one is on the phone.

https://applevis.com/blog/whats-new-ios-26-accessibility-blind-deafblind-users