VoiceOver
VoiceOver is Apple's built-in screen reader, shipping with macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It is enabled via the keyboard shortcut Cmd+F5 on Mac or via Settings → Accessibility → VoiceOver on iOS.
Detailed explanation
VoiceOver is the most-used mobile screen reader globally because it is bundled with iOS — a significant share of blind and low-vision users worldwide rely on iPhone + VoiceOver. WebAIM's 2024 survey put VoiceOver at ~13% primary-use on desktop, with much higher mobile share.
VoiceOver supports standard semantic HTML, ARIA, and the iOS rotor for navigating by headings, links, form controls, and landmarks. Mobile-Safari-specific quirks include limited support for some ARIA live region patterns and stricter handling of `aria-label` on non-interactive elements.
How this applies to Shopify stores
A meaningful share of Shopify customers use VoiceOver on iPhone — making mobile-Safari + VoiceOver a critical test pairing. AccessComply's mobile-viewport scan replicates the layout VoiceOver renders, catching focus-order and target-size failures that desktop-only audits miss.
Primary source: apple.com