Accessibility in Spellhunt

A word search should be playable however you use your iPhone or iPad. Accessibility was part of Spellhunt's design from the first screen, not added at the end. Here's what that means in practice.

VoiceOver

Every letter in the grid is its own VoiceOver element. Swipe through the grid and VoiceOver reads each letter with its row and column, and whether it's part of a found word or a golden tile.

You don't need to drag to find a word. Each letter has two actions in the VoiceOver Actions rotor: Start word here and End word here. Mark the first letter of a word, move to its last letter, mark it, and Spellhunt checks the word just as if you'd swiped it. For Zigzag words, the start and end are enough too.

The rest of the puzzle is spoken clearly as well:

• Found words are announced ("Found OTTER").
• A Gaps word such as W_VE is read as "W blank V E" rather than a garbled word.
• A boss word is read as "Hidden word, 5 letters, Kitchen", with its first letter once a hint has shown it.
• In Blitz, the clock is read as the seconds left.
• When the otter points at a letter in a campaign puzzle, VoiceOver says where: "Try around row 3, column 5".
• The otter's lines are announced politely, after whatever VoiceOver is already reading.

The share card has a spoken summary too, such as how many words you found cleanly, with a hint, or as the bonus word.

Switch Control

Because each grid cell is a separate element, Switch Control can scan the grid cell by cell, and the same Start word here and End word here actions work from the scanning menu.

Large text

Spellhunt follows the text size you set in the iPhone Settings app, all the way to the largest accessibility size. Screens rearrange themselves at large sizes rather than cutting words off: lists stack, rows reflow, and the otter makes room for its speech bubble. The grid letters scale with the grid.

Pinch to zoom and rotate

On grids of 12×12 and larger, pinch to zoom in up to two and a half times and drag with two fingers to move around. A reset button brings the whole grid back. Zoom is also available as an accessibility action. The rotate button turns the grid a quarter turn at any time, which many players find easier on the eyes than tilting their head.

Color and contrast

Turn on Color-blind mode in Settings and found words get a pattern and the word chips get a shape, so color is never the only way to tell things apart. Text and background colors are chosen and tested to meet contrast guidelines in both light and dark mode, and Spellhunt adapts when Increase Contrast is on.

Wrong swipes are never shown in red. A missed swipe gets a small shake and nothing more.

Motion

With Reduce Motion on, Spellhunt swaps scaling, ripples and confetti for simple fades. The otter stays still, the chapter map stops its parallax, and the tilt effect on cards is off. Haptics still work, so you can still feel a found word. With Reduce Transparency on, Spellhunt uses solid backgrounds and borders in place of see-through materials and shadows.

One hand, two hands

• Main button side: put the main button on the left or the right, under your thumb.
• Forgiving swipes: the highlight snaps to the nearest straight line, so an unsteady drag still finds the word.
• Big targets: buttons are at least 44 points, the size Apple recommends, and grid letters are sized from the space available.
• iPad: the grid and word list sit side by side when you hold an iPad sideways.

Your own pace

Nothing in Spellhunt runs out: no lives, no energy, and no timer that ends a puzzle. Relax mode hides every clock and ranking. "No backwards words", which works with Relax mode, keeps every word reading forwards. And the otter's speech can be set to milestones only, or off.

Sound and haptics

Sound effects, music and haptics each have their own switch. Spellhunt's sounds mix with your own audio, so a podcast or audiobook keeps playing while you solve.

How we check it

Spellhunt's automated tests run Apple's accessibility audit over its main screens, and the layouts are checked at the largest text sizes in light and dark mode. If something still gets in your way, we want to know: use Something wrong? Tell us under You in the app, or contact support.

Updated 30 September 2026.