Accessibility
Sacred Hour is designed from the ground up to work well with the accessibility tools and preferences you already rely on. This page describes every feature, setting, and accommodation built into the app.
Screen Reader Support
VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android)
Sacred Hour has full VoiceOver and TalkBack support across every screen. Every interactive and meaningful element carries a descriptive semantic label so the screen reader announces it clearly. Decorative images and icons are explicitly excluded from the accessibility tree so they are not read out unnecessarily.
What this means in practice:
- Every button, toggle, slider, and card has a named label announced by the screen reader
- Page titles and section headings are marked as headers, so you can navigate by heading on both platforms
- Selected or pressed states (e.g. a chosen option, an active session) are announced automatically
- Loading indicators and status changes announce themselves through live regions — you do not need to re-focus an element to hear an update
Live region announcements are used for time-sensitive content:
- The focus session countdown timer announces the remaining time as it changes
- The recording timer announces the current duration while audio is being recorded
- AI-generated note insights announce as soon as they arrive
- Flashcard answers announce when revealed
Voice Control (iOS) and Switch Access (Android)
Because every interactive element has an accessibility label, iOS Voice Control can identify and activate buttons, sliders, and navigation items by their spoken name. You can say the label of any element — for example “Tap Start Session” or “Tap Notes” — and Voice Control will find and activate it.
On Android, Switch Access is supported through the same logical focus traversal order that TalkBack uses.
Focus Traversal
Focus moves through each screen in the order elements appear visually, top to bottom and left to right. This applies to:
- Every screen in the app (handled globally by the base scaffold)
- The Reader screen and its navigation controls
- All bottom sheets, including the Bible selector, chapter picker, and verse action sheet
- Modal dialogs — focus is trapped inside the dialog until it is dismissed, so it cannot accidentally land on content behind it
In-App Accessibility Settings
Open Settings → Accessibility to adjust these preferences. Your choices are saved and applied every time you open the app.
Larger Text
A text size sliderscales all text in the app from 80 % to 140 % of the default size. The change is applied globally — every screen, button, label, and description scales together. Layouts use flexible heights so text is never clipped, regardless of the scale you choose.
Animation Speed
Choose between three animation speeds:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Slow | Animations run at half speed (0.5×) |
| Normal | Standard animation timing |
| Fast | Animations run at double speed (2.0×) |
The Slow setting is designed for users who are sensitive to motion. All transitions, reveals, and animated elements throughout the app respond to this setting.
Note on the focus timer: The breathing animation during focus sessions is tied to a fixed real-world rhythm (inhale 4 s, hold 4 s, exhale 6 s, pause 2 s). When animation speed is set to Slow or Fast, the visual animation slows or speeds up accordingly while the underlying session timing stays accurate.
Haptic Feedback
A toggle lets you enable or disable all haptic feedback in the app. When disabled, no vibration is produced anywhere — taps, confirmations, and session events all run silently.
Reader Accessibility
The built-in Scripture reader has its own independent appearance controls, separate from the global text size setting. Open the reader and tap the appearance icon to access:
| Control | Range | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Font family | Noto Serif, Inter, Lora, EB Garamond, Roboto | Choose the typeface that is easiest for you to read |
| Font size | 12 – 32 pt | Scale reader text independently of the rest of the app |
| Line height | 1.0 – 2.5 | Increase spacing between lines for easier tracking |
| Letter spacing | −0.5 – 2.0 pt | Widen or tighten character spacing |
Bionic Focus
Bionic Focus is an optional reading mode that bolds the first portion of each word. This technique — sometimes called bionic reading — is designed to guide the eye and reduce the effort required to track across a line of text. It can be particularly helpful for users with dyslexia or reading-related attention difficulties.
When Bionic Focus is on, two additional controls are available:
- Fixation — adjusts how many characters in each word are bolded
- Saccade — adjusts how frequently the bolding pattern repeats across words
Sufficient Contrast
Sacred Hour uses a fixed, warm-neutral color palette designed to maintain readable contrast in normal lighting conditions:
- Primary body text (#3E3F29, dark olive) on a warm off-white background (#F9F8F6)
- Section headings and labels use the same dark tone for consistent legibility
- Error states use a distinct red (#A03A4D) that differs in both hue and brightness from the brand blue (#8B9EAE)
- Disabled controls use a muted stone (#B8B2A6) to visually distinguish inactive from active states
Differentiate Without Color Alone
No information in Sacred Hour is conveyed by color alone:
- Navigation items use both an icon and a text label; active state is indicated by fill and label weight, not just color
- Error messages appear as text descriptions alongside any error styling
- Toggle and selection states use shape, fill, and border changes in addition to color
- The recording indicator uses a waveform animation and a timer display alongside its color state
- Focus session phases (inhale, hold, exhale) are indicated by text labels and the direction of animation, not only the visual hue
Portrait Orientation
The app is locked to portrait orientation to provide a consistent, stable reading experience. This is particularly helpful for users who mount their device in a fixed position or use switch controls from a stand.
Tablet Support
On tablets (devices with a shortest dimension of 600 dp or greater), font sizes are automatically reduced to 75 % of the phone scale to prevent text from appearing oversized on larger screens. The global text size slider in Accessibility Settings applies on top of this baseline, so tablet users can still scale text up or down to their preference.
Minimum Touch Target Sizes
All interactive controls maintain a minimum tap area of 48 × 48 dp, in line with platform guidelines for iOS and Android. This applies to small buttons, icon-only controls, and list items.
Localized Accessibility Labels
All semantic labels used by screen readers are fully localized. Labels are never hardcoded strings — they pull from the same translation system as the visible interface. This means VoiceOver and TalkBack announce elements in the same language the app is displayed in.
Platform Accessibility Integrations
| Feature | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|
| VoiceOver | Fully supported | — |
| TalkBack | — | Fully supported |
| Voice Control (named-element activation) | Supported | — |
| Switch Access | — | Supported |
| Dynamic Type (system-level text size) | Respected via TextScaler | Respected via TextScaler |
| Reduce Motion (system preference) | Use in-app Slow animation setting | Use in-app Slow animation setting |
| Bold Text | Respected by Bionic Focus mode | — |
Contact Us
If you encounter an accessibility barrier or have a suggestion for improvement, please contact us at [email protected]. Accessibility feedback is reviewed directly by the development team.