Paid ChatGPT+ subscriber here and I am currently unable to effectively use the iOS ChatGpt app with the voiceover screen reader on my iPhone SE, latest generation. ChatGPT for iOS version 1.2023.334 (15212).
The issue is that no matter where you touch your finger on the screen, voiceover simply announces, “close menu,” instead of whatever underlying element is at that screen location in the app UI. This makes it virtually impossible to use the app with a screen reader, meaning blind people like myself no longer have access to it. I did find one partial workaround which is using screen recognition on the iPhone, but this is a cumbersome and inadequate solution. The issue began today. Previously, I’ve found the app to be relatively accessible with voiceover. I have also tried both restarting the app and deleting and reinstalling the app, both with no luck.
It seems the latest update to the app may have broken accessibility somehow. Would love to see if we can get this resolved. Please let me know what information you need from me, and thank you for your help!
This certainly deserves orders of magnitude more visibility than the 1000 guys complaining that API response times are > 0s, so: bump 
bump if you agree!
Up. This is important. OpenAI, please consider fixing this asap
I’ve pinned this to encourage more active feedback.
If you’re experiencing the same issue, feel free to share here, even if it’s just a “me too” comment.
While “me too” replies aren’t my favorite, they can make a difference in situations like this. The more replies, the more likely this issue will get attention.
I can confirm that OpenAI staff does notice pinned posts, so let’s take advantage of this opportunity. The pin is set to expire on Thursday, so make your voice heard before then!
I’ve also started a thread over on the AppleVis forum, a forum where blind and visually impaired users discuss Apple Accessibility. As can be seen there, other users are experiencing the same thing:
Bump.
OpenAI please handle this accessibility issue.
There is no need to bump this.
It is currently pinned globally until Thursday.
Cool Eric!! I’m just showing support for this guy who’s upset that he can’t access this technology.
My bump is to show support for this man. I’d be pretty upset if I loved ChatGPT and happened to be blind and then one day couldn’t use something I love using.
So I’m actually just gonna give this another Bump.
Another Bump here…
and one more Bump.
Bump.
Much appreciation for the pin @EricGT and the support from everybody else - teamwork!
I agree with @tventura94 that the amount of leverage and problem solving capacity that ChatGPT opens up for someone, that’s huge. Accessibility matters all that much more.
@kyle-reese if this isn’t resolved in a week or two, email me at zsolttanko@gmail.com and I’ll build you a replacement frontend to whatever spec you need 
Ha thanks man. I appreciate the support. Indeed I love using ChatGPT, but it has also proven pretty incredible in enhancing accessibility, which makes this latest snag all the more ironic I guess. For example, the ability to take a pic with my phone, upload it to the app and have it describe it in amazing detail is super useful. Also, some PDFs are inaccessible so being able to upload like a user manual or something and then just ask the bot questions about it is also helpful. Really hoping they get this sorted out.
To the person who offered to help build a custom UI, you are awesome and I appreciate you! On principle though, it shouldn’t have to come to that. Thus far, it seems like OpenAI actually put some intentionality into making the iOS app accessible, and a few minor snags aside, I’ve found it really intuitive to use until this latest problem. I don’t know what framework they use for the UI of the app, but it really just seems like something needs a tab order or zIndex adjustment maybe. Like I imagine the fix is super simple and I could probably do it myself if I had access to the code
Let’s do this thing!
Thanks for flagging this, it’s been passed to the appropriate team for investigation.
Is this the same issue on OpenAI Discord?
Bug-Reports > Persistent error with image recognition feature
I don’t think so, this one is down to what seems to be a misconfiguration in the accessibility options in the app for blind and partially sighted users and the one on Discord is to do with uploading images.
I don’t know if they have a common origin, but they seem to be separate issues. I have passed this thread to a member of the community team who has passed it to the iOS team, so it should get investigated.
Just an update. Another iOS voiceover user found that if he put his phone in landscape mode it partially restored voiceover access to on screen elements, though voiceover still repeatedly announces the “close menu button” in between those elements. This at least provides a partial workaround as we await a proper fix. Thought this might be helpful to the OpenAI team as they investigate the bug. Thanks again everyone! I really appreciate the support, and so do the other blind and low vision users who use ChatGPT
Just wanted to chime in and say that I’m also having this issue and remain hopeful for a fix.
This is unfortunate timing for me because this week is final’s week, and using it to study on my phone has gotten much harder. 
I’m also having this issue, hopefully it gets fixed soon. ChatGPTs awesome, and I find it extremely valuable
Logan / David,
Please can you help bring this issue to the attention of the correct people within OpenAI?
Thanks
M
Thank you for bringing this up! Our teams are on it. A fix is in and should rollout soon, we really appreciate your patience!