Best large print word search app, with VoiceOver and TalkBack.

Large print: text that grows with the text size of your phone, up to 200 percent, without words getting cut off. Big letters on the board are not enough if the word list and the menus stay small.

A screen reader on the board itself: with VoiceOver on iPhone or TalkBack on Android, every letter should say where it is, and a found word should be read out. Many apps only make their menus readable.

Tap instead of drag: choosing the first and the last letter of a word is easier than dragging across the grid, with a screen reader, with shaky hands or with Switch Control.

A readable font: a typeface such as Atkinson Hyperlegible keeps b and d or I and l apart, which helps with low vision and with dyslexia.

Colour is never the only signal: a found word should be crossed out or marked, not only turned green, so the board also works with colour blindness.

Dark mode and contrast: a dark board is easier on light-sensitive eyes. With Increase Contrast on, colours should get deeper instead of staying pale.

Less motion: with Reduce Motion on, celebrations and shaking letters should calm down.

No clock: a screen reader takes longer by nature, so a countdown is the wrong kind of pressure. Prefer an app without one, or with a clock that adapts.

The labels: every App Store page has an Accessibility section where the developer lists the features that work across the whole app. The labels are self-declared. "The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports" means no labels have been filled in, not that the app is inaccessible.

Our own app, so read this as the maker's description. Words with Mia follows the accessibility settings of your phone. Text grows up to 200 percent, and word lists, explanations and messages flow on without anything getting cut off. With VoiceOver or TalkBack you play every board by tapping the first and the last letter of a word. Every letter says where it is and what state it is in, a found word is read out, and the special levels have a spoken form of their own. The game has no audio of its own, so nothing talks over your screen reader.

In the settings you can turn on tapping instead of dragging for everyone, Easy-read letters (Atkinson Hyperlegible on the board) and Check mark on found letters, which puts a check mark beside the colour of every found letter. Found words are always crossed out in the list. Bold Text, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion and dark mode on your phone carry through to the board. On iPad it also plays with a hardware keyboard and with Switch Control.

Only the Blitz levels run against the clock, and with a screen reader on they run a stopwatch instead of a countdown. Voice Control works because every button is named after the text on it. Every board is generated on the device, so it plays offline, in more than 25 languages. For iPhone, iPad and Android. The full list per feature is on wordswithmia.com.

One of the few word search apps that list VoiceOver among their App Store labels, next to Dark Interface, Differentiate Without Color Alone, Sufficient Contrast and Reduced Motion. Its description says it works with touch and with VoiceOver on iPhone and iPad, that you tap the first and last letters or drag between them, and that board colours, the letter font and the letter case can be adjusted. Boards run from 6 × 6 to 14 × 14, and the app explains what each of its sounds means. In English, Spanish and Italian only. A paid app, with few ratings so far. The pick if VoiceOver matters most and one of its three languages suits you.

A new app built around large print, and its description makes the most concrete promises of the four: text that grows with the text size of your phone up to 200 percent, puzzle letters in Large, Extra Large or Giant, the Atkinson Hyperlegible Next typeface, dark mode, found words circled and crossed off rather than marked by colour alone, tapping the first and last letter, no timer, and offline play. Its App Store page has no accessibility labels filled in yet, and it has hardly any ratings. Free with ads, and a one-time purchase removes them.

The best known of the four, with tens of thousands of ratings, and made for older players. Its description promises big letters, large and easily readable text and an eye-friendly interface, with full offline play. You form words by swiping. The description does not mention screen readers, a text size setting or tapping, and its App Store page has no accessibility labels filled in. A good fit if bigger letters are all you need.

The most configurable of the four: the grid size runs from 3 to 20, so a small grid gives big letters on any screen. You select a word by swiping or by touching its first and last letter, and you can leave found words unmarked to keep the grid easy to read. The description does not mention screen readers or dark mode, its App Store page has no accessibility labels filled in, and the last update was in January 2024. Pick it if you want to set the grid size yourself.

Large print: Words with Mia, Large Print Daily and Vita all put big letters first. Words with Mia and Large Print Daily also follow the text size of your phone up to 200 percent.

VoiceOver: Accessible Letter Soup is built for it and declares it on the App Store, in three languages. Words with Mia supports VoiceOver and TalkBack on every board, in more than 25 languages.

Dyslexia: look for Atkinson Hyperlegible, which Words with Mia and Large Print Daily offer. Accessible Letter Soup lets you change the letter font.

Choosing for a parent or grandparent: set the text size on their phone first and turn on Bold Text. An app that follows those settings needs no further setup. Then prefer an app without a clock.