I get what you mean, but you should not have to click on the side at all. If you want to. PM meb I will explain further.

Well, if you tell siri to turn on a scream reader called voice over. After you are done there, you will just hit the home button, then you will touch the keyboard with one finger. You will see a curser where you can move by swiping one finger left and right. It will be on whatever number, it will read the one it is on. You will double tap to select each number it is on. Afterwards, it will unlock and you will talk to siri again and tell it to turn voiceover off, then you can do what you need from there.

Hey, do you have siri enabled on the lock screen at all?