Since 2011, Global Accessibility Awareness Day has been held annually on the third Thursday of May. On this occasion, Apple unveiled a series of accessibility features that should be available later this year. The firm communicates that it wishes to offer users with disabilities new possibilities to orient themselves, to connect and to use Apple products in an optimal way.
Find Building Entrance Using iPhone
Apple is expanding the Magnifier feature already available on iPhones. Blind and visually impaired people will be able to recognize the doors. The smartphone will also indicate whether the door is open or closed and whether it can be opened by operating a handle. According to Apple’s details, signs and symbols around the door, such as room numbers, are also detected. The feature is available on iPhones and iPads with built-in LiDAR scanner.
Reading features on Apple devices, including the VoiceOver screen reader, also now support more than 20 additional languages and dialects. Among them, Belgian French, Croatian, Catalan and Vietnamese.
Live captions and watch control
For the hearing impaired, Apple is launching live captioning on iPhone, iPad and Mac. This feature is available for phone calls, video conferences, social media or streaming apps. It’s also available when users are “chatting with someone next to them,” Apple notes. Live captioning in FaceTime automatically assigns transcribed dialogue to conversation participants, which should make group video calls even more convenient for users with hearing loss.
Apple specifies that the subtitles are generated on the device, which preserves data protection. Additionally, the feature also works in reverse: on Mac, users have the option of typing a keyboard response during a call, which will be read aloud to other participants.
A feature called Apple Watch Mirroring is aimed at people with physical or motor disabilities. It allows to control a smartwatch entirely by iPhone. On the iPhone, different control methods are available, for example voice control or switch control.
Apple briefly mentions a series of other features:
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Buddy Controller combines two video game controllers into one, so users can ask a companion or loved one to help them play.
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It is now possible to adjust how long the voice assistant Siri waits before it responds to a request. This should benefit people with speech difficulties.
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It will now be possible to dictate custom spellings by spelling words letter by letter in the voice command.
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Sound recognition, available since last year, can be customized by training it to recognize specific sounds.
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The Books application welcomes new display options for adjusting the font or the size of the characters.
