With WWDC just weeks away, Apple on Tuesday offered a preview of a wide range of new accessibility software features for iPhone, iPad and Mac. The features, intended to make Apple’s devices easier to use for people with or at risk of cognitive, visual, hearing, speech and mobility impairments, will roll out later in 2023, but the company has announced that it was related to global accessibility awareness. Day, which this year falls on Thursday, May 18.
“Today we’re thrilled to share some amazing new features that build on our long history of making technology accessible,” said Tim Cook, “so everyone has the opportunity to create, communicate and do that he likes.”
Assisted access
The first novelty is designed to facilitate the use of the iPhone and iPad by people with cognitive impairment. Assistive Access works at the level of individual applications, providing a simplified or lightened experience to reduce its cognitive needs. Apple refers to this process as “we[ing] innovations in design to distill applications and experiences to their essential characteristics.
The Phone and FaceTime apps, for example, have been reduced to a single Calls app designed to be easier to use, while Messages offers a video message feature and the option of an emoji-only keyboard. Similarly, there are “distilled” versions of the Camera, Photos, and Music apps. Apple doesn’t say whether third-party developers will be able to build assisted-access versions of their apps, but it seems likely they’ll be encouraged to do so.
Finally, Assistive Access offers the ability to customize your device’s interface at the operating system level, with the choice of a traditional grid-based or row-based layout. It’s similar to the choices for the home screen view on the Apple Watch, which can show apps in a honeycomb grid or an alphabetical list, which many of us find more easy to use.
Live Speech
Live Speech is a text-to-speech feature for those who don’t have the ability to speak or have difficulty speaking. It can be used during in-person conversations if you have the device handy, but it can also allow iPhone, iPad and Mac users to type responses during phone and FaceTime calls and to make them speak out loud.
This may seem like slowing down conversations for those who aren’t fast typists, but Apple says the user will be able to save commonly used phrases for quick responses.
personal voice
Linked to Live Speech, Personal Voice is designed for those who do not currently have prohibitive difficulties with speech, but who may do so in the future. The idea is that you spend 15 minutes reading text prompts aloud on your iPhone or iPad, which will then use that audio data and machine learning to create a digital voice that matches your own. Then, if speech becomes impossible in the future for any reason, you can use the Live Speech feature to make calls and send messages in a voice similar to yours. Apple assures us that the data will remain confidential and secure to avoid the possibility of audio impersonation.
These strike us as the three biggest announcements in today’s press release, but there are plenty of smaller announcements worth mentioning.
Detection mode in Magnifier, for example, gets a new Point and Speak feature. This means that a visually impaired user can move their finger over the buttons of a home appliance and the iPhone will read its labels aloud.
Text size will be easier to adjust on Mac apps. Those sensitive to fast animations will be able to automatically pause GIFs in Messages and Safari. And it will be possible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to pair Made for iPhone certified hearing aids directly with their Mac.
Some of the announcements, however, fall outside the realm of software features. Apple is expanding its SignTime service, which provides sign language interpreters for Apple Store customers and those contacting Apple Support, to more countries. There will be sessions in Apple Stores to introduce customers to accessibility features, while curated collections of shows, movies and series related to accessibility issues or created by people in the disability community will be featured on podcasts and the Apple TV app.
