Apple today introduced a preview of a set of new accessibility features coming to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year. The features cover areas of cognitive, visual, hearing, speaking, and mobility accessibility.

“At Apple, we’ve always believed that the best technology is technology built for everyone. Today, we’re excited to share incredible new features that build on our long history of making technology accessible, so that everyone has the opportunity to create, communicate, and do what they love.”

CEO Tim Cook

“Accessibility is part of everything we do at Apple. These groundbreaking features were designed with feedback from members of disability communities every step of the way, to support a diverse set of users and help people connect in new ways.”

Senior Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives Sarah Herrlinger

Assistive Access

Assistive Access introduces a new simpler interface for core apps like Photos, Camera, Music, and Messages. The new user interface aims to make it much easier for users with cognitive disabilities to use basic and crucial features from apps with reduced cognitive load.

As part of Assistive Access, the Phone and FaceTime apps have been combined into a simpler Calls app. The feature provides a simple user interface complete with high-contrast buttons and large text labels. The Messages app also provides a new emoji-only keyboard for users who prefer visual communication. The Home Screen also gets an interface change, providing two new simpler grid and row-based layouts.

Live Speech and Personal Voice

Live Speech allows users to type-to-text during phone and FaceTime calls and in-person conversations. Users will also be able to save common phrases, allowing them to quickly use said phrases with a single tap on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Personal Voice allows users with conditions that progressively affect their speaking ability to simply and securely create a synthetic voice that sounds similar to them, using on-device machine learning.

Users who wish to create a Personal Voice will be prompted to read a piece of text, recording a 15-minute segment of their own voice on an iPhone or iPad. Advanced on-device machine learning algorithms are used to create a model of the user’s voice privately and securely. Users will then be able to utilize Personal Voice with Live Speech instead of their own voices when on a phone or FaceTime call.

Point and Speak

The Magnifier app gains a new Point and Speak feature, making it easier for users with vision complications to better navigate their physical environment and interact with text-labeled physical appliances.

The feature utilizes data from the Camera app, the LiDAR scanner, and on-device machine learning to speak out text from labels as users move and point their fingers over said appliance. The feature works in tandem with other Magnifier features such as People Detection, Door Detection, and Image Descriptions, in addition to VoiceOver.

More Features

In addition to the headlining features mentioned above, Apple is also introducing smaller accessibility enhancements and features across the board:

• Users with hearing disabilities can pair Made for iPhone hearing devices directly to Mac with customization options
• Voice Control adds phonetic suggestions for text editing allowing voice dictation users to choose the right word out of several that might sound alike.
• Voice Control Guide offers tips and tricks to get the most out of voice commands across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
• Switch Control users with motor disabilities can turn any switch into a virtual game controller on iPhone and iPad.
• Text Size is now simpler to adjust across Mac apps such as Finder, Messages, Mail, Calendar, and Notes.
• Users who are sensitive to rapid animations can automatically pause images with moving elements, such as GIFs, in Messages, and Safari.
• Siri voices sound natural and expressive even at high rates of speech in VoiceOver.