Apple has announced a handful of new accessibility features for all of its devices. Read all about the new updates in this article!
New accessibility features for Apple devices
The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated on the third Thursday of May. This is a good reason for Apple to introduce new accessibility features. They are already in honor of this day announcedbut coming to your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac later this year.
In this article you can read all about the new functions such as Door Recognition, Apple Watch Mirroring, Quick Actions, Subtitles and more.
With Apple you navigate safely via Door Recognition
One of Apple’s new features to support people with disabilities is Door Detection. This feature can help people with poor vision find a door. Is it open or is it closed? At how many meters is the door located? This new function informs the user.
Door detection can also read. Are you looking for a specific room number or a symbol? This function will help you find it. Door detection works via your LiDAR, your iPhone’s camera and algorithms. So you need the iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro with LiDAR scanner to use this feature.
New accessibility features for Apple Watch
The Apple Watch also gets two new functions. Apple Watch Mirroring ensures that people with motor disabilities can use useful functions of the iPhone via the Apple smartwatch. For example, by tapping the screen you can set that you want to use Voice Control or other health functions.
Quick Actions is another new feature coming to your Apple Watch. This accessibility feature is a good alternative to the small icons on the screen of your Apple Watch. For example, with a pinch or a swipe record a phone call or play a song. You can set this completely to your own taste. The great thing about Quick Actions is that users no longer have to tap the display.
For the hearing impaired: subtitles
For the deaf and hard of hearing, Apple has announced Live Captions for all Apple devices. Subtitle tries videos automatically and in real time subtitle. This is extremely useful for FaceTime calls and social media videos, among other things.
In this way, the deaf and hard of hearing can make calls in public. They are then no longer bothered by ambient noise, but can easily follow the conversation via their earplugs and the text on the screen. It can also read text typed on the Mac.
Other Apple Accessibility Features
The above accessibility features are the most notable, but not the only ones. In addition to Door Recognition, Subtitles and the functions for your Apple Watch, there are other new smaller functions. For example, you will soon be able to set with Siri how long the voice interface waits before it responds to a request, more languages will be available for the reading function and Apple Books will have options to make texts more readable.
Also interesting: with Buddy Controller, multiple controllers can be merged into one. With this you can game together and the controller measures the average. This is extremely useful for people with a motor disability who cannot play a game independently. A counselor can then help them.
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The latest new accessibility feature from Apple is Sound Recognition. Specific sounds that are important can be highlighted by the Apple devices. Think of a doorbell or alarm.
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