TL; DR
- For users with low vision, the new Magnifier app will make the physical world more accessible.
- Later this year, the new Braile Access accessibility feature will help turn its devices into powerful braille notetakers seamlessly connected to the Apple ecosystem.
- Accessibility Nutrition Labels is essentially a new section in the App Store product pages, highlighting the accessibility features available in a particular app or game.
- Using the multi-camera system Vision Pro, visionOS will soon let users zoom in on everything in their view, including physical items in their surroundings.
The Cupertino-based tech giant Apple has announced new accessibility features for its ecosystem. While iPhones, iPads, and Macs already have a bunch of accessibility features to ensure easy and customizable access to apps and information, the company has announced a new Magnifier app for macOS, a new Braille experience that will allow users to take notes and open apps using braille, a new Accessibility Reader, and many more features that are arriving later this year.
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New Accessibility Features For iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS
New Braille Experience For iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS
Later this year, the new Braile Access accessibility feature will help turn its devices into powerful braille notetakers seamlessly connected to the Apple ecosystem. The enhanced braille experience will allow users to launch any app by typing its name in braille on the screen, take notes in braille format with support for Nemeth Braille (used for calculations), open Braile Ready Format (BRF) files, and a new form of Live Captions that allows users to “transcribe conversations in real time directly on braille displays.”
New Magnifier For Mac Helps Users Explore Their Surroundings
While the Magnifier has been around on iPhone and iPad since 2016, it is coming to macOS later this year. For users with low vision, the new Magnifier app will make the physical world more accessible. When the app arrives later this year, users can connect it with their cameras to zoom in on their surroundings, such as a big screen or a whiteboard located at a distance.
For multiple live session windows, users can multitask by viewing a presentation with a webcam while reading a book using Desk View. Customized views will help users adjust brightness, contrast, color filters, and perspective to make the text and images easier to see. Last but not least, the new Magnifier app for macOS can also transform text from the physical world into a legible format on a screen.
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A New Accessibility Reader Helps Users Focus On The Content They Want To Read
Apple describes the Accessibility Reader as a new system-wide reading mode that makes text easier for users with disabilities like dyslexia or low vision. The feature will be available on all Apple devices, allowing users to customize text, focus on content portions they want to read, and customize the font, color, and spacing per their preference.
Users should be able to launch Accessibility Reader directly from any app. Further, it will also support Spoken Content, wherein users can listen to the content on the screen. While users can launch the new feature from any app on their iOS, iPadOS, or macOS device, Accessibility Reader is built into the Magnifier app for iOS.
Accessibility Nutrition Labels For Apps In The App Store
Accessibility Nutrition Labels is essentially a new section in the App Store product pages, highlighting the accessibility features available in a particular app or game. The feature lets users learn whether an app includes or supports all the required accessibility features they require before downloading it, including features like Larger Text, Sufficient Contrast, VoiceOver, Voice Control, and so on.
Live Captions For Apple Watch Let Users Read What Their iPhone Hears
This new accessibility feature is for people who have difficulty hearing, as it allows them to control the Live Listen feature directly from their Apple Watch. The feature also shows Live Captions of the conversation on the Apple Watch.
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Vision Pro Enhanced View Lets Users Zoom In On Their Surroundings
Using the multi-camera system Vision Pro, visionOS will soon let users zoom in on everything in their view, including physical items in their surroundings, such as a book or a notice board, and the visual items they’ve opened in the mixed reality headset, such as notes or a browser window. Further, Live Recognition in visionOS uses on-device machine learning to describe their surroundings via the VoiceOver feature.
Apple is also improving other accessibility features, such as Background Sounds, which will become easier to personalize with new equalizer settings. Further, Personal Voice will become faster, easier, and “more powerful than ever.” While the vehicle Motion Cues feature is now coming to macOS, Apple is also improving other accessibility features like Eye Tracking, Head Tracking, Assistive Access, Music Haptics, and Voice Control.
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