Apple Just Announced a Number of New Accessibility Features for IOS 18
All eyes are on Apple’s WWDC event next month . That’s when the company will undoubtedly show off its latest operating system updates, including its latest artificial intelligence plans for iOS and macOS.
But AI is not just generative AI. Apple also has more traditional features that users can check out, some of which are simply AI- powered . And as it happens, we’ve just seen a lot of upcoming iPhone and Mac features that fit this model, especially in terms of accessibility.
On Wednesday, Apple unexpectedly announced a series of these new accessibility features. The company says these features will arrive “later this year,” which almost certainly means they’ll come to iOS 18 . Apple switches between using the language of “AI” and ” machine learning ” to describe how these features work, but rest assured, the underlying technology is part of Apple’s push into artificial intelligence this year.
Eye Tracking lets you control your iPhone with just your eyes
Out of the blue, Apple announced that iPhone and iPad users will soon be able to control their devices with just their eyes. Apple says your phone or tablet’s front camera will use artificial intelligence to calibrate and configure the feature, as well as power it. The most impressive thing is that you don’t need any additional equipment to use it.
Once eye tracking is set up, you can navigate through apps, use latency controls to interact with elements, and copy physical buttons, swipes, and gestures using eye movements.
Music Haptics lets you feel the beat through your iPhone
Apple has added a new music feature for users who are deaf or hard of hearing: Music Haptics uses the Taptic Engine to play taps and complex vibrations to the beat of a song. While this sounds like a great accessibility feature, it also seems like a great way to improve the Apple Music experience for everyone. The feature works with “millions” of songs on Apple Music, but Apple has also included it as an API so developers can add it to their apps.
Vocal contractions and listen for atypical speech
Voice commands are a new feature that lets you assign actions to words or phrases. For example, you can set the word “Rings” to open the Apple Watch activity rings in Fitness. Plus, Hear Atypical Speech uses in-device AI to learn your speech patterns, so your device recognizes the way you speak.
These features are intended for users with conditions such as cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or stroke, as these conditions affect speech.
Vehicle Motion Cues tries to prevent motion sickness
Apple wants to cure motion sickness. Vehicle Motion Cues places dots on your screen when your iPhone or iPad recognizes that you are in a moving vehicle. These points will then move according to the direction the car is moving. These moving dots can counteract the effects of motion sickness, as Apple research shows that motion sickness occurs when there is a conflict between what you see and what you feel.
You can choose to have these motion alerts appear automatically or turn them on manually from the Control Center.
CarPlay is getting some new accessibility features
Speaking of cars, CarPlay is getting a number of new accessibility features: Voice Control, which lets you control CarPlay with your voice; Color filters that allow you to fine-tune the color space of the CarPlay user interface; and sound recognition, CarPlay will let you know when it detects sounds such as car horns and sirens.
VisionOS accessibility features
Remember Apple Vision Pro ? It still exists, even if it hasn’t gotten much attention lately. However, Apple is working on some VisionOS accessibility features, including Live Captions . These captions will work in private conversations and FaceTime, as well as audio in your apps. Apple is also adding new vision features like Reduce Transparency, Smart Invert, and Dim Flashing Lights, as well as support for Made for iPhone hearing aids and cochlear hearing processors.
New VoiceOver Features
VoiceOver gets new voices. Apple hasn’t said how many there are or what they sound like, but they’re coming. Additionally, the feature gets a “flexible voice rotor” that lets you control how VoiceOver works, custom volume controls, custom VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts in macOS, and support for custom dictionaries and compound words.
Magnifier
Apple’s Magnifier hasn’t gotten the love it deserves, but it does have a few new features. You’ll be getting a new Reading Mode soon, as well as quick ways to launch Discovery Mode using the Action button on iPhone 15 Pro .
Braille
There are also several new braille features: you’ll have a new way to start and continue input from the braille screen, Japanese will be available, Dot Pad users will get multiline braille support, and you’ll have the ability to select input and output tables.
Hover over text input
Hover input is a new feature that increases the text size when you type in a text field. Additionally, you can control the font and color.
Personal Voice is now available in Chinese
Last year, Apple introduced Personal Voice, an AI-powered feature that can reproduce your voice during Live Speech. This feature is now available in Chinese. Plus, you can now create a personal voice even if you have trouble reading full sentences out loud.
Speaking of Live Speech, this feature now has categories and is compatible with Live Captions.
Virtual trackpad
Apple is adding a virtual trackpad feature as part of AssistiveTouch, so one area of your iPhone or iPad can be used to move the cursor around the screen. I can see this being useful for anyone who wants to use a trackpad, especially on larger iPads, but doesn’t have a physical trackpad.
Control switch
With Switch Control, coming later this year, you’ll be able to use your iPhone or iPad’s camera to recognize finger tap gestures as switches. Switch Control allows you to use the hardware to control your iPhone or iPad using switches, meaning you can gesture with your fingers in front of the camera to control elements on the screen.