Apple is famous for its commitment to making its products and services accessible to all sorts of people. Currently, you can control an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with just your voice. The company also includes other settings for tweaking the colors, font size, etc. Despite Apple already offering a wide array of rich accessibility features, it continues to work on adding even more. The Cupertino tech giant has announced that it is bringing Offline Live Captions, Apple Watch Mirroring, and much more to its operating systems later this year.

Upcoming Apple Accessibility Features

Apple accessibility features

 

Door Detection

Apple already allows users to detect people in front of them through the built-in Magnifier app. The company will be adding a new handy addition to it this year -- Door Detection. This will allow users with LiDAR-enabled iPhones or iPads to measure how far a door is, know whether it's open or closed, and scan the text written on it. This would allow people with limited vision to better navigate around independently.

Apple Watch Mirroring

Apart from Door Detection, Apple is bringing AirPlay to its Watch. This accessibility feature will allow users to view their Apple Watch screens and control them through their paired iPhones. Considering these wearables have tiny screens, many users will find it easier to look on the bigger preview presented on iOS. This feature will be available on the Series 6 and newer models only.

Offline Live Captions

In addition to the aforementioned accessibility features, Apple is finally introducing Live Captions on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. This will allow users to view a live transcription of audio in calls, videos, and other apps. The company will even attribute the transcriptions to the respective speaker in group FaceTime calls. macOS users will get to take Live Captions further by being able to type their responses and have their Macs speak them loudly. Unfortunately, though, Live Captions will require an iPhone 11 or newer, an iPad with the A12 Bionic chip or a later model, or an M1 Mac. Considering the feature works offline, the company has limited it to newer devices with faster processors to handle the task.

Other Apple accessibility features

New Apple Books themes
  • New Apple Books themes will allow users to choose between more background colors and spacing options.
  • VoiceOver is gaining support for over 20 more languages and locales.
  • Buddy Controller allows two people with their own controllers to collaborate on a single input in games.
  • Siri Pause Time will give people with speech difficulties time to express their prompts.

Apple doesn't mention when exactly these features will arrive. However, we assume that they will be part of iOS 16. You can read the full details of these features and their availability on the company's Newsroom website, linked below.

Do you plan on using any of the upcoming Apple accessibility features? If so, which? Let us know in the comments section below.


Source: Apple Newsroom