Overview
This guide provides a brief overview of iOS accessibility features and situations when they might be helpful. Apple is constantly updating the available features. Refer to the Apple website for the most current information on features.
| Feature | User Characteristics/Support needs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Assistive Access | Cognition | Tailor the interface to lighten the cognitive load |
| Background sounds | Cognition, everyone | Plays consistent ambient background noise to help with focus |
| Safari reader | Cognition | Navigate the internet without extra ads, buttons, etc. |
| Guided access | Cognition | Limited app access to help reduce distractions |
| Focus | Cognition | Selectively silence notifications to reduce distractions |
| Feature | User Characteristics / Support Needs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text Size and Bold Text | Low vision | Increase or adjust text size, Bold text |
| Display Accommodations | Low vision, colorblindness, cognitive | Invert colors, adjust transparency, color filters, differentiate without color, prefer horizontal text, reduce white point, button shape |
| Zoom | Low vision | Magnify contents of screen - full screen or window zoom |
| VoiceOver | Blind, low vision, cognitive | Gesture-based screen reader that provides audible descriptions of on-screen elements |
| Spoken Content | Blind, low vision, cognitive | Text-to-speech – reading specific text or typing feedback |
| Audio Descriptions | Blind, low vision | Separate audio that narrates important visual information in videos, films, TV, etc. |
| Magnifier | Low vision, anyone | Magnify objects in environment using camera |
| Vehicle Motion Cues | Sensory, anyone | Helps reduce motion sickness when using device in car |
| Face ID and Attention | Blind, low vision | Auto adjust features (dim, volume) |
| Hover Text and Hover Typing | Low vision, cognitive impairments | Displays a separate, larger, customizable window of text when you are typing |
| Feature | User Characteristics/Support needs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Subtitles and Closed Captioning | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, everyone | Enable customized captions to appear on content where the creator has added them |
| Live Captions | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, cognition, everyone | Live captions created by device for any audio or video content |
| Hearing Device Pairing | Hard of hearing | Connectivity with hearing aids, AirPods Pro 2 has Hearing Health capabilities |
| Music Haptics | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing | Uses vibrations to let users feel texture/beat of music |
| Conversation Boost | Hard of Hearing | (With AirPods Pro) you can focus audio on the person talking in front of you and lower background noise |
| Headphone Accommodations | Hard of hearing | Adjust/amplify soft sounds, frequencies, etc |
| Mono Audio | Hard of hearing, unilateral hearing loss | Switch audio to a singular track |
| Live Listen | Hard of hearing | Audio picked up by microphone is sent to your headphones or hearing device |
| Sound Recognition | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing | Uses microphone to listen for important info (ex. Your name, fire alarm, door bell) and send a notification |
| Facetime Sign Recognition | Deaf, deaf, speech | Makes image of person signing larger in the facetime, Reaction animations when certain signs are made |
| Sensory Alerts | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, everyone | Alternate way to receive notifications (LED flash, haptic feedback) |
| Real Time Text (RTT/TTY) | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing | Allows user to type messages that are instantly sent to provide text-based communication during phone calls |
| Transcriptions | Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, everyone | Transcripts of podcasts, messages, voice memos, voicemails, audio messages, etc. |
| Noise App | Everyone | Tracks sound levels and alerts if they could affect your hearing |
| Feature | User Characteristics/Support needs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Live Speech | Speech, Deaf/deaf, cognition | Type what you want to say, device will speak out loud for you |
| Personal Voice | Voice loss or risk | Creates and preserves a voice that sounds like you |
| Vocal Shortcuts | Speech, mobility | Use a word or sound of your choosing to navigate |
| Feature | User Characteristics / Support Needs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Switch Control | Mobility, hands-free | Switch connectivity or use the device as a switch |
| Voice Control and Siri | Mobility, cognition, everyone | Voice control |
| Keyboards | Mobility | Key repeat, sticky keys, slow keys |
| Eye tracking | Mobility | Use eye tracking for navigation and selection |
| Alternative Input: Assistive Touch | Mobility | Customize your own touch/gestures for navigation of buttons |
| Touch Accommodations | Mobility | Customize how the screen responds to touch (hold duration, ignore repeat, tap assistance) |
| Back Tap | Mobility, everyone | Double or triple tap on back of phone linked to an action you set |
| Dictation | Mobility, cognition, everyone | Types the words spoken by user |
| Hardware Keyboard support | Mobility | Can support connection to external keyboards |
| Full Accessibility Keyboard | Mobility | Allows user to control and navigate the device using only an external keyboard |
| Reachability | Mobility, everyone | Brings top of screen into reach on bottom half of screen |