Apple is bringing new accessibility features to iPads and iPhones, designed to meet a wide range of user needs. These include the ability to control your device with eye-tracking technology, create custom shortcuts using your voice, experience music with a haptic motor, and more. The company unveiled the ads ahead of World Accessibility Awareness Day on Thursday.
Apple already supported eye tracking on iOS and iPadOS, but it required the use of additional eye tracking devices. This is the first time Apple has introduced the ability to control an iPad and iPhone without the need for additional hardware or accessories. The new built-in eye tracking option allows people to use the front camera to navigate apps. Leverage ai to understand what the user is looking at and what gesture they want to perform, such as swiping and tapping. There's also Dwell Control, a feature that can detect when a person's gaze lingers on an item, indicating they want to select it.
“Vocal Shortcuts,” another useful new feature, enhances Apple's voice-based controls. It allows people to assign different sounds or words to initiate shortcuts and complete tasks. For example, Siri will launch an app even after the user says something as simple as “Ah!” The company also developed “Listen for ATipic Speech,” which uses machine learning to recognize unique speech patterns and is designed for users with conditions that affect speech, including cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and stroke. , among other.
Other speech improvements Apple has made in the past include “Personal Voice,” which launched last year to give users an automated voice that sounds just like them.
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, “Music Haptics” is a new feature that allows users to experience millions of songs in Apple Music through a series of touches, textures and vibrations. It will also be available as an API, so music app developers will soon be able to offer users a new and accessible way to experience audio.
Apple also announced a new feature to help with car sickness. Instead of watching stationary content, which can cause motion sickness, users can activate the “Vehicle motion cues” setting. This feature places animated dots on the edges of the screen that sway and move in the direction of movement.
CarPlay will also receive an update, including a “Voice Control” feature; “Color Filters,” which offers color-blind users larger, bolder text; and “Sound Recognition” to notify deaf and hard-of-hearing users when horns and sirens are present.
Apple also revealed an accessibility feature coming to visionOS, which will enable live captions during FaceTime calls.
