Apple to bring new accessibility features to iPhones, Watches for specially abled persons

Last year, Apple released new accessibility features such as assistive touch to Watches. It allowed people with upper body limb differences to enjoy the benefits of the Apple Watch without ever having to touch the display or controls.

Now, the Cupertino-based company has announced bringing new features including Door Detection, Live Captions, Apple Watch mirroring, Quick Action, and more.

First up is the Door Detection feature. It uses Apple devices with LiDAR, camera, and on-device machine learning, to help users understand how far they are from a door.

It can even describe door attributes — including if it is open or closed, and when it’s closed, whether it can be opened by pushing, turning a knob, or pulling a handle.

Furthermore, Door Detection can also read signs and symbols on and around the door, such as the room number at an office, or the presence of an accessible entrance symbol.

With Apple Watch mirroring, users can control the smart wearable using iPhone's big screen to use Voice Control, Switch Control, and use inputs including voice commands, sound actions, head tracking, or external devices such as Made for iPhone switches as alternatives to tapping the Apple Watch display.

Like the assistive touch feature, Quick Actions are developed for people with upper body limb differences. With new Quick Actions on Apple Watch, users can double-pinch gestures to answer or end a phone call, dismiss a notification, take a photo, play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout.

Apple iPhone with Live Translation feature. Picture Credit: Apple

With Live Captions, users with hearing disabilities can utilise auto-transcribed dialogue to call participants, so group video calls become even more convenient.

Also, when Live Captions are used for calls on Mac, users will get the option to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real-time to others who are part of the conversation. And most importantly, the Live Captions are generated on the device and this way, the user information stays private and secure.

Also, the VoiceOver feature, which already supports up to 41 languages on Apple devices will support 20 more including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. The new languages, locales, and voices will be available for Speak Selection and Speak Screen accessibility features.

Furthermore, users can increase the limit of Siri pause time. This way, the voice assistant will wait longer for a user to complete the full audio command and let the device perform the task.

Another notable feature is Voice Control Spelling Mode. This offers users the option to dictate custom spellings using letter-by-letter input.

The new update to the Apple Books app will offer new themes, and introduce customization options such as bolding text and adjusting lines.

Must read | Apple Watches to get Assistive Touch and more features

All the aforementioned features are coming to eligible iPhones, iPads, Watches and Macs later this year.

Also, to mark the global accessibility awareness day on Thursday (May 19), Apple will be highlighting related topics on the Apple Books app featuring stories by and about people with disabilities; Apple Fitness+ will have a special segment 'Time to Run or Push' for wheelchair users, Apple Maps with new guide developed by National Park Foundation, Park Access for

All, to help users discover accessible features, programs, and services to explore in parks across the US.

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