In an effort to make its products more accessible to people with physical limitations, Apple has added new accessibility features to its iPhone and iPad devices, including Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, Vocal Shortcuts, vehicle motion cues, and voice control for Apple CarPlay.
According to Apple’s newsroom post, it will be rolling out new accessibility for users with physical disabilities to control iPad or iPhone. Apple’s new accessibility features are expected to land on devices by later this year. These features benefit from Apple silicon, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. In addition, more accessibility features will be added to visionOS.
While introducing the upcoming update Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said, “We believe deeply in the transformative power of innovation to enrich lives. That’s why for nearly 40 years, Apple has championed inclusive design by embedding accessibility at the core of our hardware and software. We’re continuously pushing the boundaries of technology, and these new features reflect our long-standing commitment to delivering the best possible experience to all of our users.”
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Later this year iPhones and iPads will get Eye Tracking allowing people with users with physical disabilities to control their devices with their eyes. The feature is driven by artificial intelligence (AI) that offers users a built-in option for navigating iPad and iPhone with just their eyes. Eye Tracking is set up and calibrated using the front-facing camera in seconds, as per the company. This feature supports iPadOS and iOS apps and doesn’t require additional hardware or accessories. Eye Tracking allows users to go through an app’s contents and activate each of them using Dwell Control, allowing them to access additional features such as physical buttons, swipes, and other motions purely with their eyes.
Vocal Shortcuts will enable users to complete tasks by creating their own unique sound for users with acquired or progressive speech conditions such as cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or stroke. Users can make custom utterances that Siri understands to launch shortcuts and execute difficult tasks. Listening to Atypical speech will help the user to improve speech recognition for a broader spectrum of speech using on-device machine learning to identify user speech patterns.
Vehicle Motion Cues will lessen motion sickness when using an iPhone or iPad while driving. Using animated dots on screen edges, the feature changes in vehicle motion, which helps alleviate sensory conflict while not interfering with the main content. The feature can be set to show automatically on the iPhone or be turned on and off in the Control Center.
Apple accessibility features update also includes Music Haptics will provide a new way for users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music through the iPhone’s Taptic Engine. With this accessibility option enabled, the iPhone’s Taptic Engine adds taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the music audio. This feature works with millions of songs in the Apple Music catalogue and will be provided as an API for developers to make music more accessible in their apps.
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In addition to this CarPlay will also get Voice Control, Color Filters, and Sound Recognition as a part of Apple’s Accessibility features update. Using the voice control features, users can explore CarPlay and operate apps with only their voice. Deaf or hard-of-hearing drivers and passengers can use Sound Recognition to receive notifications for car horns and sirens. Whereas, Color Filters make the CarPlay interface easier to use, with additional visual accessibility features including Bold Text and Large Text.
