iOS Is About to Get a Lot More Accessible

Is your iPhone, iPad, or Mac a little hard to use? Lucky for you, Apple has announced key accessibility features coming to all its devices later this year. These include Accessibility Reader, which makes small fonts easier to read, and Vehicle Motion Cues, which prevent motion sickness while using Apple devices in vehicles. If some of these sound familiar, it's because they may already be on one or two Apple devices, but are now set to come to others as well. While the company's already tipped its hat as to what's in the works, expect to hear more details during WWDC 2025, scheduled from June 9 to 13. That's where Apple usually unveils all of its annual operating system updates and sometimes, even shows off new hardware.

In the meantime, here are all the new accessibility features we currently know are coming to Apple devices later this year:

Accessibility Reader makes text easier to read

Credit: Apple

Lots of people find default text sizes or fonts difficult. Accessibility Reader is a new feature designed to help with that. It allows you to customize text on your Apple device to make it easier to read. You can change the font, color, spacing, and have your Apple device read out the text for you. You can think of it as reader mode for text in any file (or even in the real world, which I'll touch on shortly), or as improved text-to-speech. This is because Accessibility Reader can be launched from any app, according to Apple. It can also be paired with the Magnifier app on your Apple devices, which means that you can zoom into text in the real world and use this feature to read it more easily. This feature will be available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro.

Magnifier comes to the Mac

Credit: Apple

Your iPhone ships with a built-in magnifying glass, which is the Magnifier app. This is an important accessibility aid for many people who have low vision, and now Apple says it's coming to the Mac. On the Mac, you'll be able to connect Magnifier to external cameras as well, including your iPhone if you're using it as a webcam via Continuity Camera. You'll be able to tweak brightness, contrast, color filters, and perspective to make it easier to see things with Magnifier for Mac, according to Apple. 

Accessibility nutrition labels are coming to the App Store

Credit: Apple

The App Store added 'privacy nutrition labels' to app listings a few years ago, which helps you quickly see if apps are collecting your data. Now, the App Store is adding accessibility nutrition labels to help you check if an app supports the accessibility features you need. Apple says these labels will acknowledge whether an app supports VoiceOver, Voice Control, Larger Text, Sufficient Contrast, Reduced Motion, captions, and more. 

Still, I really wish Apple would add better search filters to the App Store. I'd love to filter out apps that collect data and lack support for specific accessibility features, and there's currently no real way to do that.

Improved Braille support on Apple devices

Credit: Apple

Apple also says that it's adding Braille Access to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. This feature adds a braille note taker to your devices, and can even perform calculations using Nemeth Braille (which is often used in math and science classrooms). Braille Access can also open BRF (Braille Ready Format) files, which will allow people to access books and files created on braille note taking devices. 

Live Captions are now on the Apple Watch

Credit: Apple

Live Listen is an Apple feature that makes things easier to hear for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Apple says Live Listen controls will soon be added to your Apple Watch as well, and the device will be able to show real-time Live Captions. This works by turning your iPhone into a remote mic that streams directly to made-for-iPhone hearing aids, AirPods, or Beats headphones, and when this is active, you'll be able to view captions directly on a paired Apple Watch, according to Apple.

The watch can start or end Live Listen sessions, which will allow you to place the iPhone near the person who's speaking and follow the conversation from a short distance away on your Apple Watch. This could be great for learning in a classroom and other similar situations. 

Vehicle Motion Cues comes to the Mac

Credit: Apple

Ever since they launched last year on the iPhone, Vehicle Motion Cues have been indispensable for me. The feature works by displaying moving dots on the screen that correspond to the direction of a vehicle's motion, and it's now coming to the Mac, Apple says.

I've always suffered from motion sickness, which makes it hard for me to view screens while I'm in moving vehicles. Even if I'm otherwise fine in a car or a bus, I start to feel very nauseous if I look at a screen, read a book, or try anything that requires me to focus on a fixed object. Since Apple launched Vehicle Motion Cues last year, I've finally been able to use my iPhone when I'm a passenger in vehicles. If this feature works as well on the Mac, I'm excited to use it to watch videos when I'm riding in a car. The company also said that it's planning to allow you more control over how these dots are displayed on your screen.

Improved accessibility features on the Vision Pro

Credit: Apple

Apple Vision Pro is set to get a new Enhanced View, which will allow you to magnify everything that's in view via the main camera on the device. Apple says the Live Recognition feature will use on-device machine learning to describe surroundings, find objects, read documents, and more. The company also plans to enable a new API to allow some apps to access the Vision Pro's main camera, which will help developers create apps that make the most of these accessibility features.

Other important updates

Apple also revealed a bunch of other, smaller accessibility related features. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Background Sounds, which lets you play nature sounds or dark noise, will get more customization options, a timer to stop playing after a while, and new actions for automation via Shortcuts.

• Personal Voice, which recreates the voices of people who are losing the ability to speak, will be faster and easier to use, Apple says. The feature will be able to create a more natural sounding voice in under a minute with 10 recorded phrases, according to the company.

• Share Accessibility Settings lets you temporarily share your accessibility tweaks with other Apple devices, such as when you're using an iPad to place an order or borrowing a friend's device for a bit.

You can check out the full list of accessibility updates and content on Apple's website.