Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 18, introduces a suite of innovative accessibility features for those with disabilities. These upgrades enhance how individuals interact with their devices and the environment, whether users have visual, mobility, speech, hearing or cognitive impairments.
Here’s a closer look at the key features aimed at making Apple devices more inclusive for users with vision impairments.
VoiceOver: A leading screen reader, VoiceOver provides spoken descriptions of what’s on your screen, including in braille. iOS 18 takes this a step further with Live Recognition, which offers detailed descriptions of real-world objects like people, doors or furniture.
This feature supports users with low vision, making it easier to navigate physical spaces. With customizable settings like voice pitch and speed too, users can tailor their experience to suit their preferences.
Magnifier: The Magnifier tool uses the camera on an iPhone or iPad to increase the size of any physical object you point it at, like a menu or sign, so users can see all the details clearly on the screen.
With Detection Mode in Magnifier, your device’s camera, LiDAR and AI machine learning work together to identify and describe elements in the environment. These features include People Detection — helping with proximity awareness, Text Detection — reading aloud any text the camera picks up, and Point and Speak — identifying text on nearby physical objects, such as buttons on appliances or labels.
Spoken Content: Customization options such as voice pitch, speed and highlighting while reading make the Spoken Content feature especially user-friendly to read text out loud. iOS 18 also introduces Typing Feedback, which audibly narrates each character as it’s typed, providing an added layer of support during text entry.
Display Settings & Text Size: iOS 18 also enhances visual accessibility with new tools to adjust text size, contrast and color filters, allowing users to fine-tune their display for comfort.
Customization options ensure that every user can create a display that suits their needs and abilities. On a desktop, even your pointer can be personalized — users can increase its size in macOS so it’s easier to find and use, or customize the color of their pointer to make it easier to spot on screen.
With these powerful tools and more, iOS 18 continues to uphold Apple’s commitment to making technology accessible to everyone, empowering users with disabilities to live more independently and confidently.