With the release of iOS 15 across iOS mobile devices, there came a number of improvements to the native accessibility features. We’ve heard about these potential changes since May of this year but as we all know, that’s no guarantee of being available upon arrival. Here’s what’s actually included:
- Siri is now able to activate accessibility features without being connected to the internet. It can also access other apps and features more easily now and can do this out of the box.
- Live Text, which is a new feature of the Camera app, which can detect text in images and convey that image to Voiceover or an attached braille reader. Using the Detect Text button, it can also detect text in the environment and stop the camera from focusing on other elements.
- Voiceover Changes
- A Quick Settings menu is available now via a 2-finger, quadruple tap or with a shortcut on an attached keyboard. Many of the menu items are the same as the ones on the Rotor, so the Rotor can be changed to be used for navigation instead.
- The Rotor also now has clearer explanations of its settings and their status.
- A new setting called Grouped Navigation which puts certain screen items together in a similar fashion to “regions” in an application. For instance, the menus in the Email app would be a group and the messages list would be a group.
- The Verbosity setting now includes some additional alerts for things such as the flashlight being left on or the status of the QuickNav menu.
- Some of the other announcements, such as flash messages from when accessing the Rotor, have been removed which makes it easier for braille users to get through the messages.
- Expanded Image Descriptions is another new feature of the Camera that allows a user to scan parts of the image and listen to the description. This primarily uses AI-generated descriptions but there is an option for content creators to use markup to describe important parts of the image.
- A Quick Settings menu is available now via a 2-finger, quadruple tap or with a shortcut on an attached keyboard. Many of the menu items are the same as the ones on the Rotor, so the Rotor can be changed to be used for navigation instead.
- Visual Accommodations
- It is now possible to set different options for individual apps, such as color filters or font sizes. This lets you find and keep the settings you most like for an app and keep it separate from settings for other apps.
- The Magnifier is now its own app due to its expanded roster of settings.
- Hearing/Audio Options
- The iOS 14 feature that enabled boosted signals for different types of hearing loss has been improved to use data from imported audiograms and expand the number of devices supporting it.
- Background sounds have been added that can be separately controlled from other media, when they play, and their volume.
- There is now an auditory feature for Switch Controls, allowing various functions to be controlled by sound rather than regular Switch Controls or other gadgets.
Overall, there are a number of new features to test out and find what works best for you. Depending on your comfort level with these features, you may find it easier to integrate them or ignore them depending on your own setup but this level of customization is excellent for many users.
Partners in Policymaking (PIP) is a program that prepares adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), parents, and family members of children and adults with IDD to be effective advocates at the local, state, and federal levels. Partners in Policymaking was created in 1987 by the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities upon their discovery that there was a need for a formal training process, covering best practices in advocacy on a variety of issues for people with IDD. The Arc Maryland relaunched the program in 2018 with incredible financial and technical support from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, and in-kind support from People on the Go of Maryland.
