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Apple Announces New Background Sounds, Apple Watch AssistiveTouch, and Eye-Tracking Accessibility Features

Good work on these features Apple. In some ways, certain accessibility features lay the groundwork for features that can work on a large scale for the masses. I can see those hand gestures evolving in time to reduce the effort we all exert interacting with our devices.
 
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I hope the background sounds can be a layer to mask every single thing with sound on the phone including phone calls. I always wanted to have a way to have some calming underneath. If you could even choose your own sounds/music/ambience that would be amazing.
 
Apple’s accessibility features are incredibly poorly designed in so so so many ways
 
jimbobb24 said:
I know what people want it to mean but it’s nonsense. It like calling people with cancer stem cell diverse.

Autism is a pathological condition that results in many people being unable to function. That’s not diverse that a sad failure of neurological development. The fact there are variable expressions of brain chemistry doesn’t need a special word but it’s wrong to use the word as a euphemism for pathologies.
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Hope you do realise there are different levels of autism and also there is nothing wrong in calling difference from normative as diverse - even if it is only a 'sad failure of neurological development', as you put it. I wonder what makes you so angry against that term.
 
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These updates are terrific, and Apple's commitment to those of us with disabilities is to be applauded, but there's a real mismatch between the assistance offered to iOS users and those using macOS. Why is it I can stream sound direct to my MFi hearing aid using my iphone or ipad, but not from my macbook pro?
 
Many of these sound fantastic.



MacRumors said:
There are new features for communicating with support staff, operating the iPad, navigating the Apple Watch, and more, with a rundown below.
  • Background Sounds - In support of neurodiversity, Apple is adding a Background Sounds feature that's designed to minimize distractions to help users stay focus, stay calm, or rest. Balanced, bright, or dark noise sounds are available, as well as ocean, rain, or stream sounds. All of the sounds can be set to play in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external noise. Apple says the sounds mix into or duck under other audio and system sounds.
  • AssistiveTouch - For users with limited mobility, AssistiveTouch will allow the Apple Watch to be used without the need to touch the display or the controls. Built-in motion sensors, the optical heart rate sensor, and on-device machine learning will let Apple Watch detect subtle differences in muscle movement and tendon activity that will control a cursor on the screen through hand gestures like a pinch or a clench. AssistiveTouch launches later this year.
  • iPad Eye-Tracking - Later this year, iPadOS will support third-party eye-tracking devices to let people control iPad with their eyes.
  • SignTime - SignTime will allow customers to communicate with AppleCare and retail customer care using American Sign Language in the United States, British Sign Language (BSL) in the UK, or French Sign Language (LSF) in France using a web browser. SignTime launches May 20.
  • New Memoji Customizations - New memojis are coming to better represent users with oxygen tubes, cochlear implants, and a soft helmet for headwear.
  • VoiceOver Improvements - Recent updates to VoiceOver let users explore more details about people, text, table data, and other objects within images. VoiceOver can describe a person's position along with other objects in images, and with Markup, users can add image descriptions to personalize their photos.
  • MFi Hearing Aid Improvements - Apple is introducing new support for bi-directional hearing aids, enabling hands-free phone and FaceTime conversations. Next-generation models from MFi partners are coming later this year.
  • Audiograms for Headphone Accommodations - Headphone Accommodations will gain support for audiograms, so users can customize their audio by importing their latest hearing test results.
  • Sound Actions for Switch Control - This replaces physical buttons and switches with mouth sounds -- such as a click, pop, or "ee" sound -- for users who are non-speaking and have limited mobility.
  • Display and Text Size Settings - Will be customizable on a per app basis for users with colorblindness or other vision challenges to make the screen easier to see.
Click to expand...
 
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ignatius345 said:
It used to be under Trackpad but for some reason they tucked it away into a sub-panel of Accessibility a few years ago.
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Clearly, Apple is trying to score political points by moving settings from application/device preferences and burying them in Accessibility, in order to inflate the number of settings in Accessibility. Apple wants to say "Look at us, we have this Accessibility thing with all these settings" when many of those settings should be located in more appropriate places. Examples:

On a Mac laptop, trackpad scrolling speed is not located in trackpad preferences, but is buried in Accessibility (even though mouse scrolling speed is located in mouse preferences).

Mouse pointer size is not located in mouse preferences, but is buried in Accessibility.

To turn off spring loaded folders in the Finder, you don't go to Finder Preferences. Instead, that setting is buried in Accessibility.

On iPhone and iPad if you go to Settings >Display & Brightness, there is no setting to control auto brightness. Instead, you have to go to Accessibility.

On iPhones that have Touch ID, the setting to unlock by pressing the home button once and leaving your finger on the button is not located in Touch ID settings, but is buried in Accessibility.

Dynamic head tracking for Spatial Audio is not located in the Spatial Audio setting, but is buried in Accessibility.

Moving settings from the application/device and burying them in Accessibility is not helpful at all. It just causes more irritation because people now have to look in two places to find things: the application/device preferences and Accessibility. The Accessibility preferences have become as convoluted as iTunes and this helps no one.
 
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