Apple Announces New iOS 19 and macOS 16 Accessibility Features Ahead of WWDC

[MacRumors]

Apple today previewed a wide range of new accessibility features coming later this year on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. The announcement comes two days ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

These features are expected to debut across iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3, which will be unveiled during the WWDC 2025 keynote on Monday, June 9. Following months of beta testing, the software updates should be released in September, bringing the new accessibility features to the masses.

Accessibility Reader​

Some of the key new features:

• Accessibility Nutrition Labels in the App Store, which will highlight accessibility features within apps and games.
• Apple is expanding its Magnifier app to the Mac, allowing users to connect an iPhone or USB camera to zoom in and read text on objects around them.
• Vehicle Motion Cues are expanding to the Mac, to reduce motion sickness in a vehicle.
• A new system-wide Accessibility Reader tool on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro will make text easier to read for users with low vision or dyslexia. The feature will give users new ways to customize text and focus on content they want to read, with extensive options for font, color, and spacing.
• Live Captions are coming to the Apple Watch, allowing users to read a transcription of what their iPhone hears on their wrist.
• An enhanced Zoom feature on the Apple Vision Pro will allow users to magnify everything in view, including their surroundings, using the device's main camera.
• Braille Access will turn the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro into a full-featured braille note taker.
• Personal Voice will become faster and easier to use, thanks to advancements in on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence. Apple says the feature will be able to create a smoother, more natural-sounding replication of your voice in less than a minute, using only 10 recorded phrases.
• CarPlay will support the Large Text option, and Sound Recognition will be able to identify a crying baby inside a vehicle.

Magnifier on the Mac​

More details about these features and many others can be found in Apple's press release.

Article Link: Apple Announces New iOS 19 and macOS 16 Accessibility Features Ahead of WWDC

 

[dullydude]

• An enhanced Zoom feature on the Apple Vision Pro will allow users to magnify everything in view, including their surroundings, using the device's main camera.

Now THAT is what I'm talking about!

 

[TechWhisperer]

Now THAT is what I'm talking about!

Down voters are lame.

 

[tadasZ]

"coming later this year" from apple is "coming later year"

 

[Jay-Jacob]

• Live Captions adds support to include English (India, Australia, UK, Singapore), Mandarin Chinese (Mainland China), Cantonese (Mainland China, Hong Kong), Spanish (Latin America, Spain), French (France, Canada), Japanese, German (Germany), and Korean.

Finally!! UK English live captions added! I been waiting for this ages. I had to switch all my devices to US English and it kinda annoying cos it auto correct my UK English to US English and some words in settings like cellular data instead of mobile data in UK.

 

[contacos]

• CarPlay will support the Large Text option.

Should you really be on the road if you need this?

 

[ATLAS-2]

Coming in iOS 19
Coming in iOS 19.5
Coming in iOS 20

 

[Jay-Jacob]

• CarPlay will support the Large Text option.

Should you really be on the road if you need this?

🤣 Most likely for people need reading glasses but not need all day glasses. Like my parents. They can drive without glasses etc but need glasses for reading.

 

[tonmischa]

Now build an iPhone for people that have lost a hand. (Car accident)

Or simply bring back the Mini.

 

[m1mini]

Personal voice could be improved. My mom has hypopharyngeal cancer and had her larynx removed so she cannot talk. So I purchased an ElevenLabs subscription and replicated her voice from her past recordings. I found an api calling ios shortcut that lets you type into a textbox and read it in a selected voice (which for me is my moms) and I set that up on my moms 15pm.

If apple can replicate the text box thing + let us use any audio clips then it will be golden

 

[klasma]

The speech quality and UX of the current Spoken Content functionality is pretty poor, and I regularly run into bugs with it. Improvements there would be appreciated. Unfortunately, this new Accessibility Reader announcement doesn't say anything about improved control and speech.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

"coming later this year" from apple is "coming later year"

I know you are just making your fun jokey jokes, but the accessibility features almost always make it right into the X.0 update.
So all of the stuff should be available in beta as early as next month.

 

[kemal]

The enlarged text features mean a lot to me. I have RP, with letters 1" (25.4mm) tall so I can read.

 

[Paddle1]

I wonder if the images in the press release are what iOS 19 actually looks like or just a concept in the style of current iOS to not spoil the alleged redesign.

 

[Paddle1]

Finally!! UK English live captions added! I been waiting for this ages. I had to switch all my devices to US English and it kinda annoying cos it auto correct my UK English to US English and some words in settings like cellular data instead of mobile data in UK.

On iOS you can just add the English UK keyboard in Settings if you want to switch the autocorrect.

 

[lanomds1]

This is truly amazing for people with low vision! Quality of life features — that's what we expect from OS updates, not crap no one uses ☺️

 

[Jay-Jacob]

On iOS you can just add the English UK keyboard in Settings if you want to switch the autocorrect.

Oh duh to me! I forgot you can do this. 🤦‍♀️ Thanks.

 

[ps3zocker]

I wonder if the images in the press release are what iOS 19 actually looks like or just a concept in the style of current iOS to not spoil the alleged redesign.

I don't think we can determine anything based on that. They obviously wouldn't spoil a large redesign. It's also possible that nothing changes again this year like the previous years where we heard about a redesign.

 

[cnnyy20p]

Fix Spoken Content to be as reliable as Microsoft Edge please. It has been buggy since forever.

 

[tomtad]

I wonder if the images in the press release are what iOS 19 actually looks like or just a concept in the style of current iOS to not spoil the alleged redesign.

Must admit I was hoping to spot some changes but all seems the same design language other than maybe the … menu in the Accessibility Reader screenshot which deviates from Apples current practice. I presume things like button design will be kept secret for now.

 

[tennisproha]

These are great updates! I use a lot of these, they're really helpful for everyone.

 

[Populus]

Now build an iPhone for people that have lost a hand. (Car accident)

They are apparently working on that.

Apple Preparing to Launch Mind-Control Support for iPhones

Apple is planning to allow users to natively control iPhones, iPads, and other devices using brain signals later this year, The Wall Street Journal...

www.macrumors.com

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I see no mention of Auracast , which has benefits for people with hearing disabilities among other things. Samsung and Google already support it.

Auracast | Bluetooth® Technology Website

INTRODUCING Auracast™ broadcast audio is a new Bluetooth® capability that will deliver life-changing audio experiences. It will let you share your audio, unmute your world, and hear your best…

www.bluetooth.com

 

[IainEm]

All this ‘accessibility’ but how about Apple puts a thin line or drop shadow around the icons so that they don’t blend into the wallpaper like they’ve done since 2013 and reduced vision users can finally actually make them out?????

 

[jz0309]

It is good to see that Apple focuses on this and not just AI. This does improve people’s life!