References to New 'Custom Accessibility Mode' Found in iOS 16.2 Beta 2

[Edsel]

Steve Jobs was born 67 years ago. Perhaps he "directed" Apple to make these modifications to "simplify" the iOS feature set in his afterlife. With age, comes wisdom and a search for simplifying your life.... and your iPhone.

 

[thejoshuabradshaw]

I like it! Now, if it rotates in a landscape position, it can mimic carplay in vehicles. Win!

 

[Arislan]

Looks like they're finally going to give us a "Grasshopper" mode. I've been hoping for something like that for my mother who refuses to give up her fossil flip phone.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

This is amazing - it looks exactly like what I was mocking up in my head all weekend for my father, and feeling frustrated that it’s something I didn’t think Apple would ever build. iPhones have gotten much harder to use for older people over the last few years. Neither of my parents ever fully adapted after iOS 7 made UI controls much less obvious and clear. And as my Dad’s tremors have gotten worse, the gestures, edge swipes, and long presses essentially make his phone a minefield. Existing accessibility options help a bit, but don’t do enough to fundamentally fix the big-picture UI paradigms that are an issue for older users.

We need options for huge home screen icons and/or a list view with large labels for the homescreen, a way to prevent accidental rearranging, a way to disable control center and the other edge swipe gestures, and a much simpler way for a family member to control your screen from FaceTime (he doesn’t under stand how to share screen from FaceTime, and the button icons are absolutely inscrutable). And frankly, this mode should offer dramatically fewer features. For Photos.app, just let it be a big picture frame with a way to scroll backwards in time through the grid view; hide all the UI about albums, organization, and editing. It’s so overwhelming to people who don’t or can’t keep up with so many new changes every year.

I tried to talk to him about a Jitterbug Smart, which I think is solving a lot of these issues, but we’ve been an Apple family since 1984, and he doesn’t want to give it up (and when I showed it to him he said “but those are for old people”…he’s 82). And I have a sneaking suspicion that once you’re past the Jitterbug’s launcher, the apps themselves will be the typical Android hard-to-use UI, so it’s not complete win.

Apple built its reputation on ease of use, and people used to marvel at how babies could pick up and use an iPad. You don’t hear that anymore. For myself, I want all the gestures, shortcuts, automations, and power user tweaks I can get my hands on. But I don’t want that to come at the expense of a worse experience for others. iPhone needs a way to accommodate our parents. Really hope this pans out.

Had the same scenario with my father and his tremor. There is a way to put a virtual home button on the screen for assistive touch, and that worked pretty well for him before he passed.

 

[name99]

The SINGLE most important thing Apple could do for accessibility is make Shortcuts and HomeKit Automations RELIABLE!
It's completely unacceptable that one simply cannot, with any confidence, create a set of shortcuts or Home Automations for third parties (older people, disabled, children, etc) and just assume they will work because random Apple fsckery is CONSTANTLY breaking Shortcuts and Automations, without Apple even explaining to us WHY these damn things keep breaking.

 

[sorgo †]

Apple’s Accessibility features are among the top reasons I use an iPhone and generally love their devices. Can’t wait for the addition of this feature set which I’m sure will only get better with time. 🤓

 

[_Spinn_]

This sounds promising.

 

[Bawstun]

Years ago there was a bug that disabled OS animations. It made transitions instantaneous. We need that again.

Reduce motion more or less does this and it’d why I always keep it toggled on, it makes the user experience much quicker and actually saves time not having to wait for the animations. All of those split seconds add up to minutes, hours, over not much time at all…

 

[svish]

Good to see this. Should prove useful for some.

 

[riverfreak]

The SINGLE most important thing Apple could do for accessibility is make Shortcuts and HomeKit Automations RELIABLE!
It's completely unacceptable that one simply cannot, with any confidence, create a set of shortcuts or Home Automations for third parties (older people, disabled, children, etc) and just assume they will work because random Apple fsckery is CONSTANTLY breaking Shortcuts and Automations, without Apple even explaining to us WHY these damn things keep breaking.

Yes!

I have used shortcuts to provide things like direct dial buttons. They work well. Except if you accidentally trigger the dancing icons and inadvertently rearrange the Home Screen. And then sometimes the shortcuts just simply don’t work. Even basic simple ones.

 

[duffman9000]

Reduce motion more or less does this and it’d why I always keep it toggled on, it makes the user experience much quicker and actually saves time not having to wait for the animations. All of those split seconds add up to minutes, hours, over not much time at all…

That setting does make a big difference. I still miss the bug though. It made transitions so fast it was jarring lol.

 

[Bawstun]

That setting does make a big difference. I still miss the bug though. It made transitions so fast it was jarring lol.

I know what you mean, back in the early days of jailbreaking there was a tweak that let you set the milliseconds or seconds or whatever of the transition and it could be instant. I miss it too, I have a lot to do when I’m using my device so I want to access where I’m trying to go ASAP.

 

[MisterSavage]

Immediately reminded me of the Jitterbug phones for old people.

100%!!! I immediately thought of Jitterbug when I saw that screenshot.