An Overview of All the Accessibility Features on an iPhone
HIBA FIAZ
PUBLISHED 16 HOURS AGO
Here’s a round up of all the different Accessibility features built into
an iPhone. Enable them to make your smartphone easier to use for everyone.
iPhone 13 Pro Max display
The Accessibility features on an iPhone exist to make your device more
convenient to use. They allow you to make tweaks and change certain
attributes on your iPhone to increase its basic functionality. This is
particularly helpful for anybody with visual, hearing, or movement
difficulties.
Let us take a look at the various iPhone Accessibility settings and how
you can use them. You can view all these settings by going to Settings >
Accessibility on your iPhone.
Vision
This section covers tools that allow you to adjust the display, alter
zoom settings, and tweak the font size. It also contains VoiceOver, a
special feature for the visually impaired.
VoiceOver
A feature designed especially for the visually impaired, VoiceOver
allows you to use your device without looking at it. You can attach a
Braille accessory to use with this feature and choose the language,
pitch, volume, and speaking rate at which VoiceOver works.
voiceover
speech
Zoom
This feature works great if you have trouble reading your screen. You
can turn on the toggle next to Zoom to magnify your screen. Instructions
beneath this option explain how to use this feature. To change the zoom
level of your display screen, use the slider under Maximum Zoom Level to
drag it left or right and decrease or increase zoom, respectively.
If you want only a part of the screen zoomed in instead of the entire
screen, go to Zoom Region and select Window Zoom.
Display & Text Size
Under Display & Text Size, you can hit toggles to make text bold, to
increase contrast, and to automatically adjust the brightness of your
screen according to your environment. To change the size of your text,
tap on Larger Text, turn on the toggle, and use the slider to increase
or decrease according to preference.
Motion
If you’re overly sensitive to motion or movement, this is where you can
make your iPhone reduce motion on your screen and reduce the parallax
effect of icons (which is displacement of something on your screen when
you tilt your device) to make it more comfortable to use.
Spoken Content
Your iPhone can read out what’s on your screen and gives you text
suggestions with this enabled. This feature can be used with and without
VoiceOver turned on. You can select different voices and enable typing
feedback using the toggles available in this section.
spoken content
Audio Descriptions
As the title says, enabling this allows audio descriptions to be played
automatically whenever you’re watching compatible video content.
Physical and Motor
Motor difficulties are relatively prevalent; they may be the result
congenital conditions or accidents. This section aims to help people who
struggle to use an iPhone comfortable due to physical and motor
difficulties.
Touch
This option contains AssisstiveTouch, a feature that will aid you in
using your iPhone if you have difficulty repeatedly touching your screen
or pressing buttons. You can also use an adaptive accessory to help and
choose to perform functions like adjusting the volume or taking a
screenshot with just a single tap.
If you have an older version of the iPhone and your Home button has
malfunctioned, you can use AssistiveTouch to help with navigation.
touch
Face ID & Attention
If the toggle for Require Attention for Face ID is on, your phone will
only be unlocked by Face ID if you are looking directly at it.
Accessories like sunglasses will shield your eyes, thus your iPhone will
not be unlocked with them on if this is enabled. The same
attention-aware criteria can be enabled for other features on the iPhone
as well.
face ID & Attention
Switch Control
If you have limited movement, ability switches will let you perform
different actions, such as tapping, typing, and even drawing freehand.
Enable it by turning on the toggle under Switch Control, and begin
adding switches to use.
Voice Control
Voice Control pretty much lives up to its name. It allows you to use
your voice to control your device and perform different functions. You
will have to set it up in Voice Control > Set Up Voice Control, and a
download will begin. Upon completion, a microphone will appear, which
lets you use your device with your voice.
Side Button
This lets you change the speed required to double or triple-click the
Side button. You can also choose what function pressing and holding this
button will perform. In short, you can choose what the Side button does
for you on your iPhone.
side button options
Apple TV Remote
This feature is only useful if you have an Apple TV. It lets you choose
between swiping and using buttons to control your Apple TV from the
Apple TV Remote app on your iPhone.
Keyboards
This section allows you to attach an external keyboard to your iPhone
and customize its functions in various ways.
keyboards
Hearing
This Accessibility category is dedicated to aiding anyone with hearing
impairments. You can adjust the audio settings or pair devices to help
you. Let’s find out more about the features it offers.
Hearing Devices
Hearing Devices allows you to pair your iPhone with hearing aids and
other accessories and enable sound recognition. You can also toggle on
Hearing Aid Compatibility to improve audio quality with hearing aids.
Sound Recognition
Turning this on will make your iPhone use a programmed algorithm to
recognize certain sounds and notify you about them. However, a fair
warning comes with it its use as the feature isn’t accurate enough to
rely upon in emergency situations.
sound recognition
Audio/Visual
Under this section, you can adjust the balance between left and right
audio channels by adjusting the slider at the bottom. There’s also an
option to play background sounds under Background Sounds and toggle on
Phone Noise Cancellation to reduce ambient noise on phone calls.
Subtitles & Captioning
For those who are hard of hearing, Closed Captions can be toggled on
when available. If you have a HomePod, you can also use Show Audio
Transcriptions.
General
The General Accessibility section is pretty short. It’s not targeted at
any specific conditions or disabilities, but it has some solid features
you may want to look into nonetheless.
Guided Access
This is one of the iPhone’s most mind-blowing yet under-appreciated
features. It makes sure your device only uses one single app, ensuring
no other apps are accessible. This increases focus and ensures no
snooping fingers browse through your phone.
Open the app you want to access, then triple press on your Side or Home
button, set up a passcode, draw a circle around the areas you want to
keep inaccessible on your screen, and tap Start. Triple press the
relevant button again to revert back to normal and end Guided Access.
Pretty cool, right?
Siri
While Siri has a whole other category in the Settings, there are also
some Accessibility options present here. You can turn on the toggle for
Type to Siri to type your requests instead of saying them. You can also
change the command to which Siri is activated.
siri
Accessibility Shortcut
The Accessibility Shortcut lets you choose the function activated after
triple-clicking the Side or Home button. Options include enabling Guided
Access, Zoom, VoiceOver, AssisstiveTouch, Background Sounds, and more.
accessibility shortcut options
Per-App Settings
Per-App Settings allows you to add an app and customize its
Accessibility features
the way you like. All you have to do is tap Add App to begin changing
the Accessibility features of a particular app.
Apple’s Accessibility Features Make Using Your Device a Lot Easier
The iPhone’s Accessibility features have it all, especially for people
with disabilities. May you have a visual, hearing, or motor impairment,
your device can be adjusted to make it more convenient to use at all
times. There are some truly hidden gems you may not know of in the
Accessibility settings that you should definitely check out, like Guided
Access and calming Background Sounds.
https://www.makeuseof.com/overview-of-all-accessibility-features-iphone/
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