To coincide with the launch of iPhone 16 this year, iOS 18 is said to have a huge focus on accessibility — something Apple has been notoriously good for.
According to MacRumors, which cites “industry sources,” there are tons of new accessibility features that may be with iOS 18, which is anticipated to release in September this year. The first of these is “Adaptive Voice Shortcuts,” which could allow users to set up shortcuts for accessibility functions like VoiceOver and Zoom.
Instead of having to manually change the options in your iPhone or set up a shortcut, you would be able to say a specific phrase to activate it. In a recent conversation with James Rath, an accessibility consultant and content creator, he told me he laments the ability to easily zoom on Apple Vision Pro. You can do something similar by taking a screenshot and zooming into it, but Apple adding these custom accessibility features could help him out greatly. Though this has not been confirmed for visionOS, it is reported to come to macOS 15, which headset owners can mirror into their space.
What other accessibility features could be coming?
Live Speech, a function that allows users to have typed phrases said out loud in calls, could be getting “categories,” where users can set up sections for certain phrases. This means users can set up certain icons or words for categories to find preprogrammed phrases to use quickly. In practice, this will give users the ability to easily search for prewritten phrases to respond with.
Finally, Apple is looking into greater support for different text sizes for macOS. According to MacRumors, this would mean greater access to custom font sizes in:
- Books
- News
- Stocks
- Tips
- Weather
As these accessibility functions are only in development, they might not arrive with iOS18 later this year. However, the increased effort and development is a good sign that Apple is listening to customers who need different kinds of accommodation in its devices.
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