Apple has announced many updates for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch devices that aim to make life a little easier for people with disabilities, introducing a number of accessibility features.
One of these features, called Signtime, was launched today (May 20). Signtime is a service that allows them with hearing loss to communicate with Applecare and retail customer service using sign language through a web browser (and without the need to place an order).
The service landed in the US, Britain and France for now with plans to expand to additional countries in the future, and will facilitate each region of each region – American sign language (ASL), English sign language (BSL), and French sign language (LSF).
Meet experts Audio descriptions make games that are more accessible
Xbox invites gamers that are disabled to help test new accessibility features
This Android 12 feature can be good for accessibility, if it’s real
For Apple Watch users, new features dubbed assistivetouch will help those who have limited mobility to interact with their devices without the need to operate the touch interface.
This will work through a series of sensors – accelerometer, gyroscopes, motion sensors, and optical heartbeat sensors – to “detect subtle differences in muscle movements and tendon activities, which allow users to navigate the cursor on the hand movement screen, such as cubitan or clench”.
The iPados update will introduce support for third-party MFI eye tracking devices, allowing users to navigate the screen using their gazes and ‘tap’ using extended eye contact.
For those who have visual disorders, iOS updates will bring a number of improvements to the technology of reading the iPhone soundover screen, allowing further details in text data and tables, and the description of the position of the person and the object in the photo.
These three features (assistivetouch, eye tracking, and voiceover) will be released in the software update ‘later this year’, so we don’t have a concrete release date for them at this stage.
Further accessibility Tweaks.
Many further improvements are fully described in Apple’s announcement, including iPhone support for two-way hearing aids, as well as the ability to recognize audio and adjust their audio according to their wishes.
For iPhone Neurodiverse users, the new feature of ‘background sound’ provides “balanced, bright, bright or dark noise, as well as the sound of the sea, rain, or sound flow” to block unwanted noise and appease users.
A new set of memoji customization to support inclusivity will land some time this year, including the visual representation of cochlea implants, oxygen tubes, and soft helmets.
For a complete repair list, see Apple’s full announcement post. While the signtime feature takes shelter from today in supported areas, other features will continue to drop updates on each device throughout 2021.