Apple teases new accessibility features coming this year: Door detection, live captions, Apple Watch mirroring, and more

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple is previewing a slew of new accessibility features coming to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac later this year. The company says the new features will give users with disabilities more ways to "navigate, connect, and get the most out of Apple products."

Door Detection

One of the new features is called Door Detection, which Apple says can help users find doors when arriving at a new destination. Door detection helps users understand how close they are to a door and describe its properties, including whether it is open or closed. If the door is closed, this feature can notify the user if the door can be opened by pushing, turning a knob, or pulling on a handle.

Door Detection can also read signs and symbols around doors, such as room numbers or "presence of accessible entrance symbols." The door detection feature works with LiDAR, your iPhone or iPad’s camera, and machine learning.

Apple Watch Mirroring and Quick Actions

For Apple Watch users, Apple has announced a new Apple Watch Mirroring feature. This is described as a way to make Apple Watch "more accessible than ever to people with physical and motor disabilities."

Apple explains that Apple Watch Mirroring allows users to use iPhone accessibility features such as voice control and switch control to control Apple Watch using voice commands, voice actions, head tracking, or external Made for iPhone Inputs including switches serve as an alternative to tapping the Apple Watch display.

Apple Watch Mirroring combines hardware and software features, including "advanced features built on AirPlay." The key here is that users who rely on these mobile features can access blood oxygen, heart rate, mindfulness, and more from their Apple Watch.

Quick Actions is another new feature of Apple Watch:

With the new Quick Actions on Apple Watch, double-pinch gestures can answer or hang up calls, dismiss notifications, and take photos , play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout. This builds on the innovative technology used in AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch, which gives users with upper limb differences the option to control Apple Watch with gestures like pinching or holding without having to tap the display.

Live Captions

#For the deaf and hard of hearing community, Apple has released Live Captions for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. These features work by adding subtitles to audio content in real-time, including FaceTime calls, any other social media or video app, streaming content, and even "having a conversation with the person next to you."

Apple says:

Live Captioning in FaceTime calls attributes automatically transcribed conversations to call participants, making group video calls easier for users with hearing impairments becomes more convenient. While on a call using Live Captions on Mac, users can choose to type a response and have it read aloud to others participating in the conversation in real time. Because live captions are generated on-device, user information remains private and secure.

More

Other new accessibility features Apple announced today include:

• VoiceOver is Apple’s new accessibility feature for the blind and low-vision The industry-leading screen reader for users, is adding support for more than 20 additional locales and languages, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
• Using Buddy Controller, users can ask a caregiver or friend to help them play games; Buddy Controller combines any two game controllers into one, so multiple controllers can drive a single Player input.
• With Siri Pause Time, users with speech impairments can adjust how long Siri waits before responding to a request.
• Voice Control Spelling Mode gives users the option to indicate custom spelling using letter-by-letter input. ⁵
• Sound recognition can be customized to identify sounds specific to a person's environment, such as alarms, doorbells, or appliances that are unique to their home.
• Apple Books The app will offer new themes and introduce customization options such as bolding text and adjusting line, character and word spacing for an easier-to-read experience .

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