Users Will Be Able To Control Their iPhone With Their Eyes Later This Year, As Apple Announces New Accessibility Features

Apple has unveiled a slew of new accessibility features, which will be available later this year with the release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2. The company shared the new features ahead of the Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The key accessibility features that Apple announced revolve around controlling your iPhone with your eyes, Music Haptics, Vocal Shortcuts, and Vehicle Motion Cues.

Apple announces new Accessibility features for iOS 18, iPadOS 18. macOS 15, and visionOS 2

Apple has also announced new accessibility features for the Mac, with the option to customize VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts and a new Mandarin language for Personal Voice. The Vision Pro gets Live Captions, which will be available system-wide alongside Smart Inverts, Reduce Transparency, and Dim Flashing Lights. Check out the complete list of features the company announced and how they are described.

Eye Tracking

The company has spent years perfecting eye-tracking technology which is plenty useful in the Vision Pro. Now, the company states that eye tracking will be available as an accessibility feature on the iPhone, allowing users to navigate through the interface. Additionally, it is also stated that all apps are compatible with the feature.

Powered by artificial intelligence, Eye Tracking gives users a built-in option for navigating iPad and iPhone with just their eyes. Designed for users with physical disabilities, Eye Tracking uses the front-facing camera to set up and calibrate in seconds, and with on-device machine learning, all data used to set up and control this feature is kept securely on device, and isn't shared with Apple.

Eye Tracking works across iPadOS and iOS apps, and doesn't require additional hardware or accessories. With Eye Tracking, users can navigate through the elements of an app and use Dwell Control to activate each element, accessing additional functions such as physical buttons, swipes, and other gestures solely with their eyes.

Music Haptics

This is a rather interesting accessibility feature as it allows users to feel precise and refined vibrations when the music is playing. The vibrations are in line with the music, which will allow users with audio impairment to listen to music with enhanced user experience.

Music Haptics is a new way for users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music on iPhone. With this accessibility feature turned on, the Taptic Engine in iPhone plays taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music. Music Haptics works across millions of songs in the Apple Music catalog, and will be available as an API for developers to make music more accessible in their apps.

Vehicle Motion Cues

Users might have experienced motion sickness when using their iPhone or iPad in a moving car or any other vehicle. The new feature is designed specifically for this scenario, which will display animated dots on the edge of the screen that represents vehicle motion to "reduce sensory conflict".

With Vehicle Motion Cues, animated dots on the edges of the screen represent changes in vehicle motion to help reduce sensory conflict without interfering with the main content. Using sensors built into iPhone and iPad, Vehicle Motion Cues recognizes when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly. The feature can be set to show automatically on iPhone, or can be turned on and off in Control Center.

Vocal Shortcuts

Vocal Shortcuts is an accessibility feature designed to trigger an action, and Siri will be able to understand it to launch a preloaded shortcut. This also means that Siri can now be initiated without saying the words, 'Hey, Siri. Other than this, the company also announced a slew of additional accessibility features that you check below:

- For users who are blind or have low vision, VoiceOver will include new voices, a flexible Voice Rotor, custom volume control, and the ability to customize VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts on Mac.
- Magnifier will offer a new Reader Mode and the option to easily launch Detection Mode with the Action button.
- Braille users will get a new way to start and stay in Braille Screen Input for faster control and text editing; Japanese language availability for Braille Screen Input; support for multi-line braille with Dot Pad; and the option to choose different input and output tables.
- For users with low vision, Hover Typing shows larger text when typing in a text field, and in a user’s preferred font and color.
- For users at risk of losing their ability to speak, Personal Voice will be available in Mandarin Chinese. Users who have difficulty pronouncing or reading full sentences will be able to create a Personal Voice using shortened phrases.
- For users who are nonspeaking, Live Speech will include categories and simultaneous compatibility with Live Captions.
- For users with physical disabilities, Virtual Trackpad for AssistiveTouch allows users to control their device using a small region of the screen as a resizable trackpad.
- Switch Control will include the option to use the cameras in iPhone and iPad to recognize finger-tap gestures as switches.
- Voice Control will offer support for custom vocabularies and complex words.

CarPlay And Vision Pro

Apple's CarPlay platform is finally gaining Voice Control, Color Filters, and Sound Recognition for alerts like car horns and sirens. As mentioned, the company is also making some changes to visionOS 2, which will be available later this year. The company will offer Live Captions system-wide, allowing users to read captions through the operating system.

Apple will make these accessibility features available later this year with the release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2. The company could also announce new features at its WWDC 2024 event, so be sure to stick around for our extensive coverage.

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