Apple has partnered with Washington D.C.’s Gallaudet University — the world’s leading university for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind students — to offer all students and faculty Apple devices. Learners and teachers alike will receive an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and SmartFolio for iPad Pro.
The offer is also available to students and teachers at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet’s partner program for students in grades K-12.
Dean Hudson helped develop VoiceOver. With the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaching, he looks back on the creation of this Apple tech to describe what’s happening on iPhone and Mac displays to those who are blind or low vision.
Now accessibility technical evangelist at Apple, Hudson promises that Apple remains committed to enabling everyone to use its products. Because they’re life changing to those who need them.
One of many hidden new features in iOS 14 is an option to set new shortcuts that are activated by tapping the back of your iPhone. It’s a new accessibility option that can be used for things like returning to the Home screen, snapping a screenshot, muting your device, and more. Here’s how it works.
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 has an impressive accessibility feature that can listen out for sounds like running water, a person knocking on the door, smoke alarms, babies crying, and more — and then warn users about it with an on-screen notification.
It’s an incredibly smart feature, based on machine learning technology, that could range from useful to life-saving. Who says that always-listening tech has to be limited to “Hey, Siri”?
Apple’s brilliant new pointer for iPhone and iPad was built from the ground up to be perfect for touch devices, but there is a way to make it even better. Disable pointer animations and you’ll enjoy an even smoother tracking experience. Here’s how.
Apple has contacted some developers asking them to participate in an online meeting about Apple’s app accessibility features.
The invite reads:
Thanks to unprecedented early leaks, some of the biggest new features planned for iOS 14 have already been spoiled. Apple is supposedly making some huge changes to the Home screen, iMessages, HomeKit, Apple Pencil and much more in its next-gen mobile operating system.
The recent wave of leaks proved so overwhelming that we rounded them all up in one place. We will keep updating the list as we inch closer to this summer’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple traditionally previews all of its upcoming platform updates.
Did you know you can control your iPad using just a keyboard? You can use the arrow keys to move between icons on the Home screen. You can use the arrow keys (again) to scroll lists. And you can even tap and toggle buttons using the space bar. Apple added this capability via iOS 13.4’s new Full Keyboard Access feature, and it’s wild.
How wild? How about offering system-wide, custom keyboard shortcuts for running actual Shortcuts? And that’s just the beginning.
On the Mac, hot corners are essential — and amazingly useful. You can put your display to sleep, trigger Mission Control and more, just by flicking the mouse to a screen corner. If you’re one of those people who likes to use a mouse with your iPad, you can utilize these same flick-to-activate gestures on the tablet. And there’s a bonus: Hot corners on the iPad are way, way more powerful than on the Mac.
I prefer the Mac’s trackpad to a mouse in every way but one. It’s more comfortable, it relieves RSI, it can be used equally easily by the left or right hand, and it does scrolling and multitouch. But the one thing it’s terrible at is actually clicking. Specifically, clicking and dragging to move a window, or to make a selection. And I’m still using the original Magic Trackpad, the one that runs on AA batteries. It has physical switches in its feet, so clicking is a lot harder at its top edge.
Enter the three-finger drag. This Mac accessibility setting lets you tap with three fingers to simulate a click and drag. And it does a lot more than just making it easier to move windows around the screen.
For most people, tap and swipe-based gestures are the perfect way to navigate on an iPad. That’s not true for everyone, however. This is why the makers of a new eye-tracking system called Skyle have developed this innovative iPad Pro accessory.
Built with the accessibility audience in mind, the system lets users insert their 12.9-inch iPad Pro into a smart protective case, plug in an eye tracker, and then use a special Skyle app to navigate their iPad with nothing more than well-placed glances.
By now, you already know how to customize the regular stuff on your AirPods and AirPods Pro. You just find them in the list of connected Bluetooth gadgets, and tap the i button to see a list of handy settings. But what about deeper-level customization? Like most things in iOS, there’s an extra set of advanced AirPods Pro settings inside the Accessibility settings. You even change double-squeeze speed of the AirPods Pro stems if you want to slow things down.
Let’s take a look.
Even though the Apple Watch is just a tiny little computer on your wrist, it still packs plenty of accessibility options. And one of the most useful — and accessible — of these options is Zoom. This built-in feature lets you hold a virtual magnifying glass over the watch’s display, and then scroll across this expanded view to make reading easy.
Today we’re going to see how to switch on Apple Watch Zoom, how to use it and — maybe most important — how to switch it off again.
Safari’s new “desktop-class” features are getting all the press in iPadOS, but the new download folder, and better website support aren’t everything. There’s also a new in-app settings panels with a ton of options — per-site text size, for example — and even a new font in the Safari Reader View. Let’s check it out.
Just like iOS, the Mac has some great features hidden inside the accessibility section of the System Preferences (aka. Settings) app. Today we’re going to see how to tweak the Mac’s display to make it easier to use, for anyone. You can adjust the colours, make page elements easier to see, and even turn everything B&W. Let’s see what’s what.
Bedtimes stories don’t get much better than the latest stories from all your favorite writers at Cult of Mac. And now Microsoft Edge for iOS can read them to you.
The new feature, added in the browser’s latest update, improves accessibility for the visually impaired and those who find it difficult to interact with iPhone and iPad.
I hate my friends. I want to show them a photo, or that screenshot I took of those cute otters, and all they can do is take one look, and then swipe off into the rest of my photos. And trust me, you don’t want to know what I have lurking back there. And I also hate myself, because I do the exact same thing without thinking. It’s human nature.
Some apps let you load up a few photos to show to other people, so they can’t pull back the virtual shower curtain and peek at your private photos. But these require that you do extra work to prepare them.
Happily, iOS offers a way to lock down a single image. That way, when you hand your iPhone or iPad over to a friend, or anyone else, they can’t swipe to other photos. In fact, they can’t do anything at all, because you’ve locked the whole touchscreen. Best of all, you can toggle this on and off in a second.
The iPadOS beta is out, and it has one killer feature — mouse support. Not only can you use any Bluetooth mouse or trackpad to control the text-selection cursor on the iPad, you can use the mouse just like you would on a Mac — clicking buttons anywhere in the entire iPad user interface.
The feature is not on by default. It’s not even a regular checkbox. To enable mouse and trackpad support on your iPad, you have to dig into the Accessibility settings.
Today we have another great tip ripped form the iPhone’s accessibility settings. The screen reader lets you use a quick two-finger gesture to read anything on the screen. This is obviously designed for folks who have trouble reading the screen, but it is also very handy for everyone else.
You can listen to a long magazine article while you do the dishes for example, and much more.
A series of videos from Apple Support walks users through setting up and using some of the features created for users with limited dexterity or vision. These explain AssistiveTouch, VoiceOver, Magnifier and inverted colors.
Watch them now:
The song you’re listening to on your iPhone is a bit too quiet, so you adjust the volume. Perfect. Then the song ends, and the next one blasts your ears. You fumble your iPhone from your pocket and tap the volume down a notch or two.
Thanks, Apple Music. Why can’t you just play all the songs at the same volume? Obviously that’s what everyone wants.
Wait, what’s that? You can? How?
Both macOS and iOS have excellent built-in support for subtitles. And many video player apps will play a subtitle file for you if you just drop it into the same folder as a movie, or even drag and drop it onto a movie that’s already playing.
But if your hearing is fine, why should you bother with subtitles? I came up with a short list:
The good news is that subtitles are easy. And the bad news? There is none.
Apple may or may not be ready to euthanize 3D Touch. My view is that it sticks around, neglected and unloved, forever more. Like Dashboard on macOS. (Yes, Dashboard still exists.)
That would be a shame, as 3D Touch really is an excellent augmentation to a touchscreen device. It’s also quite tweakable. Here’s how to adjust how it works, and — if you really hate it — how to turn 3-D Touch off altogether.
Turned the screen brightness on your iPad (or iPhone) all the way down? Still too much light for you? Reading in bed next to someone whose eyelids seem to amplify light the same way a magnifying glass turns the sun into a death ray for ants?
Then this tip is for you. With a simple triple-tap of the top button or Home button on your iPad, you can dim the screen way beyond its usual limit.
Although your whining, over-sensitive bed partner will likely just start complaining about the noise of those button taps instead.
The iPad’s main trick is that it disappears when you launch an app. Fire up a piano app, and your iPad becomes a piano. Launch YouTube and it turns into a TV for pacifying children. This is part of the magic of the iPad, but it’s not quite perfect. Kids can easily leave YouTube and start reading your sexts instead. And a musician might accidentally trigger a gesture while playing on those virtual piano keys, finding themselves back at the home screen in the middle of a performance.
What you need is kiosk mode, aka Guided Access. This locks the iPad into a single app, and disables the hardware buttons. And it’s equally good for keeping you in one app, or keeping people out of all the others.