I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I’m still technically in the grading dungeon (grades are due in 21 hours!)… but the annual press release from Apple highlighting new features in MacOS 16 and iPadOS/iOS 19 is worth some time to discuss. Some of the new features will appeal to a wide variety of users while others appear to be beneficial for particular use cases.
The announcement that Apple highlighted, of course, is the “Accessibility Nutrition Labels.” Just like the Privacy Nutrition Labels, developers will be able to show the accessibility features that are in their apps. I’m not sure all the features will be highlighted, but I’d assume Voice Over, captions, and others would be items that developers could mention. The press release shows “differentiate without color alone,” which would be huge for color-blind users. Anything that can help a user figure out what features are included in an app up front is welcome, and hopefully Microsoft and other app stores will adopt similar features in their own stores. What I didn’t see in the press release was whether or not Apple will do quality checks on the labels. I hope that they will.
The press release also highlighted the Magnifier app coming to the Mac, with a picture of a student using an iPhone pointed at a textbook and a MacBook of some sort to make the text bigger on screen. While I’m not sure how many students would go through this trouble, it does seem like a nice addition. I’ve had students who have needed larger font on class assignments, syllabi and other printed documents, and it seems like this would be good for them. I suppose this could also be used to make pictures on a whiteboard or chalkboard bigger as well.
The Braille Access feature sounds intriguing. Apple claims someone will be able to connect a Braille device to an Apple device and turn it into a full-featured Braille note taker. It’s supposed to work with the Live Captions feature, which would allow the Braille devices to transcribe conversations in real time. There’s an app launcher built into Braille Access, and the Braille Access app even allows for mathematical calculations using Nemeth Braille. The Braille Access feature sounds awesome.
I suspect the part that everyday users will find interesting is Accessibility Reader. It’s a new reading mode that allows for changes in font, color, spacing, and spoken content, and works in any app. It’s also built into the Magnifier app. The press release shows a page from The Odyssey from Gutenberg Reader in a user’s choice of fonts and text sizes. I can see this as being a game changer for reading on iPads and iPhones. Many people I know already use large fonts for their messaging apps, and this would open up better text recognition in any app, not just those that already have custom settings such as the Kindle app, Barnes and Noble’s app, and so forth.
Many textbook apps have accessibility settings, but they’re not as robust as they could be. Bookshelf allows 6 different fonts with 12 different text size settings and 3 different line height settings. They do have Open Dyslexic font as one of the choices, which is good. Wiley’s app allows 2 different fonts with 6 different text size settings and 5 different line height settings. Pearson’s app allows 5 different fonts with 3 different line height settings and a scroll bar for text sizing. Having many different options built in on the system level will make those apps even more user-friendly for students (and their professors, who are often given the e-book version as desk copies). It could mean accessibility is going to be easier for app developers to implement, as it will just be a part of the operating system.
There’s also Music Haptics, which allows haptics for a whole song or vocals only, and Name Recognition, which is being added into Sound Recognition. Users who are deaf or hard of hearing will theoretically be better able to know when their name is being called.
Accessibility settings can be shared with another iPhone or iPad, so that if a user borrows a friend’s device, or uses a kiosk, the accessibility settings will work on the other device. I’m a little suspicious of kiosk mode, because that mode locks down a lot of customizable settings, but if it even works 75% of the way, that will make kiosks far more usable for those who need accommodations.
There’s even a new shortcut called “Hold That Thought” that might work well for people with ADHD. It will prompt users to catch and recall information in a note so that any interruptions won’t impede their ability to remember what they were thinking.
I suspect that most of these features will show up in the 16.0/19.0 versions of Apple software instead of being held for later updates, which means that they should start appearing on Apple devices in September or October after the beta period ends, depending on one’s willingness and ability to upgrade — rumor has it that no devices are going to be eliminated this year, so any device that can run MacOS 15 or iOS or IPadOS 18 should run the new versions as well.