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Apple on Tuesday unveiled several new accessibility features that are set to arrive with its upcoming operating system updates later this year. Users will have access to ‘nutrition labels’ on the App Store, providing information about accessibility features offered by each application. Mac users will have access to a new magnifier app that lets them zoom in on a whiteboard or read documents with small fonts. Multiple devices will gain support for Braille Access with support for taking notes and making calculations, and the Apple Watch will add support for Live Captions with watchOS 12.
Apple’s Newest Accessibility Features Will Arrive in Late 2025
The company says that it will being Accessibility Nutritional Labels to the App Store with iOS 19, which is expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2025. The company previously introduced support for displaying privacy details for apps in an easy-to-view card under each app listing. With iOS 19, users will see a similar label if an app supports features like Audio Descriptions, Voice Control, Captions, and VoiceOver.
Mac users will soon get access to the company’s Magnifier app, which will arrive on macOS with a couple of new features. Users will need to use a USB camera or an iPhone with Continuity Camera, to access the Magnifier app. It allows users to zoom in on a whiteboard or a screen using their smartphone. When used in Desk View, users can also read documents, according to the company.
Later this year, Apple will introduce a new feature called Braille Access that lets users take braille notes iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even the Apple Vision Pro. They can perform calculations using braille code, launch apps, take notes, and open Braille Ready Format (BRF) files using the new Braille Access feature.
Name Recognition (left), Braille Access, and Accessibility Nutrition Labels
Photo Credit: Apple
Text across Apple’s operating systems will also get easier to read later this year, with a new mode called Accessibility Reader. The company says it is designed to help users with low vision or dyslexia, and supports font, colour, and spacing customisation. It will be built into the Magnifier app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.
Users can also use an Apple Watch to control Live Listen sessions on an iPhone, while viewing captions of audio captured by the smartphone on their watch screen. Meanwhile, blind users and people with low vision can use the main camera on the Apple Vision Pro to zoom in on their surroundings.
Apple is also bringing Vehicle Motion Cues, a feature introduced to mitigate the effects of motion sickness on iPhone in 2024, to macOS later this year. The Personal Voice feature will offer more natural sounding voices, and the Sound Recognition feature will also help deaf users (or people who are hard of hearing) to know when someone mentions their name.
These new accessibility features and improvements will make their way to users’ devices later this year, according to the company. We can expect them to arrive alongside (or after) iOS 19, iPadOS 19, watchOS 12, and macOS 16 are released later this year. More details of these software updates are expected to be revealed during Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that is scheduled to begin on June 9.
