Just a couple months back, Apple curated and presented its annual keynote presentation at the WorldWide Developers Conference that announced a brand new update for iPhones across the world. New features were announced with a huge emphasis on AI. These features can actually be found on their iOS 18 website alongside features that focus on accessibility. The list of those features can be found if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, which in itself is a problem. However, Apple offers a plethora of features designed to keep accessibility in mind and can be found in the settings app, split up by 4 main sections—vision, physical/motor, hearing and speech.
Feature 1: Sound Recognition
One of the tools that not only is available on your iPhone but your car (if CarPlay is available) is sound recognition. This feature allows your phone (or your car) to recognize a specific sound. Once a sound is picked up, it notifies anyone who has this feature on. The sounds your phone can pick up ranges from fire alarms to dogs barking…or even a car horn just to name a few. This feature embraces the functional solutions model by there being the right technology to alert anyone who may be hard of hearing or deaf.
Feature 2: Zoom
Although phone screen sizes have increased over the years, a phone screen is still pretty small considering all the information it is carrying. iOS has a feature known as Zoom which allows your screen to really zoom in. You can use three fingers to scroll across the screen. This feature embraces the functional solutions model by focusing on a solution that could service people who are visually impaired. I think this feature also embodies the social model by embracing the fact that screens are tiny. This causes a user to not always see the content on your phone and could cause eye strain. Having a bigger phone isn’t necessarily the answer though. Having a bigger phone could cause it to be even less accessible by most likely making it higher in price and heavier to hold. Although you can zoom in on multiple apps like safari, it’s not available everywhere. The ability to zoom in should be available on all of iOS so that the user is able to see the details much better.
Feature 3: Live Speech
Live speech is a feature that allows you to type in what you want to communicate and your phone says it out loud. You can save favorite phrases so you don’t always have to type a word out if you use it consistently and gives the user the ability to communicate faster with these saved phrases. This feature also features multiple languages and multiple types of voices. This feature embraces the functional solutions model by focusing on a solution that could service people who may have a communication disorder, have a cognitive disorder or may be unable to speak. With a click of a button, your iPhone can communicate for you. With this technology available, this also emphasizes the economic model by boosting productivity and supporting anyone with a communication disorder in a workplace.