Apple previews new iPhone accessibility features coming in iOS 19

Macworld

Apple is expected to show off a whole new look for iOS 19 at WWDC on June 9, but before that day arrives, the company is previewing some of the features that won’t make it into the keynote. On Tuesday, Apple spotlighted several new accessibility features arriving for the iPhone this year.

First and foremost, the App Store will now have Accessibility Nutrition Labels, which will “give users a new way to learn if an app will be accessible to them before they download it, and give developers the opportunity to better inform and educate their users on features their app supports.” Similar to the existing  Privacy Nutrition Labels introduced in iOS 14, the new section on product pages will show whether the app supports important Accessibility features such as VoiceOver, Voice Control, Larger Text, Sufficient Contrast, Reduced Motion, captions, and more.

Also coming in iOS 19 is Braille Access, which turns your iPhone into “a full-featured braille note taker that’s deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem.” Apple says iPhone users will be able to use Braille Access to “quickly take notes in braille format and perform calculations using Nemeth Braille, a braille code often used in classrooms for math and science.”

Also new this fall will be Accessibility Reader, a new reading mode that gives users greater customization with “extensive options for font, color, and spacing, as well as support for Spoken Content.”

Other new features include Name Recognition, a new features part of Sound Recognition for users who are deaf or hard of hearing to know when their name is being called; support for Large Text in CarPlay; and more customizable Music Haptics with with the option to experience haptics for a whole song or for vocals only, as well as the option to adjust the overall vibration intensity.

The first developer beta of iOS 19 is expected to arrive on June 9, with the general release coming in September.