When I spent a few hours with the Apple watch on April 8th 2015, I jotted down notes about the Apple watch’s physical description, general overall points, low vision and speech features, hearing, and Siri.
In a recent podcast of mine looking at the click wheel on the iPod nano 4/5th generations, and the touch screen access on the iPod nano 6/7th generations, VoiceOver access on the Apple watch has far exceeded my expectations.
Today, Apple began selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in stores around the world. And, unlike past iPhone releases, consumers now have two devices from which to choose.
Apple's HomePod and HomePod mini smart speakers can now recognize the sound of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification alert to your iPhone or iPad.
The feature, known as Sound Recognition, was first announced in January 2023, alongside the launch of the second-generation HomePod. However, it required the revamped HomeKit architecture, which was released in November 2022 but then pulled in December. Following the release of macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.4, the new HomeKit architecture is available again, and Apple has enabled the Sound Recognition feature.
Update 2 February: Although not specifically mentioned in the release notes, it’s great to see that version 3.0.1 addresses many of the issues mentioned in the original post below. For example, the Share button is now accessible and you can add topics of interest to your custom feed (although you currently need to use a combination of the 3-finger swipe up/down and exploring by touch to access all available topics, as swiping is not reliable).
Google recently announced that it will shutdown its popular RSS aggregation service, Google Reader, on July 1. If the tech pundits are to be believed, the early frontrunner to be many people's replacement RSS service is Feedly.
In iOS 8, Apple introduced a great new feature: the ability for VoiceOver to announce streets and points of interest (POIs) as you walk. To enable this, open the Maps app, and double tap the "tracking" button (lower left of the screen) until you hear "on with heading". So long as your iPhone or cellular-capable iPad is unlocked and the Maps app is open to that initial map view you begin with, you will hear announcements as you walk or drive around.
The day has finally arrived. iOS 11 is here. But should you install it now, or would it be better to wait for the next update? To help you decide, I've tested some of the main new features and changes in this release.
Apple has today released iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, introducing new communication features in Phone, Messages, and FaceTime for greater self-expression, while StandBy offers a full-screen Charging view and AirDrop improves contact sharing. The updates also enhance text input, Widgets, Safari, Music, AirPlay and more.
For users of accessibility features, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 introduce several noteworthy new features and enhancements. The most significant of these updates are:
Apple has today released iOS 17.3 and iPadOS 17.3 to the public.
The iOS 17.3 release notes simply state that “this update introduces additional security measures with Stolen Device Protection. This release also includes a new Unity wallpaper to honor Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month, as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPhone.”
Stolen Device Protection adds an additional layer of security in the event someone has stolen your iPhone and also obtained the device's passcode.
Apple released iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 on Monday, September 16, 2024. This post contains a summary of new bugs impacting VoiceOver and braille support that we have identified during testing of these releases. We have also included details on preexisting bugs that our testing suggests have been fixed in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.
Update, 09/29/2025: Apple released iOS 26.0.1 on 09/29/2025, bringing a fix for the issue discussed below where some VoiceOver users lost speech in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.
Update, 09/18/2025: Apple has confirmed they are aware of the issue some users are experiencing with a loss of VoiceOver speech in certain circumstances. A fix is on the way in a software update.
We know some of you have been waiting for quite some time for iOS 6.1 to arrive in your hands. That day has finally arrived!
As with any iOS release, we just can't wait to see what new things it has to offer, but mostly to see what has been fixed! As with any release it may not always fix everything you wish it would do and sometimes create new things that weren't expected!
The purpose of this post is to try and answer some of the questions that VoiceOver users may have before or after they update to iOS 7.
AppleVis already has posts on iOS9: we've seen an overview of the new accessibility features, a podcast covering all that iOS9 brings to the table, a list of bugs in iOS9.0, and more.
Apple has today released iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 to the public.
Our testing suggests that these updates resolve the following issues:
Today's Apple announcements, at an event entitled "It's Glowtime", were exactly what many of us expected: new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods. We also got a release day for all the big software updates. watchOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and macOS will all get their big upgrades on Monday, September 16.
TL;DR:
The iPhone 16e (released February 2025) is Apple’s newest member of the iPhone 16 family. Apple kindly lent me an iPhone 16e for review; since its release, I’ve spent a little over a month using the iPhone 16e as my daily driver and have enjoyed the experience much more than I ever thought I would. The speaker quality is head and shoulders above my much larger (and much more expensive) iPhone 16 Pro Max. VoiceOver performance is fast and responsive. Battery life is strong and better than anything I ever thought possible on a handset of this size.
For 2025, Apple introduced 4 new iPhone models (not including the iPhone 16e, which I consider to have been from the previous generation).