Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) Apple is offering a preview of accessibility features coming to its platforms later this year; including Accessibility Nutrition labels for App Store apps, Magnifier for Mac, Braille Access, and more.
Update, 4/1/2025
As of 1:00 PM Eastern time, Apple has released WatchOS 11.4 to the public. The release notes are the same as listed below.
Apple has today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, watchOS 11.4, tvOS 18.4, and HomePod Software 18.4 to the public.
As with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, macOS Sequoia 15.4 brings expanded language support for Apple Intelligence, as well as new emoji characters, Mail categorization, and several accessibility fixes and refinements for…
AppleVis is pleased to unveil our 2024 Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card. The only report of its kind to focus specifically on the needs of people who are blind, DeafBlind, or who have low vision, the Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card provides valuable insights into the lived experiences and opinions of this user group.
Inspired by the Six Colors Apple Report Card and now in its third year, the aim of the Apple Vision…
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.
As is our routine practice, each newly identified bug has been given a severity rating. These ratings are based upon what we believe to be the implications for…
Fall is almost here in the northern hemisphere, which means it’s time for another major release of iOS. There are certainly mainstream changes of note, such as a new Passwords app; an expanded Control Center; changes to the Messages app like the addition of support for RCS messaging; and many more. This article from iDownloadBlog…
Apple is once again celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) by offering a preview of accessibility features coming later this year.
For VoiceOver users, improvements include new voices, a flexible Voice Rotor, custom volume control, and the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts on Mac.
Braille users…
We are thrilled to unveil our 2023 Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, which provides valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of visually impaired community members who rely on VoiceOver, Braille support, or the low vision features on Apple devices.
To gather the ratings and comments contained in the report card, we conducted a…
Apple has today released iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 to the public.
Our experience with past iOS and iPadOS updates is that the X.1 releases often contain fixes for many of the accessibility bugs introduced in the major X.0 updates. Our experience is that iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 appear consistent with this pattern, resolving or significantly improving several of the bugs from the initial 17.0 versions:
It's difficult to believe that iOS will be turning into a legal adult next fall, though the iOS 17 upgrade is far from being minor. Many new features and functions will be available for everyone. To check out some of the mainstream changes, Apple's official iOS 17 preview page may help. Alternatively, our main post announcing iOS 17 offers a large list of mainstream enhancements as well as a list of changes in accessibility. Not all…
Apple will publicly release iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 on Monday, September 18, 2023. This post contains a summary of new bugs impacting VoiceOver, Braille support, and low vision features that we have identified during testing of these upcoming releases. We have also included details on previously reported bugs that appear to be fixed in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 based on our testing.
As is our routine practice, each newly identified bug has been given a severity rating. These ratings are…
Apple has today released iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 to the public. While these updates seem to be relatively minor, they do introduce two changes. The first one is the Sports tab in the News app that allows users to easily access news, scores, and schedules for their favorite teams and leagues. The second is a new wallpaper option named "Pride Celebration."
These updates introduce an enhanced version of a feature initially introduced in iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 for Braille users. In…
We are thrilled to unveil our inaugural Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, which provides valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of visually impaired community members who rely on VoiceOver, Braille support, or the low vision features on Apple devices.
To gather the ratings and comments contained in the report card, we conducted a…
I'm back yet again. Just like in years past, September brings us a new major release of iOS. This latest edition includes many mainstream changes such as a revamped Lock screen; enhancements to privacy and safety features; Focus Mode enhancements; new functionality in Messages and Mail; along with many other improvements. For Apple's official list of iOS 16 features and changes, see this webpage which Highlights many…
Apple has today released iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 to the public, both of which appear to focus on bug fixes and other under-the-hood improvements.
Amongst the fixes is the following for Braille users:
This review was completed after 10 days of use. Most of my comparison will be with the iPhone SE 2, since that was the phone I had been using previously. For the sake of clarity, when referring to the previous generation of iPhone SE released in 2020, it will be referred to as the iPhone SE 2. Apple refers to the current model of iPhone SE simply by that name. This was also true of the first and second generation.
The iPhone SE 3 is a…
Apple has today released iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, macOS Monterey 12.3.1, watchOS 8.5.1, tvOS 15.4.1, and HomePod Software 15.4.1.
Apple says that iOS 15.4.1 includes the following bug fixes:
- Battery may drain more quickly than expected after updating to iOS 15.4
- Braille devices may become unresponsive while navigating text or displaying an alert
- Made for iPhone hearing devices may lose connection within some third-party apps…
Apple has today released iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4, bringing a slew of new features and enhancements.
Our experience is that the following bugs specific to VoiceOver and braille users have been resolved or significantly addressed in these releases:
Apple has today released iOS 15.3.1 and iPadOS 15.3.1.
Apple’s release notes say: “iOS 15.3.1 provides important security updates for your iPhone and fixes an issue that may cause Braille displays to stop responding.”
We've not had an opportunity to test these updates ahead of today's release, so do not know for sure if they do indeed resolve the bug…
Another Autumn means another release of iOS. Just like releases of iOS dating back to 2009, this release brings a lot of new features and functions for blind and DeafBlind users. Major changes in iOS 15 include a new Focus Mode, several enhancements with FaceTime, the ability to use Siri for certain tasks while offline, and much more. Many blogs will be highlighting these enhancements to iOS, so I will not discuss them in great detail here. This article covers…
iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 have been released to the public. This post contains details of the VoiceOver, low vision, and braille bugs which we believe have been introduced in these releases; as well as details of the pre-existing bugs which we believe to be resolved.
As is our routine practice, each new bug has been given a severity rating; these ratings are based upon what we believe to be the implications for accessing and using features and functionality and the level of impact on the…