Judy Dixon
Once again Apple has released the latest updates to some of its operating systems. This time, it was iOS 16 and WatchOS 9, and they both have come with many new and exciting features. iPadOS will not be released until later this year.
iOS 16 is compatible with all iPhone models back to the iPhone 8. It drops support for several older devices including the iPhone 6s, 6s plus, 7, and 7 plus as well as the original iPhone SE and the iPod Touch.
Here is a rundown of major new accessibility features that have been added to iOS 16.
Door Detection
Door detection is available on Pro model iPhones beginning with the iPhone 12 Pro that include LiDAR capability. Door Detection is part of the Magnifier app. A four-finger triple tap is the gesture to bring up Detection Mode.
There are three buttons in the Detection Mode section of the Magnifier app: People Detection, Door Detection, and Image Descriptions. You can turn on any combination of these and it is possible to have all of them turned on simultaneously but the resulting cacophony of information can be a bit overwhelming.
Door Detection gives information about the door such as Swing or Slide and attempts to provide details of how the door works such as "Turn handle or knob."
If you double tap the End button at the top of the Detection Mode screen, you will be on the main screen of the Magnifier app. There is a Settings button in the lower left corner of this screen. This brings up a Context Menu with another Settings button. Here you can rearrange the elements that appear on the main screen of the app. Below this section is a Detectors heading. Here you can change the settings for the three types of detection.
In Door Detection settings, you can set the unit of measurement to either feet or meters. You can adjust the Sound Pitch Distance; this is the distance at which the app gives a higher pitch indication. The default is six feet. You can set the type of feedback, sound, speech, or haptics. You can have any or all of these. You can select a color to outline detected doors. The default is white. You can set Back Tap to On or Off. When On, you can double tap the back of the phone to hear more information about a detected door. In the Descriptions section, you can set Door Attributes to on or off. This provides details about the door such as color, material, or shape, and there is a switch for Door Decorations, which will read any signs or text on or near the door.
New Languages and Voices
iOS 16 adds speech for more than 20 new languages including Bangla (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. In English, there are many new voices. Among the most exciting is Eloquence. Now, the speech that so many blind people use on computers running Windows has come to the iPhone. There are other high-quality voices for English U.S. including Evan, Nathan, and Zoe. In addition, there are dozens of other new voices for other English-speaking countries as well as other countries, and a few novelty voices including Bells, Bubbles, Jester, and Superstar.
Siri
Siri has several new features with accessibility implications.
New Siri Sound
Siri has a new sound. It has a much lower pitch and is designed to be easier to hear by people with common kinds of hearing impairment.
Tell Siri to Hang Up
You can now say "Hey Siri Hang Up," and Siri can hang up a phone call. This works even if you don't have "Hey Siri" enabled.
Control the Amount of Time Siri Waits
You can now set the Siri Pause Time. This is the amount of time that Siri will wait for you while you are speaking. In Settings, Accessibility, Siri, the options for Siri Pause Time are Default, Longer, and Longest. Default is about 2 seconds, Longer is about 3 seconds, and Longest is about 4 seconds.
Use Siri to Turn Auto-answer Calls On and Off
You can now tell Siri to turn Auto-answer calls on and off. When Auto-answer Calls is enabled, the phone will answer a call after 3 seconds of ringing. You can change this default time in Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Call Audio Routing. Now, you can tell Siri "Turn auto-answer calls on," and you can also tell her to turn it off. This will affect phone calls as well as FaceTime calls.
Voice Control Spelling Mode
You can now dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letter using Voice Control spelling mode. When in Voice Control’s Dictation mode, you can invoke spell mode by saying "spelling mode." It will be turned off when you return to Dictation Mode.
Dictation
The iPhone will now automatically punctuate your dictated text. You no longer need to say comma, period, question mark, and so forth while you are dictating text. The iPhone will add this sort of punctuation automatically.
You can also now dictate emojis. But you have to say the word "emoji". Saying "smiling face emoji" gets you the "smiling face with smiling eyes and rosy cheeks" emoji, saying "sad face emoji" gets you the "sad, pensive face" emoji. These new dictation features are only available on the iPhone XR and later.
Rotor Actions
In Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Verbosity, Actions, you have the option to have VoiceOver do something such as speak, place sound, or change pitch when rotor actions are available. Now, First Item Only has been added as an additional option so that VoiceOver doesn"t repeatedly say "Actions available," when you are in an app such as Mail where actions are almost always available.
When this option is enabled, you will only be alerted when the availability of actions changes.
Sound and Haptic Feedback in Maps
When you request walking directions in Maps and you have VoiceOver enabled, Maps will automatically bing quietly several times and vibrate to indicate the beginning of the walking route. This feature is automatically turned on when VoiceOver is detected.
Live Captions
This feature displays the text of audible speech in Phone and FaceTime calls as it is happening. Live Captions is currently labeled as beta and is off by default. This feature can be enabled in Settings, Accessibility under the Hearing section. You can set the appearance of the text by enabling bold text, and setting text size as well as foreground and background colors. You can also set the Idle Opacity to reduce the visibility of the Live Captions button when not in use. Instead of enabling it globally, you can optionally enable it for specific apps. At the moment, only FaceTime and RTT are available as apps in which Live Captions can be specifically enabled.
When you are in a call with Live Captions enabled, there is a Live Captions button just to the left of the keypad row that includes 7, 8, and 9. By default, this button is collapsed. If you double tap it, the button is expanded and the text of the conversation is displayed across a single line. At the moment, it is difficult to scroll to the current point in the conversation and it is not possible to review or save the text after a phone call.
Live Captions requires iPhone 11 or later and is only available in English in the U.S. and Canada.
Custom Sounds in Sound Recognition
In iOS 15, the Sound Recognition feature was added so a hearing impaired user could be alerted to specific sounds. But this feature only had a small number of sounds that it could recognize. Now, in iOS 16, the ability to add custom sounds to this feature has been added.
Sound Recognition is off by default. When you enable it for the first time, the iPhone will download the feature and tell you how many megabytes of storage it is using. To turn it on, go to Settings, Accessibility, and you will find Sound Recognition in the Hearing section.
By default, no sounds are selected. To add sounds, press the Sounds button and you will find four categories of sounds: Alarms which includes fire, siren, and smoke; Animals which includes cat and dog; Household which includes appliances, car horn, doorbell, door knock, glass breaking, kettle, and water running; and People which includes baby crying, coughing, and shouting. You can add any of the pre-selected sounds by turning the switch from off to on. For each sound, you will have options for how you want to be alerted to the sound.
In two of the categories, Alarms and Household, there is an option to add custom sounds. When you activate one of these buttons, you will be prompted to play the sound that you want the feature to recognize.
Hanging Up the Phone
It is possible to hang up the phone by pressing the side or lock button.
In Settings, Accessibility, Touch, be sure that Prevent Lock to End Call is set to off.
Apple Watch Mirroring
This feature allows you to fully control your Apple watch from your phone. You can even use other accessibility features such as Switch Control, Voice Control, and so forth.
To turn on Apple Watch Mirroring, go to Settings, Accessibility. You will find Apple Watch Mirroring in the Physical and Motor section.
When you turn this feature on, the Apple Watch screen is replicated on the iPhone. It is fully usable with VoiceOver. Along the right edge of the phone's screen is a Digital Crown button and a Side Button button. This feature is very handy for someone having trouble reading the Apple Watch, or if you want to make a screen recording of an app's behavior on the Apple Watch.
Haptic Touch on the iPhone Keyboard
You can enable a very subtle haptic feedback on the iPhone’s keyboard. It is off by default. To turn it on, go to Setting, Sounds and Haptics, and it is under Keyboard Feedback.
Startup and Shutdown Sound
Technically, not an iOS 16 feature, but all models of the iPhone 14 now have a startup and shutdown sound. This is off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings, Hearing, Audio/Video. When the phone is turned on, a prominent two-tone sequence will sound as soon as the Apple logo appears. When you turn the phone off, the same tone sounds just as the phone is turned off.
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
