How to Use Accessibility Features in iPhone?

Saying that the iPhone’s accessibility feature is designed to make the device accessible may be a repetition, but that’s the easiest way to describe it. Whether it’s the magnifier for the visually challenged or the made for iPhone (MFi) hearing devices, these features enable users to customize their iPhones based on their present need.

If you’re not familiar with the features, you may be wondering how to activate the settings. The process is simple, from your iPhone “Settings”, select “General” and tap “Accessibility” option. This’ll give you access to a wide array of features. That said, here is our list of the most impressive accessibility features in iPhone.

Related: How to use accessibility features in Google Chrome?

1. Larger Text

Do you strain your eyes to read that text message or ebook on your iPhone?  You shouldn’t have to. With the Larger Text Sizes feature, not only can you increase the size of your text, but you can enjoy the larger font in apps that support dynamic ranging.

Just adjust the slider at the bottom to determine how large you want your fonts to be.

2. Zoom Level

Speaking of large, Zoom is an accessibility feature that’s not only useful for texts but images too. In other words, this feature comes in handy to see the smallest detail anytime you want it. To zoom into the whole screen, double tap three fingers. Alternately, you can zoom into specific parts of the screen by dragging three fingers.

Ensure to enable “Smart Typing” under zoom settings. This will help you to focus the text box when you start typing in a keyboard.

3. Invert Colors

The iPhone has a range of accessibility features that are suited for various visual needs. Aside from the Large Text Sizes and the Zoom, another option is the Invert Color. Not unlike the Dark Mode on Mac, the iPhone’s Invert Color changes interface into black. As such, users that are sensitive to the bright light can read more comfortably in their bed.

4. Speech

It’s precisely what you think; the iPhone is capable of speaking everything you do. What does this mean, you ask? You see, the Speech accessibility option has three other options under it. These include;

• Speak Selection: Speech button appears next to a text.
• Speak Screen: You can hear the whole screen’s content by swiping down from the top.
• Typing Feedback: Provides a diverse range of options when typing on your iPhone.These include Speak Auto-text and Speak Words among others.

Also, you can adjust the speed of the speech using a slider icon at the bottom of the screen.

5. Reachability

Struggling to reach the app or settings on top of the screen. Double tap on the home button to bring the screen down so that you can reach out easily. However, this works on earlier models of iPhone 6 and 7 versions.

6. Siri

As far as voice assistants go, Siri is not bad. Aside from allowing you to make calls, send text messages, or look up Wikipedia entries with just a few phrases, this virtual assistant also increases your productivity. For example, it can set up your appointment, and read your specific text messages to you. And if you ever get bored, you can always depend on Siri to tell you a joke.

But Siri’s accessibility feature provides the option of typing your query rather than speak it loud. In response, Siri will reply via text rather than voice.

7. Guided Access

As the name implies, it restricts non-users access to a specific part of the phone. For example, when you activate guided access at the video app, your friend will be stuck in the app. Unless you place your finger on the sensor, he or she must watch the video on a continuously.

8. Accessibility Shortcut

That’s right; there is an accessibility shortcut that provides easy access to the accessibility features. How does it work, you ask? You just have to select you to want the iPhone to do when you triple-click the home button. Options range from Assistive touch to Color Filters.

In other words, it allows you to use your favorite accessibility feature with just three clicks of the home button or side button (in the case of iPhone X or later).

Related: How to use accessibility features in Windows 10?

9. Complete Accessibility Features

Here is a list of complete accessibility features on your iPhone. This is an exhaustive list and you can try these options to make your life easier. For example, you can enable widescreen keyboard so that the keyboard will become wider when you use the phone on landscape mode. This will be very useful in apps like Mail where you need to type frequently.

Vision:

VoiceOver, Braille displays, zoom, magnifier, display accommodations, speak selection, typing feedback, large, bold and high-contrast text, button shapes, reduce screen motion, on/off switch labels, assignable ringtones and vibrations and audio descriptions.

 

Hearing:

Hearing devices, support for TTY (Text Telephone), call audio routing, phone noise cancellation, LED flash for alerts, mono audio and balance, subtitles and closed captions.

Interaction:

Siri, 3D Touch, reachability, widescreen keyboard, guided access, switch control overview, assistive touch, touch accommodations and software and hardware keyboards.

10. Other Features

In addition to the above mentioned accessibility features, there are also additional feature that you can use to make yourself ease. Remember that accessibility features are not always meant for disabled people. Even a normal person can make use of it to use the phone comfortably.

• Night Shift – change the display colors to warmer during night time. You can schedule the night shift mode so that your iPhone can automatically enable the option during the scheduled time. You can access this feature under “Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift”.
• Keyboard Shortcuts – you can create custom shortcuts to avoid entering the word every time. Check out the complete list of iPhone keyboard shortcuts.
• One Handed Keyboard – you can enable this under “Settings General > Keyboard > One Handed Keyboard”. It helps to type the letter with single hand by adjusting the keyboard layout to left or right side as you choose.

11. Third Party Apps

Though there are many accessibility features available on iPhone, you may not need all of them. Most of the time, you may need a specific feature to over come your problems like vision, hearing, or navigational aids. Unfortunately there are not many apps available focusing on specific accessibility as apps are not allowed to change iOS settings. Even you can’t find a good screen reader extension for Safari and forced to use the general VoiceOver feature. We hope there will be more third party apps or extensions in future focusing on accessibility features.