Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, is rapidly approaching, so expect plenty of leaks and surprises in the run-up to the event. This newest sneak peek comes from Apple, in the form of a neat news release outlining the company’s upcoming accessibility enhancements for iOS.

Google’s Live Caption feature, which is accessible on Android smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks, is similar to Apple’s Live captioning. However, it will be confined to newer devices, such as the iPhone 11 and newer, iPads with the A12 Bionic processor or later, and M1-enabled Macs, just as Apple Watch Mirroring. That’s because the unique chips in such devices are what make offline transcribing possible.

Small but Useful Features:

In addition to the new Door Detection function and offline captioning, Apple will push through a few accessibility-related enhancements that are more subtle and under-the-hood.

Apple Books users will be able to pick from a wider range of backdrop colours and spacing settings. This should aid people with eye problems, as well as others like me who suffer from persistent headaches due to an extremely bright blue screen.

Apple’s VoiceOver feature, which works similarly to Android’s TalkBack, will now support 20 more languages and regions. This feature specifies the identity of each user interface element, such as buttons and menu items. VoiceOver on the iPhone and iPad presently supports 30 languages. The extra languages will make it more accessible to users all across the world.

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