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Apple promotes accessibility features on homepage for global awareness day

It’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day today, May 17, and Apple is marking the occasion by highlighting its accessibility features on the apple.com homepage …

Under the heading ‘technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone,’ the link points to the company’s accessibility microsite, introduced by a film.

Taking a family portrait. Catching up over FaceTime. Raising the blinds to let in the morning light. We want everyone to enjoy the everyday moments that technology helps make possible, so we work to make every Apple product accessible from the very start. Because the true value of a device isn’t measured by how powerful it is, but by how much it empowers you.

The film also offers a transcript which can be read by those unable to see it, using Apple’s VoiceOver feature.

The page outlines the accessibility features offered by Apple products in four categories:

  • Vision
  • Hearing
  • Physical and motor skills
  • Learning and literacy

For vision, for example, Apple outlines VoiceOver, display accommodations, the Zoom magnifier and text sizer.

VoiceOver describes exactly what’s happening on your iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, or Apple TV, so you can navigate your device just by listening. Apple’s built-in apps support VoiceOver, which will talk you through tasks you do with them.

If you have color blindness or other vision challenges, you can adjust the view on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV so it works better for you. Choose from a preset range of color filters on your iPhone or iPad or fine-tune them. And turn on Invert Colors on all your devices to instantly change the values and create more contrast.

Zoom is a powerful built-in screen magnifier that lets you enlarge a section of your screen to many times its normal size, so you can better see what’s on the display.

When you activate larger Dynamic Type on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, the text inside apps like Mail, Messages, and Settings is converted to a larger, easier-to-read size.

The page also highlights Today at Apple workshops covering assistive technologies, accessibility accessories and accessibility guidelines for developers. The company has also announced that it’s making its Everyone Can Code curriculum accessible.


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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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