Apple Vision Pro Redefines Accessibility for Users with Disabilities
The new Apple Vision Pro is designed with a range of accessibility features that can bring work and play experiences to people with a variety of disabilities. “As a disabled person,” one user wrote, “the ability to finally sit back with my feet up on a bench out in the sun while working on my laptop — or more accurately, while working on a 30-foot-wide 4K screen floating in exactly the perfect ergonomic position, one that I can reposition anywhere I want it to be in any moment — is the answer to decades of prayers to the accessibility gods.”
Writer Andrew Leland says the device also offers the following attributes: 'Blind users can use VoiceOver, a screen reader that will speak text, using a custom set of hand gestures to navigate through apps. People with mobility disabilities can make selections through a variety of alternative methods: with their voice, or using a switch or joystick (easier for some users with motor disabilities), or with a feature called Dwell Control, which allows a user to make a selection simply by “dwelling” their gaze on an item. With sound actions, a user can make a selection with a custom noise (like a cluck or a pop). In lieu of eye gaze, the pointer can be controlled with one’s head, wrist, or finger, and most of the accessibility features users are familiar with from other Apple products — reduced motion, color filters for color-blindness, and hearing-device support — are included.'
During Leland's tour of the Apple campus, he saw demonstrations of other assistive products like the magnifier app for enlarging text on menus and signs, Assistive Access mode for users with cognitive disabilities where an iPad's app screen was reduced to five huge buttons and each of the apps had its complex functions hidden or renamed, as well as Apple Home and a smart bulb, so d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing users can have their lamp change color when the doorbell rings or alert them visually or haptically to the sound of a baby crying or a fire alarm.
Read more real user experiences, including suggested technology enhancements, in Leland's NY Magazine story.
