Apple Previews New Door Detection, Apple Watch Mirroring, and Live Captions Accessibility Features

Door Detection, Apple Watch mirroring, and Live Captions are some of the new accessibility features that Apple is showing off.

Door Detection will allow individuals who are blind or have low vision to use their iPad or iPhone to locate a door, understand how far away they are from it, and describe the door's attributes, including how it can be opened and any nearby signs or symbols. The feature will be part of a new detection mode in Magnifier. Door Detection will only be available on the Apple devices.

Voice Control and Switch Control will be used by users with physical disabilities to fully control their Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch Series 7.

New Quick Actions on the Apple Watch will allow users to answer or end a phone call, dismiss a notification, take a photo, play or pause media, and start, pause, or resume a workout.

Users who are hard of hearing will be able to follow Live Captions on the ios, ipad, and mac. Users can adjust the size of the screen, see Live Captions for all participants in a group call, and type responses that are spoken aloud. English Live Captions will be available on the iPad and Macs later this year.

The screen reader for blind and low vision users, VoiceOver, will be supported in 20 new languages. Users will be able to choose from dozens of new voices and a new Text Checker tool to find issues with text.

Sound Recognition for unique home doorbells and appliances, new themes and customization options in Apple Books, and sound and haptic feedback for VoiceOver users in Apple Maps are just some of the new features.

The new accessibility features will be released later this year. See Apple's full press release for more information.

To celebrate Global accessibility Awareness Day, Apple will launch SignTime in Canada on May 19 to support customers with American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, launch live sessions in Apple Stores and social media posts to help users discover accessibility features, and expand the accessibility assistant shortcut to the Mac.