iOS Assistive Technologies

iOS provides free, built-in Assistive Technologies to make apps and websites accessible for people with impairments in the following groups: Vision; Hearing; Physical and Motor Skills; Learning and Literacy.

The most popular Assistive Technology is VoiceOver. It enables understanding of, and interaction with on-screen content for vision-impaired users — here’s how to enable VoiceOver and give it a try.

Input and Output peripherals (e.g. Switches and Braille Displays respectively), are automatically handled by iOS.

For detailed information, visit Apple’s Accessibility Website.

Low Effort—High Reward

iOS Accessibility has been designed to be Low Effort—High Reward.

Low Effort

By design, iOS apps have enough Accessibility Semantics to be 80% accessible. Reaching 90% is easy (mostly labeling elements), and 100% is usually trivial, even for custom elements and gestures.

High Reward

Basic Accessibility Semantics enable a wide variety of aids, from Visual (e.g. VoiceOver) to Physical and Motor (e.g. Switch Control). Accessibility Semantics are also the cornerstone of development best practices such as Automated Testing, making Accessibility Conformance a by-product of a robust application.