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Posts tagged "accessibility"

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The latest ChromeOS update delivers several accessibility improvements
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It’s been a big day for the Chrome platform. Not only has the mobile app received an update to its search function, but Chromebooks are receiving a patch in the form ChromeOS M126. It's not a major refresh, but it does introduce several quality-of-life improvements that collectively aim to make the system more accessible. There isn’t a specific focus on anything in particular, as multiple features are being updated.

Starting from the top, the Chromebook Camera app is obtaining Super Resolution. This gives the laptop’s camera the ability to zoom in on objects if they don’t have a built-in optical motor. However, on certain “high-performance Chromebooks,” Super Resolution can visually enhance the photos it captures. Exactly which models will get this is unknown.

Next on the visual updates is the Magnifier tool integrating into Select to Speak. Now, whenever Select to Speak reads words aloud, Magnifier will automatically follow and enlarge text as it goes along “so you never lose your place.” Google states you’ll need both tools enabled to see the feature. Additionally, you can zoom in further by pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and Brightness Up keys. Replacing the last key with Brightness Down lets you zoom out.

People who are photosensitive or have cognitive differences can also turn the blinking cursor rate for a more comfortable user experience.

Extra tools

The rest of the patch moves away from accessibility updates and more towards offering users extra tools. Quick Start, for example, is now available on Chromebook and allows users to connect their Android smartphone to their computer as a fast way to migrate Wi-Fi and Google Account login information when setting up a Chromebook for the first time. It will let you set up a Chromebook without entering a single password – pretty handy. 

Parents will appreciate these next set of changes, as the company is splitting “permissions for sites, extensions, and apps” to offer more granular parental control options. Supervised accounts also need to ask for approval before they can install an extension.

A new system option has been added to the Settings menu to turn off the swiping gesture when navigating between pages. Last but not least, Google is launching multi-calendar support to let you view events from multiple sources via the Google Calendar app.

ChromeOS M126 will be rolling out over the coming days, so watch for the patch when it arrives. Do note that your device may not be immediately “eligible.” We reached out to Google for clarification on what would make a Chromebook ineligible, and we'll report back if we hear back.

In the meantime, check out TechRadar's list of the best Chromebook in 2024.

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Apple’s next accessibility features let you control your iPhone and iPad with just your eyes
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Ahead of Global Accessibility Day on May 16, 2024, Apple unveiled a number of new accessibility features for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro. Eye tracking is leading a long list of new functionality which will let you control your iPhone and iPad by moving your eyes. 

Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, Vocal Shortcuts, and Vehicle Motion Cues will arrive on eligible Apple gadgets later this year. These new accessibility features will most likely be released with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, VisionOS 2, and the next version of macOS. 

These new accessibility features have become a yearly drop for Apple. The curtain is normally lifted a few weeks before WWDC, aka the Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 10, 2024. That should be the event where we see Apple show off its next generation of main operating systems and AI chops. 

Eye-Tracking looks seriously impressive 

Eye Tracking demoed on an iPad.

(Image credit: Apple)

Eye-tracking looks seriously impressive and is a key way to make the iPhone and iPad even more accessible. As noted in the release and captured in a video, you can navigate iPadOS – as well as iOS – open apps, and even control elements all with just your eyes, and it uses the front-facing camera, artificial intelligence, and local machine learning throughout the experience. 

You can look around the interface and use “Dwell Control” to engage with a button or element. Gestures will also be handled through just eye movement. This means that you can first look at Safari, Phone, or another app, hold that view, and it will open. 

Most critically, all setup and usage data is kept local on the device, so you’ll be set with just your iPhone. You won’t need an accessory to use eye tracking. It’s designed for people with physical disabilities and builds upon other accessible ways to control an iPhone or iPad.

Vocal Shortcuts, Music Haptics, and Live Captions on Vision Pro

Apple's new Vocal Shortcuts for iPhone and iPad.

(Image credit: Apple)

Another new accessibility feature is Vocal Shortcuts, designed for iPad and iPhone users with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), cerebral palsy, stroke, or “acquired or progressive conditions that affect speech.” This will let you set up a custom sound that Siri can learn and identify to launch a specific shortcut or run through a task. It lives alongside Listen for Atypical Speech, designed for the same users, to open up speech recognition for a wider set. 

These two features build upon some introduced within iOS 17, so it’s great to see Apple continue to innovate. With Atypical Speech, specifically, Apple is using artificial intelligence to learn and recognize different types of speech. 

Music Haptics on the iPhone is designed for users who are hard of hearing or deaf to experience music. The built-in taptic engine, which powers the iPhone’s haptics, will play different vibrations, like taps and textures, that resemble a song's audio. At launch, it will work across “millions of songs” within Apple Music, and there will be an open API for developers to implement and make music from other sources accessible.

Additionally, Apple has previews of a few other features and updates. Vehicle Motion Cues will be available on iPhone and iPad and aim to reduce motion sickness with animated dots on that screen that change as vehicle motion is detected. It's designed to help reduce motion sickness without blocking whatever you view on the screen.

A look at Live Captions in visionOS at Apple Vision Pro

(Image credit: Apple)

One major addition arriving for VisionOS – aka the software that powers Apple Vision Pro – will be Live Captions across the entire system. This will allow for captions for spoken dialogue within conversations from FaceTime and audio from apps to be seen right in front of you. Apple’s release notes that it was designed for users who are deaf or hard of hearing, but like all accessibility features, it can be found in Settings.

Since this is Live Captions on an Apple Vision Pro, you can move the window containing the captions around and adjust the size like any other window. Vision accessibility within VisosOS will also gain reduced transparency, smart inverting, and dim flashing light functionality.

Regarding when these will ship, Apple notes in the release that the “new accessibility features [are] coming later this year.” We’ll keep a close eye on this and imagine that these will ship with the next generation of OS’ like iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, meaning folks with a developer account may be able to test these features in forthcoming beta releases.

Considering that a few of these features are powered by on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence, aiding with accessibility features is just one way that Apple believes AI has the potential to make an impact. We’ll likely hear the technology giant share more of its thoughts around AI and consumer-ready features at WWDC 2024.

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Windows 11’s ‘February 2024 Moment’ update is bringing new AI and accessibility features – plus no more Bing blackmail (for some people)
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The next major update for Windows 11 is expected to arrive at end of February, and what awaits users includes artificial intelligence (AI) tools for organising your desktop, being able to disable Bing in Windows Search (if you’re in the EU), the ability to uninstall Microsoft Edge (again, EU only), Notepad updates, and more. 

This Windows 11 update has been dubbed “Moment 5” and “February 2024 Moment” (the latter being the name that Microsoft uses internally).

While this update will deliver some new features and tweaks, this update is primarily aimed at making Windows 11 compliant with new legislation from the European Union, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Mozilla recently published a report accusing Microsoft of using “dark patterns” and bad market competition practices with regard to browser choice, so at least in the EU, this situation will slightly improve. 

What Windows 11 users can look forward to and when

Some of the updates that are coming with Moment 5 update include improvements to Windows 365’s Cloud PC integration, built-in accessibility features in Windows 11, an option to remove news from the Widgets Board, and the capability to remove Bing from the Windows Search pane (if you're in the EU). These features are expected to be previewed in late February 2024 or the beginning of March 2024. 

This is all we know about Moment 5 at the moment, according to Windows Central, and we will continue to watch and report new information about the upcoming update as we have it. Going by the internal name given to the update, “February 2024 Moment,” it’s not expected to stretch into March, and Windows Central  suggests that users will be able to install this update as of February 27, 2024. 

You can try out this update out for yourself (if it’s available on the forecasted date) by doing the following: 

1. Go to your PC’s Settings app. 

2. In the left-hand menu, select Windows Update. 

3. In the resulting menu, click on the Check for updates button. 

This will prompt Windows to search for any freshly released available updates. If it finds them, it’ll automatically download and install them on your device. 

Windows 11 Update showing on laptop in an office

(Image credit: TechRadar)

EU-phoria for certain Windows 11 users

This update is good news for users in the EU, with them now being able to disable Bing in Windows Search and choose a different search provider in its place, and uninstall preinstalled apps like Microsoft Edge. It’s certainly a win for Windows 11 users in the EU and a cause for envy from the rest of us – they’re getting more choice and they’re gaining more control over their computers.

It’s not just Microsoft that’s being accused of anti-competitive practices. Mozilla and Google also recently called out Apple for not going far enough with its new rules and regulations that have come about as a result of the DMA, and, somewhat similarly to Microsoft, in engaging in poor browser market competition practices. 

Users have been complaining about Microsoft’s persistent and annoying efforts to try and get them to switch to its browser Edge, and at least for EU users, this will now hopefully end – or at least become less aggressive. The rest of us, however, will have to wait and hope for our governments to follow. 

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Google Maps is getting a big accessibility update that could change how people connect with the world
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Google is introducing new accessibility features to several of its platforms to help people with disabilities get around town more easily.

A few of the six changes will be exclusive to smartphones. Search with Live View on Google Maps will receive “screen reader capabilities… [giving] auditory feedback of the place around you”. This tool is meant to help “people who are blind or low-vision” get helpful info like the name or category of a location and how far away it is from their current position. All users have to do to activate it is tap the camera icon in the Google Maps search bar and then aim the rear camera at whatever is around them.  

Google Maps screen reader

(Image credit: Google)

The screen reader is making its way to iOS starting today with the Android version rolling out in the coming months. Also coming to mobile, the Chrome app’s address bar will be able to detect typos in text and display “suggested websites” according to what the browser thinks you’re looking for. This second tool is meant to help people with dyslexia find the content they’re looking for.

Google points out these two build on top of the recently released accessibility features on Pixel phones like the Magnifier app as well as the upgraded Guided Frame. The latter can help blind people take selfies by utilizing a “combination of audio cues, high-contrast animations, and haptic feedback”. 

Guided Frame is available on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro with plans to expand it to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 by the end of the year.

Magnifier on Google Pixel

(Image credit: Google)

Easier navigation

The rest of the update consists of minor tweaks to select apps.

First, Google Maps on mobile is adding a “wheelchair-accessible transit” option for people looking for locations that don’t have any stairs at the entrance as well as buildings that are wheelchair friendly. Similarly, Maps for Android Auto will indicate “wheelchair-accessible places” on the screen with a little blue icon next to relevant results. Additionally, local businesses have the opportunity to label themselves as “Disabled-owned” on Google Search in case you want to support them directly.

The last change sees Assistant Routines on Google Home become more like the company's Actions Block app as users can configure the icons on the main screen however they want. For example, the on-screen icons can be increased in size and you can alter the thumbnail image for one of the blocks.

A Google representative told us this batch is currently rolling out so keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives.

We recommend checking out TechRadar’s list of the best text-to-speech software for 2023 if you’re looking for other ways to help you navigate the internet. 

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Windows 11 update has system-wide live captions to help boost its accessibility aims
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Despite Windows 11 being sequestered behind hardware requirements such as TPM, Microsoft is doing its best to make its latest OS as accessible as possible for the deaf and hard of hearing communities, with all new system-wide live captions. 

Available today (April 5) after Microsoft's event, the brand new live captions feature allows users who may be deaf, hard of hearing or those who just like subtitles to easily access captions across all audio experiences and apps across Windows. 

Live Captions will also work on web-based audio, allowing users to view auto-generated captions on websites and streaming services that might not otherwise support or have the best captions. 

Unfortunately, it is currently unclear if Microsoft will be bringing the live captions feature to Windows 10, in order to let as many users as possible utilize this useful accessibility feature. 

Analysis: an accessibility win that is not accessible for everyone

There is no denying that more accessibility options are a good thing regardless of where you use them yourself or not, however, Microsoft deserves as much criticism as praise for this new feature as, for now, they’re keeping it exclusive to Windows 11. 

With Windows 11’s growth recently being shown to have dramatically stalled in March, it makes sense that Microsoft’s latest OS may need some more killer features to tempt users into upgrading from Windows 10, however holding accessibility features random certainly is not the way to do it. 

While holding this feature to ransom would be bad enough if upgrading was a simple one-click process, Windows 11 does not make things that easy as it infamously requires TPM 2.0, a feature that many computers, manufactured before 2017, do not have.

Mercifully, captioning services are becoming more and more common across web pages and streaming services, you can even listen to all of our articles, for instance, however, these services all have their potential problems and require individual set up, so it's far from a perfect solution. 

With Microsoft having only just announced this new feature for Windows 11 during their hybrid work event, we can only hope that it is not too long before the tech giant sees sense and brings this feature to older versions of Windows to benefit all users, rather than just those on Windows 11.

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Windows 11 update has system-wide live captions to help boost its accessibility aims
  • No Comments

Despite Windows 11 being sequestered behind hardware requirements such as TPM, Microsoft is doing its best to make its latest OS as accessible as possible for the deaf and hard of hearing communities, with all new system-wide live captions. 

Available today (April 5) after Microsoft's event, the brand new live captions feature allows users who may be deaf, hard of hearing or those who just like subtitles to easily access captions across all audio experiences and apps across Windows. 

Live Captions will also work on web-based audio, allowing users to view auto-generated captions on websites and streaming services that might not otherwise support or have the best captions. 

Unfortunately, it is currently unclear if Microsoft will be bringing the live captions feature to Windows 10, in order to let as many users as possible utilize this useful accessibility feature. 

Analysis: an accessibility win that is not accessible for everyone

There is no denying that more accessibility options are a good thing regardless of where you use them yourself or not, however, Microsoft deserves as much criticism as praise for this new feature as, for now, they’re keeping it exclusive to Windows 11. 

With Windows 11’s growth recently being shown to have dramatically stalled in March, it makes sense that Microsoft’s latest OS may need some more killer features to tempt users into upgrading from Windows 10, however holding accessibility features random certainly is not the way to do it. 

While holding this feature to ransom would be bad enough if upgrading was a simple one-click process, Windows 11 does not make things that easy as it infamously requires TPM 2.0, a feature that many computers, manufactured before 2017, do not have.

Mercifully, captioning services are becoming more and more common across web pages and streaming services, you can even listen to all of our articles, for instance, however, these services all have their potential problems and require individual set up, so it's far from a perfect solution. 

With Microsoft having only just announced this new feature for Windows 11 during their hybrid work event, we can only hope that it is not too long before the tech giant sees sense and brings this feature to older versions of Windows to benefit all users, rather than just those on Windows 11.

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Siri is yet to regain crucial accessibility features that disappeared with iOS 15
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Apple is still yet to reinstate functionality which was removed in iOS 15, where Siri could perform various tasks such as checking and playing voicemails.

The commands in question are valuable on the accessibility front, with the visually impaired or legally blind – or indeed other Apple device owners – are able to use them to keep on top of their voicemail as mentioned, or to instruct Siri to send an email, check recent calls, or call history.

MacRumors highlighted the functionality which went missing back in September, just after iOS 15 was released, and the site reminds us that these features haven’t been restored to Siri, despite growing complaints around this.

An inaccessible Siri for some

One reader told MacRumors: “For many fully blind people (like my blind mom) this makes their phone almost unusable, because they can’t ask Siri who has called, and they can’t ask Siri if they have voicemail. (Their official ‘workaround’ for voicemail, in fact, is calling the old-school carrier voicemail number, to check your voicemail over the phone.)”

Another message on Apple’s support forum reads: “My cousin who is legally blind is also experiencing this issue. He uses the read missed call and open voicemail when doctors call and leave messages. It allows him the opportunity to hear who called and he can call back. It has been a wonderful feature for him and I’m hoping that a fix will happen so that he can be able to use the feature again.”

There are also complaints on Reddit like this: “My dad is blind and uses Siri to operate a lot of his iPhone. This week we’ve noticed when he asks Siri to play voicemail or missed calls she says she can’t help with that.”

We've reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story once we hear back.

Analysis: Reasons why are unclear – but keep the feedback flowing on this

It’s unclear whether Apple intentionally removed the support for these features with iOS 15 – and if so, why that was done – or if it’s wrapped up in some bug – and if it’s the latter, whether a fix is coming soon. But whatever the case, this represents a worrying step backwards in terms of accessibility for iOS devices, to say the least.

While Apple itself hasn’t commented directly, as MacRumors notes – we’ve also reached out to the company to try and ascertain what’s going on here, and will update this story if we hear back – one message on the Apple help forum claims to have had a reply from the Accessibility Support team. They were advised to again contact Accessibility Support and “have your Apple ID added to the official engineering issue as an ‘affected user’ so that you receive the mass emails about the status of this fix”.

Further advice was to submit feedback on the missing features, as the more of that feedback which is gathered “does affect engineering’s prioritization of this issue”.

There may be hope yet, then, for some kind of return of these capabilities to Siri in the near future. Fingers crossed.

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