If you’re someone with visual or hearing impairments, making your smartphone more accessible is super important. The good news is that Apple iPhones offer a bunch of features and settings to enhance your experience. Whether you struggle with reading small text or need help with sound recognition, these tips will help you personalize your smartphone to fit your unique needs and make it even more user friendly.
Woman types on her Apple iPhone. (Cyberguy.com)
8 accessibility tips for iPhones
1. Make the text size larger
Smartphones typically have small text by default. However, if you’re someone who has trouble seeing the text, you can always make it larger.
To enlarge the text on an iPhone:
3. Use sound recognition
If you’re hard of hearing, your smartphone can pick up sounds for you, like alarms and doorbells, and tell you when the sounds are going off.
Woman smiles as she types on her Apple iPhone. (Cyberguy.com)
To turn on Sound Recognition on your iPhone:
- Open your Settings app
- Select Accessibility
- Select Sound Recognition
- Toggle on Sound Recognition
- Then scroll down and click Sounds and choose from the list of sounds that you want your iPhone to recognize by toggling them on
4. Connect to your hearing devices
Your smartphones can also connect to hearing devices via Bluetooth settings.
To turn on real-time captions on your iPhone:
- Open your Settings app
- Select Accessibility
- Tap Subtitles & Captioning
- Toggle on Closed Captions + SDH
6. Use invert colors
Smartphones typically have bright white screens, which tend to bother some people’s eyes. You can invert colors for apps that don’t have the option.
Man smiles as he types on her Apple iPhone on a bench. (Cyberguy.com)
To use invert colors on an iPhone:
To set this up on an iPhone:
- Go to Settings
- Select Siri & Search
- Select Announce Calls and click Always. Siri will now announce your incoming calls and ask if you want to answer the call. Say yes or no
Kurt’s key takeaways
My goal is to always help you find ways to make tech easier and more understandable in your everyday lives. These accessibility tips are sure to enhance your ability to navigate your smartphone, including adjusting text size, utilizing voiceover and sound recognition features, connecting to hearing devices, enabling real-time captions, and adding accessibility shortcuts. Try them out. I am confident you will enjoy them as much as I do.
Are there other features you wished you had on your smartphone yet either you don’t have or don’t know about? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact