Accessibility Features
In today’s dynamic workplaces, the iPad’s cognitive accessibility features, such as Guided Access and Speak Selection, offer essential support for individuals with diverse cognitive needs. Guided Access helps maintain focus on specific tasks, contributing to increased productivity across job positions. Speak Selection aids in comprehension, making the iPad a versatile tool for professionals with varying cognitive requirements. Apple’s commitment to accessibility ensures that every job position can benefit from an inclusive and supportive work environment.
Let’s look at the features of this product that make it easy to use and work with:
Minimize disruptions and sensory input
- Background sounds
Create a peaceful environment by playing soothing sounds, like ocean or rain, to mask external noise and reduce distractions.
1) Simply go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds and turn on Background Sounds.
2) Choose your preferred sound, adjust the volume, and customize settings such as using it when media is playing or stopping sounds when the iPad is locked.
- Onscreen motion
Reduce or eliminate onscreen motion on your iPad to create a more visually comfortable experience. Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Motion to access various motion-related settings:
- Reduce Motion: Turn on to minimize animation, like the parallax effect of icons. When off, more items in the user interface animate.
- Auto-Play Message Effects: Turn off to prevent the Messages app from automatically playing full-screen effects. You can still manually play effects by tapping “Replay” below the message bubble.
- Auto-Play Video Previews: Turn off to disable automatic video previews, such as those in the App Store.
- Auto-Play Animated Images: Turn off to stop automatic playback of rapid animated images and GIFs in Messages and Safari.
- Dim Flashing Lights: Turn on to automatically dim the display when flashes or strobe effects are detected.
- Limit Frame Rate: Turn on to restrict the maximum frame rate of the display to 60 frames per second on models with ProMotion display technology.
- Focus
Establishing a Focus on your device allows you to manage notifications based on specific contexts such as Work, Personal, or Sleep. To create a Focus, follow these steps in Settings > Focus:
Select a Focus
1) Navigate to Settings > Focus.
2) Choose a Focus type, such as Personal, Sleep, or Work.
Customize Focus Settings
1) Define which apps and contacts can send notifications during this Focus.
2) Tap “Options” to access additional settings:
- Toggle “Show On Lock Screen” to display silenced notifications on the Lock Screen or in Notification Center.
- Enable “Dim Lock Screen” to darken the Lock Screen during this Focus.
- Turn on “Hide Notification Badges” to conceal notification badges on Home Screen apps.
3) Once configured, tap the Back button.
Choose Home Screen Page
1) Select a Home Screen page for this Focus.
2) Tap the miniature Home Screen under “Customize Screens,” choose the screen, tap Done, and then Back.
Share Across Devices
Optionally, enable “Share Across Devices” to synchronize Focus settings across all your Apple devices linked to the same Apple ID.
Finalizing and Adjusting
After setting up a Focus, revisit Settings > Focus anytime to modify or refine the selected options.
By organizing your Focus settings, you can tailor your device’s notifications to align with different aspects of your daily life.
- Guided Access
Configure Guided Access by following these steps:
1) Access Guided Access Settings:
- Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access.
- Toggle the Guided Access switch to turn it on.
2) Passcode Settings:
- Tap “Set Guided Access Passcode” and input a passcode for added security.
- Optionally, enable Face ID or Touch ID to conclude a Guided Access session.
- Hide ads and distractions in Safari
Automatically use Reader for a website
1) On a supported website, tap the Page Settings button, then tap Website Settings.
2) Turn on Use Reader Automatically.
Block pop-ups
Go to Settings > Safari, then turn on Block Pop-ups.
Pair audio and text
- Live Captions (beta)
Set up and customize Live Captions
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Live Captions, then turn on Live Captions (Beta).
- Tap Appearance to customize the text, size, and color of the captions.
- By default, Live Captions are shown across all apps. To get live captions only for certain apps such as FaceTime or RTT, turn them on below In-App Live Captions.
- Spoken content
Even if VoiceOver is turned off, you can have iPad speak selected text or the entire screen. iPad can also provide feedback and speak text corrections and suggestions as you type.
Choose modes for Spoken Content
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content.
- Turn on any of the following:
- Speak Selection: Select what you want spoken.
- Speak Screen: Have iPad read everything onscreen.
- Speech Controller: Quickly access Speak Screen and Speak on Touch when Speak Screen is on.
- Highlight Content: Move a cursor over words or sentences as you listen.
- Typing Feedback: Have iPad speak each character, entire words, autocorrections, autocapitalizations, and typing predictions.
- Audio message transcripts
You can use the Messages app to record and send audio messages, along with transcripts of what’s said in the message. Audio messages are automatically deleted to save space on your iPad, but if you want to save them, you can.
There are other options for the user such as:
- Siri
- Keychain
- Face ID
- Touch ID
- Facial recognition
- People detection
- Image descriptions
- Text detection
- Point and Speak
- Door detection