Accessibility

Most people prefer listening to audio on their AirPods in stereo (where sound is fed through at least two channels). This requires listening to both AirPods to get the full dual-channel experience. But what if you only want to use one AirPod? You're going to miss out on the sounds coming through the other AirPod. Whether you have hearing loss in one ear, want to share the other AirPod with someone else, have misplaced one of your AirPods, or just want to keep one ear tuned in to what's going on around you, it's possible to make all the sound come out of one AirPod by enabling Mono Audio in your Accessibility Settings. Switching to this single channel setting means you'll be able to hear all the audio from either AirPod, so you can choose which AirPod to use.  

For someone who is blind or has impaired vision, Be My Eyes is a resource that makes everyday tasks easier. Sighted people sign up to be volunteers; when a blind or visually impaired person asks for assistance, the app video calls one of over a million volunteers to help. When someone starts a call, the first available volunteer will connect with them. If you’re blind or visually impaired, you can contact volunteers as often as you want; there are plenty of people who have showed up to say, “I’m here; what can I do?” And you can connect with them in a matter of minutes. Learn more on what the app does and why we love it below.

The new gestures on iPhone X or later have some people confused while others are thinking up ways Apple could have done it better; but either way, they're probably here to stay. In this tip we'll cover how to open Control Center on the iPhone X, XR, and XS, as well as how to customize Control Center. Luckily, once you learn how to open Control Center and get used to the new movement, it’s really not that big of a challenge. Plus, we'll include a bonus tip for those who want to open Control Center a bit more easily on the iPhone X or later. 

Home button or Sleep/Wake button not working properly? (Maybe you had some kind of iPhone misfortune involving water or a drop?) You're probably planning to take your phone in to get fixed; but in the meantime, Assistive Touch is a great work around to this problem. Here’s what you can do as a workaround if your Home button isn’t working on iPhone.

A heavily requested feature for iOS 11 was Dark Mode. Dark Mode essentially turns white space black while leaving media, photos, and content the same. However, we did not get an official Dark Mode in iOS 11, and we haven't gotten one for iOS 12, either. Hopefully this will come out soon because macOS Mojave does offer this feature. For now, though, the next best thing is pretty darn fantastic. Inverting colors on iPhone in the past meant distorting the look of photos and content as well. But iOS 11 introduced Smart Invert, which is (almost) as good of a Dark Mode as we need. Here’s how to turn on Dark Mode or Night Mode in iOS 12 on iPhone, this will invert colors on your display and reduce eye strain.

Did you know that the iPhone allows your phone to automatically answer calls after a certain number of rings? Here’s how to set your iPhone to automatically answer calls after a fixed amount of time. If you’re the type of person who’s always near their cellphone but sometimes takes too long to answer, or if you find the swiping-to-answer motion annoying (like my mom) or difficult to do, then you can enable this feature from your Accessibility Settings. 

The triple- and double-click shortcuts are designed to let you easily maneuver through a few features of your iPhone when pressing your Home button multiple times. The double-click shortcut lets you find the recent apps you’ve used, and the triple-click shortcut allows you to quickly jump to Accessibility shortcuts you’ve set. However, the triple- and double-click Home commands have a default setting that might be too fast for some to push. My 83-year-old grandmother has an iPhone and she has difficulty pressing her Home button in quick succession due to arthritis in her hands. Whatever your reason, here’s how to slow down the triple- and double-click shortcuts on iPhone.

For some, it’s not easy to catch every word spoken when watching their favorite shows, videos, and movies on their devices. My mom has grown accustomed to watching her shows with closed captions, simply because she likes the added benefit of reading while she watches. Luckily, it’s easy to set up. You can turn on closed captions for media as your default on iPhone or iPad; here’s how.

3D Touch can be a cool, helpful feature for a lot of people. But I also know some who never use the feature or even find that it gets in the way of simply pressing and holding something on the screen. Whatever your reasoning, you can turn 3D Touch off on your iPhone. And it’s very easy to do. Here’s how to turn 3D Touch off on iPhone.

Let’s say you’re listening to music using your fantastic Bluetooth speaker and you get a call. When you answer that call, it will probably default to your iPhone. But what if you want the call to automatically default to you speaker? Or your headphones? You can choose where your call audio defaults to in your settings on iPhone. Here’s how to set your speaker or headphones as the default audio on iPhone.

Accessibility features on iPhone improve year after year. It used to be that those who are color blind could only to choose to use grayscale, but did you know that’s no longer the case? If you’re color blind, you can go into your settings and select the color correct palette that works with your specific type of color blindness. It’s pretty incredible. Even those with ‘regular’ vision should check it out. Here’s how to correct your iPhone’s colors for your vision.

On your iPhone, there are many instances in which you can shake to undo something. For example, if you delete an email and quickly realize you didn't mean to do that, you can simply shake your phone to undo deleting it. However, plenty of iPhone users have complained about the feature, and they would rather just turn the damn thing off. Luckily, you can. Here’s how to turn off shake to undo on iPhone.

How to Turn On Grayscale Mode on iPhone

1. Open the Settings app on iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Accessibility.
4. Select Display Accommodations.
5. Tap on Color Filters.
6. Toggle on Color Filters.
7. Select Grayscale.
8. If you're color blind, you can select the filter or tint that works best for your vision.

Interestingly, when you do a screen capture of grayscale, the resulting image is still colored. And the image immediately above is misleading, because it shows grayscale turned on but the screen is still colored. In actuality, it will appear gray as soon as you turn on the setting.

The Accessibility features on iPhone are useful for those who are visually impaired; but they can also be useful to others, such as those occasions when it might be more convenient to have your iPhone or iPad read to you. Unless you're visually impaired, you may not want to enable VoiceOver via the Accessibility panel because it then begins reading aloud everything, including the Settings screen that you're on. Instead, we’ll go over how to enable a feature that lets you turn VoiceOver on just when you need it. Here’s how to have Siri read text to you on iPhone.

Ever since Apple released iOS 10 in 2016, it's been possible to use the iPhone as a magnifying glass. You don't need a separate magnifying glass app; this helpful magnifier feature is free! Of course, the screen magnifier is not only useful for those with visual challenges, but also for any of us who has ever needed a reading magnifier to see more detail in an image. Better yet, the screen magnifier includes a light, as well as the ability to adjust contrast and color, which is a big help for those with color blindness. So how does this smartphone magnifier work? Read on to find out! 

With iOS 10, press Home to open means you have to click the Home button to actually navigate to your Home screen. You’ll see at the top of Lock screen, when you use Touch ID, it will say Unlocked but it won’t open to Home until you press your Home button. And if you have Raise to Wake disabled, unlocking your iPhone takes two presses of the Home button. Press Home to open can be disabled in Settings by turning on Rest Finger to Open. Here’s how to disable press Home to open with iOS 10 on iPhone.

With iOS 10, Siri can announce incoming calls. When the iPhone has an incoming call, Siri will let you know who is calling out loud. This iOS 10 feature is an accessibility feature but it’s also helpful when you’re running, biking, or keeping your iPhone in your pocket. Luckily, unlike some other iOS 10 features, Siri announcing incoming calls isn’t limited to newer iPhones. Here’s how to get Siri to announce incoming callers with iOS 10.

In situations when even Night Shift mode is too bright, you can easily invert colors on the iPhone. I was on a late night stroll with my dog when I received a text from my daughter that needed a reply. During the exchange that followed, I dictated my texts instead of attempting to type out a reply while walking and holding an energetic puppy still; but even so, I had to take a moment after sending each message to stop and let my eyes readjust to the darkness. Next time, I’ll use this tip before leaving the house. Here’s how to quickly invert colors on iPhone.

Do you find yourself answering the phone and quickly putting it on speaker mode? Do you find yourself fumbling for the phone to make an important call? Well, there’s an easier way than tapping buttons. You can set your iPhone settings to send and receive calls hands free automatically within the Settings app. It’s part of Apple's accessibility and Hey Siri features. Here’s how to set speakerphone as the default for answering incoming calls.