In a series of announcements that just might signal a wider focus on AI at the upcoming WWDC, on Tuesday Apple previewed upcoming accessibility features in the run-up to this week’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
VoiceOver and Magnifier will gain AI-powered features that can provide enhanced image description, using the device camera. VoiceOver’s Image Explorer will use Apple Intelligence to give more detailed descriptions of what’s in photographs, scanned documents and labels, for example.
Magnifier users will be able to scan a document, then ask questions about its contents, with answers provided by Apple Intelligence. The feature will also be available to VoiceOver users.
With updates to live recognition, VoiceOver users can press the iPhone action button to quickly ask a question about what’s in the camera viewfinder and get a detailed response. Users can also ask follow-up questions in their own words to get more visual information. These question features resemble what’s available to users of the Be My Eyes app’s Be My AI feature, but it’s unclear whether Apple’s offerings will go further.
Magnifier for iOS and Mac will include the same Apple Intelligence-powered options, which can be used with speech or high-contrast onscreen text. Magnifier users will also be able to speak to the app, to get more specific information about their surroundings, or to ask follow-up questions.
