New Accessibility Features Rumored to Coming to iOS 18 and macOS 15

Apple is always working to improve accessibility

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Apple is rumored to be working on accessibility features like voice shortcuts, Live Speech categories, and better font size controls across iOS. 18 and macOS 15.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is quickly approaching, so rumors are already leaking about what's next. Accessibility features are typically announced before WWDC, so it's likely that these features enter the final stages of development first, making them more likely to leak.

There are several new accessibility features coming to iOS 18 and macOS 15, according to industry sources who spoke to MacRumors. These include voice shortcuts, categories for Live Speech, and improved font size control.

Voice shortcuts will allow users to match accessibility features to a spoken phrase. This isn't much different from Siri shortcuts, but it likely eliminates the need to say a wake phrase like “Hey Siri” before saying the voice shortcut.

Apple already has a similar feature in Apple Vision Pro called Sound Actions. Users can associate system actions and shortcuts with sounds such as hissing or cackling.

Rumor has it that voice shortcuts will be limited to enabling accessibility features like VoiceOver, voice control, and others.

Live Speech allows users to create phrases that can be spoken by a machine. This feature is getting an organization update with categories marked with 20 available icons.

Apple previously announced Personal Voice for Live Speech, which allows users to synthesize a version of their voice for machine speech. Categories will help you quickly find frequently used phrases, increasing accessibility and ease of use.

The latest rumored feature concerns font size. iOS and macOS already allow users to customize the font on a per-app basis, but the app must support it. Some Apple system applications do not yet support this feature, but will appear in autumn updates.

macOS 15 will add the ability to manage fonts for books, news, and promotions. Users can already customize the font in Calendar, Finder, Mail, Messages and Notes.

There may be a new feature that will allow users to customize the macOS menu bar font.

Any, all, or none of these rumored features could appear in iOS 18 and macOS 15. Apple is testing many of the features internally, and there is no guarantee they will be released.

WWDC is historically held in the first or second week of June. The pre-recorded event will likely have a limited staff, so expect a date to be announced by May so travel plans can be made.