Every software version released by Apple is jam-packed with new and improved features designed to help iPhone customers get more out of their handsets, and iOS 15 is no exception. The new accessibility options for persons with mobility, vision, hearing, and cognitive disabilities are likely to be the most beneficial of iOS 15′s much-anticipated enhancements.
A collection of background noises intended for neurodivergent persons who find them useful in helping to stay focus, maintain a sense of calm, and limit distractions is one new feature that has users particularly excited. Apple has provided customers with six distinct background sound options: balanced noise, rain, bright noise, dark noise, ocean, and stream.
Here’s a fast and easy step-by-step instruction for anybody wondering how to enable the new background noise function in iOS 15: Then select Accessibility from the drop-down menu. Select Audio/Visual after finding Hearing. Select Background Sounds from the menu. Select the ambient noise you wish to listen to from the Sound menu.
The new noises “play in the background to conceal undesirable ambient or external noise and the sounds blend into or duck beneath other audio and system sounds,” according to Apple.
The improved accessibility features don’t end there, as Gizmodo previously reported: Apple’s new OS also includes support for recognizing audiograms—charts that display the results of a hearing test—to Headphone Accommodations, as well as bi-directional hearing aids in its Made for iPhone hearing devices program. VoiceOver, which was recently upgraded to incorporate picture descriptions, will now be even better at providing details about people, text, data, and other things within images for low-vision groups.
In a statement, Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of worldwide accessibility policy and projects, stated, “At Apple, we’ve always believed that the world’s finest technology should adapt to everyone’s needs, and our teams work tirelessly to incorporate accessibility into everything we produce.” “With these new capabilities, we’re pushing the frontiers of innovation with next-generation technologies that bring Apple technology’s fun and functionality to even more people — and we can’t wait to share them with our consumers.”
