- 4 hours ago
Welcome back to another great episode of Vision Forward's Tech Connect! On today's solo show, Luke is going to demonstrate a nifty feature available on modern iPhones called Assistive Access!
With all the wonderful things that our smartphones can do its easy to get overwhelmed especially if you are low vision, using a screen reader, or didn't grow up using smartphones. But not to worry, Assistive Access can help you avoid things like confusing menus, unused apps, and accidently modifying settings. Using your iPhone with Assistive Access is like bowling with bumpers!
Assistive Access is a way to limit the functions of an iPhone so as to streamline its use. By default, this feature limits an iPhone to five apps which have been simplified and maximized for ease of use. Those fab five are: Calls, Contacts, Messages, Camera and the Magnifier. Luke will demonstrate how these apps have been enhanced, but also how to add or remove apps from the Assistive Access list. (Fair warning, any additional apps you choose to add to this list might not be as simplified as the fab five.)
0:00 Start
0:52 Basics, Where to find it on iPhone, Who is this for?
2:10 Default five apps available: Call, Messages, Camera, Contacts, Magnifier,
4:30 How to Modify Assistive Access settings. Start at iOS Settings, then Accessibility,
7:45 Demo of most simplified and restricted mode, just Calls
8:45 Wrap Up Review of Assistive Access for the iPhone
9:40 Upcoming Live Show Thursday at 11am, LMS Free On-Demand ACVREP Credits
10:42 Goof
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Want more Tech Connect in your life? You should try us Live! Next show goes live on Thursday the 26th of February! So be sure to check your email for reminders as we approach those dates!
Looking for the full playlist?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc
Catch-up with our most recent Tech Connect Livestreams!
Give Everything a Voice Label Using Speech Label w/ Maryam Nakhaei from Hable!
https://www.youtube.com/live/pKNvFN-NOco
Which Wearables are Worth Wearing in 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/YabIqipWNSI
What's New from CES 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/2H0bh0svmIQ
Switching Studios: Adieu to the Old, Hello to the New!
https://www.youtube.com/live/QLlVkJqIPsM
Enhance your Android Smartphone with these Low Vision features!
https://www.youtube.com/live/4-3KjqdKbOQ
Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses! https://www.youtube.com/live/aftNVwt83NQ
With all the wonderful things that our smartphones can do its easy to get overwhelmed especially if you are low vision, using a screen reader, or didn't grow up using smartphones. But not to worry, Assistive Access can help you avoid things like confusing menus, unused apps, and accidently modifying settings. Using your iPhone with Assistive Access is like bowling with bumpers!
Assistive Access is a way to limit the functions of an iPhone so as to streamline its use. By default, this feature limits an iPhone to five apps which have been simplified and maximized for ease of use. Those fab five are: Calls, Contacts, Messages, Camera and the Magnifier. Luke will demonstrate how these apps have been enhanced, but also how to add or remove apps from the Assistive Access list. (Fair warning, any additional apps you choose to add to this list might not be as simplified as the fab five.)
0:00 Start
0:52 Basics, Where to find it on iPhone, Who is this for?
2:10 Default five apps available: Call, Messages, Camera, Contacts, Magnifier,
4:30 How to Modify Assistive Access settings. Start at iOS Settings, then Accessibility,
7:45 Demo of most simplified and restricted mode, just Calls
8:45 Wrap Up Review of Assistive Access for the iPhone
9:40 Upcoming Live Show Thursday at 11am, LMS Free On-Demand ACVREP Credits
10:42 Goof
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Want more Tech Connect in your life? You should try us Live! Next show goes live on Thursday the 26th of February! So be sure to check your email for reminders as we approach those dates!
Looking for the full playlist?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc
Catch-up with our most recent Tech Connect Livestreams!
Give Everything a Voice Label Using Speech Label w/ Maryam Nakhaei from Hable!
https://www.youtube.com/live/pKNvFN-NOco
Which Wearables are Worth Wearing in 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/YabIqipWNSI
What's New from CES 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/2H0bh0svmIQ
Switching Studios: Adieu to the Old, Hello to the New!
https://www.youtube.com/live/QLlVkJqIPsM
Enhance your Android Smartphone with these Low Vision features!
https://www.youtube.com/live/4-3KjqdKbOQ
Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses! https://www.youtube.com/live/aftNVwt83NQ
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TechTranscript
00:00I've got this iPhone, but it's so hard to use. I wish I had some assistive access.
00:07Thanks, hand!
00:18Hello and welcome back to another exciting episode of TechConnect.
00:24That's right, we are here showing the latest in assistive technology
00:27and today we are showing assistive access. Do you have trouble using your iPhone?
00:32Are those pesky icons just too small and is everything just too complicated, too many options?
00:38Well, Apple have got the answer for you.
00:41It is assistive access and it's a way to simplify the interface of your phone to make it much easier
00:46to use.
00:47So, let's jump in and see how it works.
00:53Okay, so lots of people have iPhones, lots of people like iPhones, but iPhones can be a little bit tricky
00:58and they're not as modifiable as Android phones when it comes to the operating system.
01:03And this has caused some problems in the past, for example, with the size of icons or the complexity of
01:08apps.
01:08Just being a little bit too much for some people.
01:10Well, the good news is that in latest versions of iOS, we have assistive access.
01:16Let's see how to get there, first of all.
01:18Well, of course, we have to go to the settings, so let's do that first of all.
01:21And once we're in the settings, we have to go to accessibility.
01:24I just happened to be right there, who would have thought?
01:26So, I'll jump into accessibility.
01:28And in the list for accessibility options, we're going to scroll down to assistive access.
01:33And here we are in the list of options for assistive access.
01:35Now, I think the point of assistive access, it's kind of like parental control, but it's for your parents.
01:41It's basically a way that you can set up a phone for somebody who isn't so good with their phone
01:45and kind of restrict its usage and make it simpler to use, simplify the whole process of using it.
01:51But it does kind of limit the apps as well, which are going to be available, which may or may
01:55not be a good thing.
01:55But also, it just works really well for people with low vision because of the way that it presents the
02:02apps,
02:02which is in this really large format with these high contrast icons, high contrast words, and things like that as
02:10well.
02:10So, it makes it really good for people with low vision.
02:12Also, if you're a voiceover user as well, then it kind of really simplifies the process of using voiceover
02:18because there are just not as many options on the screen.
02:21So, we've got the five apps which have been specifically modified for this mode here.
02:26We've got calls, we've got messages, we've got photos, camera, and magnifier.
02:30And if I jump into one of these, we're going to see how simplified it has become.
02:34So, I'll go ahead and hit calls here.
02:36And it just presents me with these two big buttons, recents and contacts.
02:41Okay, so let's go to contacts.
02:43I'll go ahead and hit contacts.
02:44And now I have this big list of contacts with the big names of the people and each person is
02:51a big button.
02:52So, let's say I go ahead and press on one of these people.
02:56And it's going to go ahead and give me these big icons for doing a voice call or doing a
03:01video call.
03:02So, we can see how simplified this whole process is.
03:04Now, we also have a big back button at the bottom of the screen and hitting the big back button
03:09is going to, no surprise, take us back.
03:11So, all five of these apps have been modified in this way.
03:14Now, currently, it is only these five apps which have been modified in this way.
03:18And so, although we can add other apps to the list here, you know, they are just going to be
03:23as they normally would look.
03:25So, not modified in this way.
03:26But hopefully, Apple will add more as time goes on.
03:29Let's take a look at another one.
03:30For example, the magnifier here, which hopefully, you know, would be something which would be relevant to our population.
03:35If we go ahead and hit magnifier, again, very simplified interface.
03:39We have a zoom in button, we have a zoom out button, and we have a back button.
03:44So, everything again, large, big targets, high contrast, easy to use.
03:50Now, this is really great if you struggle to use your phone.
03:53This is a fantastic mode and it really is going to give you, you know, a much better visual experience.
03:59But you have to bear in mind that these apps have been simplified to a large degree.
04:03So, many of those things which you can normally do inside these apps is not going to be possible.
04:08And so, whether this is going to be a good mode for you is going to be dependent on whether
04:12you can live with these stripped-down apps or not.
04:16So, hopefully, that gives you an idea of what Assistive Access is.
04:19But how do we modify it and where do we go to do that?
04:22Well, let's go ahead and jump in and take a look.
04:27Okay, so I have come out of Assistive Access.
04:29We're back to the regular old iOS.
04:31And I'm going to show you how to get into Assistive Access settings and make changes.
04:35First thing we want to do is go to Settings.
04:38No surprise there.
04:39And we're going to scroll down to Accessibility.
04:41And then we're going to continue scrolling down the accessibility list until we get to Assistive Access.
04:47And this is going to give us all of our options for Assistive Access.
04:51Now, there are a number of things that we can modify in here.
04:54There is a big button at the top that allows us to enter Assistive Access mode.
04:58We'll ignore that for the moment.
04:59We're going to scroll down and see what options we have.
05:02So, first, a list of applications.
05:04Now, we saw that I had calls, messages, photos, camera, and magnifier enabled.
05:09And those have all been modified to be very simple to use.
05:13There is here, though, the option to, you know, choose whether we want all of those or just some of
05:18those.
05:18And to add other apps to the list as well.
05:21So, if I hit Manage Apps, that's going to put me here into a list where I can select exactly
05:26what apps I want to be available.
05:28And the ones that I already stated, those five, those ones have been modified.
05:32You can add any other app, but bear in mind that the other apps have not been modified, at least
05:37at this time.
05:38And so, they will just present as they normally do, whereas those five that we looked at before have all
05:44been modified to be very simple to use.
05:46So, that's very handy.
05:47We can add exactly what apps we want.
05:49We can also choose how we want those apps displayed.
05:52Do we want them in a list or do we want them in a grid pattern?
05:55We can also choose a wallpaper.
05:58And here's where things start to get kind of cool.
06:00So, we can allow or not allow the volume button.
06:03So, if you don't want it to be possible for the user or even for yourself to change the volume
06:09with those side buttons,
06:10you can literally disable the volume button.
06:13So, the volume cannot be changed.
06:14We can also do the same with the silent button.
06:17So, we know the silent button on the side, which can be flipped or depending on the phone that you
06:21have, it might be pressed to engage silent mode.
06:24But you can disable that so the phone cannot be put on silent.
06:27So, if you have a problem with that, you can easily sort that out.
06:31We can also choose various things to be displayed on the screen in assistive access mode.
06:36For example, the battery level, maybe the date and time and things like that.
06:40We can choose to set up Siri if we want Siri to be available.
06:44We can choose to allow or not allow the triple press accessibility shortcut.
06:48And we can also set a passcode.
06:50Now, I think you have to do this.
06:52There is a passcode that you have to set up to enter and to leave assistive access mode.
06:59And so, I've got one set up here.
07:02And like I say, I think you have to do this.
07:04So, every time you enter assistive access mode, you have to type in the passcode.
07:08Every time you leave, you have to type in the passcode.
07:10Obviously, the idea is if you're setting this up for somebody else and you don't want them to be able
07:15to get out of assistive access,
07:16they won't be able to unless they know the passcode.
07:19So, I have gone ahead and set up some things here.
07:22Let me see. I'm going to remove.
07:24I'm just going to have calls available in assistive access.
07:28And I've also disabled the volume buttons.
07:31And I have also disabled the silent button as well.
07:36So, let's just jump in now that I've modified it and take a look at what it looks like now.
07:44Okay, so I made those changes to assistive access mode.
07:47So, at this point, we're in assistive access and we only have calls available.
07:51And the volume buttons shouldn't work.
07:53And also, the silent button shouldn't work.
07:55So, let's take a look at what we've got.
07:56Well, yeah, we only have calls available.
07:58There is literally one button on the screen at this point.
08:01Pretty foolproof, I would say, for most people.
08:03Let's try those volume buttons out.
08:05I'm going to hit the volume control.
08:07And nothing is happening.
08:09All right, volume buttons are indeed disabled.
08:11Let me try the old silent switch here.
08:14And who would have thought it's not doing anything?
08:17So, there we go. Everything seems to work as advertised.
08:20Now, to get out of the assistive access mode, I can triple click on the side button.
08:25That will go ahead and open up a menu.
08:27And we can do emergency calls from there.
08:29We can actually get to settings from there too.
08:31And we can also exit assistive access.
08:34I'll go ahead and hit that.
08:36Type in my code.
08:37And that's going to take me back to regular old iOS.
08:40Very cool.
08:42All right.
08:42That's assistive access.
08:43Let's wrap this up.
08:47So, that was assistive access.
08:49It's a really cool feature from Apple.
08:50And it does kind of bring them a bit more in line with Android.
08:54Because Android for quite a while now has had various different kind of operating system overlays
08:59that you could install to make the phone simpler to use.
09:02And, you know, now we've got one in iOS that Apple have made.
09:05It's really cool.
09:05I do hope that they will make some more apps which are specifically designed for assistive access.
09:10Other than just the five that, you know, are available at the moment.
09:14But definitely a step in the right direction.
09:16So, if you need to simplify your phone, if you need to make things as large as possible, then this
09:21is going to be the mode for you.
09:22Or if you're setting up the phone for somebody else and it needs to be, you know, as simple and
09:27as foolproof as possible, then this is the mode for you.
09:30Give it a try. Why not? Make sure you've got the latest version of iOS and you should be good
09:35to go.
09:35Now, if you do have an iPhone and you do like using it, but it is a little bit tricky,
09:39there is another way.
09:41It's called Siri.
09:42And we did a video on Siri a few weeks ago showing how to set it up to get the
09:46best possible results
09:47if you are using your phone with no vision or with low vision.
09:52So, go ahead and check out that video.
09:53And you can also learn more on our learning management system, all about various different things, including how to use
10:01a screen reader.
10:02We have a new course out teaching you how to use a screen reader from first principles.
10:07And to check that out, you can go to techconnect.vision-forward.org.
10:12And there you can sign up for a free account and check out all of those cool videos on how
10:16to use a screen reader.
10:17Don't forget that this is also a podcast, so use your favorite podcasting service and search for Vision Forward Tech
10:25Connect.
10:26With that, hopefully I've said everything. I'm flying solo today.
10:29No quarry to back me up, but hopefully we did everything okay.
10:32So, try out assistive access and we will see you in the next video. Bye for now.
10:36Oh.
10:44A very large blah blah, and a blu, blu, blu blu, blu, blu blu. Blah, blu!
10:49Hi! Nice to see you today!
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