Apple has published some information on setting up and using the accessibility features available on their new mixed reality Apple Vision Pro headset. This includes a guide specifically for VoiceOver users and a guide to setting up and using Zoom.
The VoiceOver guide covers how to turn VoiceOver on and off, use the various single and multi-hand gestures to control the headset, practice the gestures, and access tutorials. Some details of note include:
- VoiceOver reads out descriptions of items in view, battery level, incoming calls, open apps, etc. You can adjust speech rate and pitch.
- When you open a new app or change your view, VoiceOver plays a sound, then selects and speaks the name of the first item in that app or in your view (typically in the top-left corner).
- Use single-hand pinches (tapping thumb and finger), modifier pinches (one hand pinch held while pinching with opposite hand), and slide pinches (long pinch plus swipe) to interact with items.
- Practice gestures without affecting settings using the VoiceOver Practice feature.
- Turn VoiceOver on or off via Siri voice command, triple clicking the Digital Crown, or in Accessibility settings.
- Get guided tutorials on how to use VoiceOver when you first enable it or by tapping VoiceOver Tutorial in settings anytime.
The following options are available for Zoom users:
- Keyboard Shortcuts: Control Zoom using shortcuts on a Magic Keyboard.
- Zoom Controller: Turn the controller, change the zoom region, or set zoom level.
- Zoom Region: Choose Full Screen Zoom or Window Zoom.
- Use Crown to Zoom: Turn on or off.
- Maximum Zoom Level: Drag the slider to adjust the level.
When using Zoom, to see more of your view, do any of the following:
- Adjust the magnification: Use the Digital Crown.
- Move the Zoom lens: (Window Zoom) Drag the window bar at the bottom of the Zoom lens.
- Pan to another area: (Full Screen Zoom) Turn your head.
- Tap the Zoom Controller (if you turned it on) to see the options for zoom level and more.
Given Apple's strong track record on accessibility, it should be no surprise that they have implemented what sounds like a solid set of features on the Vision Pro from day one for blind and low vision users. However, the real test will come from hands-on usage.
If you have purchased a Vision Pro or taken advantage of the in-store demos now available in the United States, please share your experiences using the headset with VoiceOver or Zoom. We would love to hear your opinions. Did it live up to your expectations? What impressed or disappointed you? Your insights will help guide others considering purchasing the Apple Vision Pro.
Comments
apple vision pro and failing.
I'm going to look into one of these because I do think they'll be very interesting but I've come across a couple of videos that states the apple vision pro is going to fail. I've not clicked on them but I don't think these people understand that this is a first gen device. Yes the battery specs are horrible but give it another year or so and we'll see at least 10 or so hours.
No, that's not IPhone battery levels but for the tech it's running; I don't expect it to be.
I don't think this device will fail at all. I can't really think of a device that has with apple.
I didn't buy the over ear headphones because I thought they were to pricey for me but I can garentee they made tonnes of money off of those.
What i'm getting at is things haven't failed from a business standpoint in years and I dout they will now.
Brad
I am sure a third party such as Anker will develop a battery that is much better. Do not see the reason for a blind person to get one unless apple let third party use the camera.
Genuine question
Hi Guys, what is the difference between these and Envision glasses? Certainly at the moment it seems that EG have 4 years of development behind them and the price is much on a par with these. So, for now is there any reason at all to buy AVP and not EG?
Do you want a nitch product, or do you want to be a mainstream u
What i mean by a niche product, is do you want to be a person who uses any blindness product simply because that's what you're comfortable with? Do you want to use a mainstream product, so say you can ask your sighted spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, whoever, to help verses getting the blank stare of I can't help? The Envision glasses are a niche product for the blind whereas this is a mainstream product. Whichever you decide to use is certainly your prerogative.. I'm simply trying to equate two use cases. Once again, the "You" I am referring to is in general. Also sorry for the misspelled subject line, I can't edit it.
Low vision and hard of hearing
Anyone with a hearing impairment would benefit from real-time captioning. If they are also vision impaired and unable to read the captions, VoiceOver could verbalize it. (There might be alternate solutions at a more affordable price; I don't know, my hearing loss isn't severe enough to require captioning.)
Either AVP or the Envision glasses would be of use to those with low vision. I tried the Envision glasses some 15 years back, and my impression was that I could have used them, if only I'd discovered them five years earlier when I had a bit more eyesight. But at the time, my eyesight was already crap and getting crappier fast, so I said, "no thanks."
I'm buoyed by reports that Apple is thinking about how these devices might be used by us blindies. With only a few tweaks, I can imagine a dramatically lower price audio-only product, engineered to solve real-life issues we face everyday rather than contrived or imagined problems like finding doors.
Siobhan
I prefer a universal product. Blind not to much. The price is to much. With vission pro it is universal and appears accessible but purpose of it for the blind? iPhone 1, vission pro ?.
Mixed feelings
Firstly, I think there is a definite use case for having a wearable like this for us.
I think there is a lot of stuff in the iPhone that would just be a lot more convenient as a wearable. So all the stuff that weirdly sits in the magnifier app like door detection, point and speak, person detection etc. Or maps/gps/voice vista stuff. Or OCR/Seeing AI functionality. Not to mention Be My Eyes etc.
If I'm outside I don't really like getting my phone out, particularly if it's busy, but also sometimes your hands are full. Dog lead in one hand, cane in the other. Yes I can juggle stuff around but if it's just there in front of me anyway, then that's potentially great.
I'd really like this sort of thing to be seamless though. Having to open up different apps for each thing seems a bit backwards. I do wonder if the push towards widgets was brought in with this in mind. But anyway there's definitely the scope to make something genuinely useful here.
Yes we have Envision that does most of this (not gps though I think?). But being Apple it brings with it a wealth of 3rd party stuff so in theory there should be a lot more you can do with it.
However, I do have several reservations. The price, battery life and unwieldy size can be put down to a first gen/prototype, so hopefully those things get sorted in the next iterations. But they are still important. I'm sure I read before that it had just one hour of battery which isn't enough enough to watch a film. But maybe you can plug it in which doesn't feel all that futuristic to me.
The other issue I have with this is the thought of having a screen right in front of my face. A few years ago I tried some low vision glasses called OxSight which was basically a screen shoved in your eyes. It had some benefits but even after trying the demo fort a short period of time my eyes felt dry and tired. I'm guessing the Apple screen is more advanced and maybe isn't so tiring to look at, but I wonder how pleasant an experience this would be for an extended period of time. Maybe it's different now I wouldn't be able to see it, but I think just the presence of the screen, the heat and general feeling of it doesn't really appeal to me. I don't want to anger my eyes any more than I already have done.
And then of course we don't need the screen anyway, so it feels like it only offers drawbacks and no advantage.
In the same way I wouldn't go out and by the Studio display, it feels odd to me to go and by something where the screen is so intrinsically part of its design.
The other thing I would need convincing about is the gestures. I'm guessing the pinches etc work better than they do on the Watch. I mean, it's a cool trick and sometimes useful on the Watch but it's also not something I would want to do for any amount of time. Swiping between complications is fine, anything else would be pushing it.
So, if Apple wants to send me one for free as an apology for the Mac then I'd gladly see if it can change my mind. But so far I remain interested in it and excited by the potential, but also not entirely convinced.
The Meta Ray-bans interest me more because it has the style (I presume), the price, the battery life and no screen. It won't get all the apps of course so it may end up being useless to us beyond a Bose Frames replacement but I think I'd rather go for something that isn't based around a screen.
I do like the idea of the Envision glasses too, but I can't quite justify the price, including the subscription and its use of outdated tech. I have similar feelings about Celeste.
Then there's obviously the Humane AI Pin. Who knows where that will end up.
I'm not sure any of these are the perfect device for us, but it feels like we are getting close to something.
And I should say it is nice we have VoiceOver from day one. I hope they can make it a pleasant experience. And I hope it doesn't take away any scant resources they have working on the Mac side.
I'd go for apple any day over envition.
It's going to have tonnes more apps, plus, they could probably put the envision app on the AVP and it'll probably be better after the first gen hardware wise.
I don't mind paying for these apple devices because you'll probably be able to pay monthly, at least here in the UK.
I really think I might buy the second gen version of this. The idea of just having podcasts at the touch of a.. Er.. Screen? plus tracking apps and all that is very useful to me.
Something I've found interesting.
The AVP is going to have a battery pack with a whire atached to it. I don't really know how I feel about this and will have to try one out to truly know if i can deal with that.
Here's the article where I found that out: https://www.zdnet.com/article/meet-apples-vision-pro-price-features-hands-on-insights-and-everything-you-need-to-know/
Going to have
Going to have this and that is not the same as having it. I could say I am going to have 1 million dollar but not really.
My 2cents on comparing with Envision Glasses
I'm excited for the future, but for now you can't fairly compare Apple Vision Pro to Envision Glasses in terms of utility and value to blind users.
The Envision Glasses are designed specifically for use by the blind. They are relatively small and light, can be worn for extended periods, worn during your normal daily routine, worn outside, and won't have people stopping in the street if you do wear them outside.
None of this is true for the Vision Pro. This is Not a criticism of them, it's simply recognition of it not being what they are currently designed or intended for.
The Vision Pro apparently look like a very high tech set of ski goggles, in that they are relatively bulky and completely enclose the area around your eyes. They are primarily intended for static use, and certainly not for use outside. Yes, you can move around in them and use them outside if you wanted to do so, but for this first generation this isn't what they are designed for so won't offer a great experience here.
Yes, the prospect of having access to tools such as Be My Eyes, Seeing AI, and Apple's LiDAR features on something you are wearing is an exciting one, but only for me if it's on something that I can wear as part of my normal routine. If I instead have to reach for them if I want to simply check some packets in the kitchen or scan my mail, the iPhone in my pocket is still likely to provide a more friction free experience.
However, I expect things to be quite different in perhaps 5 years time.
There are also a number of projects out there which are closer in design and nature to Envision Glasses but intended for mainstream use. I won't be surprised if one of these becomes what I am hoping for sooner than some form of the Vision Pro does.
Just my 2 cents worth and good luck to anyone who does get a set of the Vision Pros. I would certainly love the opportunity to check them out, albeit mostly for curiosity rather than potential utility.
Oh, and I don't have and have never handled or used Envision Glasses, so my comments above regarding them are not informed ones ☺️
I've been waiting for Apple…
I've been waiting for Apple to put up the user guide for the AVP. I've been reading about the VO gestures, and right now they sound confusing, but maybe after playing with one I will change my mind. I wouldn't buy this first generation version anyway. Much like the Apple Watch, maybe by the fourth or fifth version.
I also feel like the AVP will probably be harder to use for those of us who have never had any vision. The whole concept is based around putting virtual apps in space around you, and how many blind people struggle with spatial concepts? It took a while -- longer for some of us than others I'm sure - to adapt to figuring out how to locate things on a flat sheet of glass based on what speech is relaying back. But I think things would make a lot more sense if you could actually feel where things are on the screen and then interact with them, like when a person clicks on something with a mouse. Anyone else find it a lot easier to get oriented to a new place with a tactile map?
With the AVP, take away the flat sheet of glass that is your iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch screen and I think it gets a little bit harder. How do you know where the top left is when there's no corner you can feel for? Yes, the user guide tells you to tap things in places just like would on a normal screen. I'm sure Apple has thought of this; VO probably plays a sound when you reach the border of the virtual screen in front of you. It's just kind of hard to imagine that right now.
It's new interesting tech though. I have already set up a demo for next week!
Not Studio Display?
OT, but if not Studio Display, then what, instead?
I agree.
I won't be buying the first gen version of these glasses, perhaps the second or third, it depends on what they can do for me.
Yeah, the glasses are very bulky at the moment so I'd give them a miss for now but once they've slimmed down, if they do, I'll be interested.
The VO Gestures do seam confusing, I won't deny that but I think this works similar to voiceover on the phone but in some ways it might set us back because I don't think as blind people we can point at things. And honestly the typeing experience with VO sounds like a nightmare.
I hope I'm wrong but at the moment it does seam like the AVP is very clunky for us.
Vision OS Walkthroughs From Brian Tong
For Your Information:
Although the presenter notes the below warning among the YouTube comments, the word "Iris" is used among some of the linked videos, thus ya may wish to wear headphones.
Also (if ya do decide to wear headphones, the audio is in Mono b/c of screen recording capture from the headset itself and not binaural.
Anyway, enjoy!
Apple Vision Pro Unboxing w/ Accessories!
https://youtu.be/r3D4YI4mHqQ?si=AlXmrc7Wzp93wvS7
Accessibility visionOS Walkthrough:
https://youtu.be/b-GLz_VMCe4?si=rRrcNRUMiBtsfGML
Settings & Control Center visionOS Walkthrough:
https://youtu.be/LpkYYIB07Uo?si=yVgAx8aGqJdQDSmI
Apple Vision Pro EPIC Review - Is This The Future?
https://youtu.be/GkPw6ScHyb4?si=4zgjthEe7l1YQlX2
First Apple Vision Pro Persona FaceTime Call w/ iJustine & MKBHD!
https://youtu.be/CuZUyxjn7ro?si=pDntDAKSfomYbhbR