Ahead of its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), Apple has announced the winners and finalists for its 2025 Apple Design Awards--including 2 winners in the Inclusivity Category: Speechify and Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles.
Speechify is a text-to-speech app that allows users to listen to eBooks and a variety of other text types and formats. From Apple:
With support for hundreds of voices in over 50 languages, Speechify is a powerful tool that transforms written text into audio with ease. Designed with accessibility at its core, and by offering features like Dynamic Type and VoiceOver, the app serves as a vital resource for people with dyslexia, ADHD, and low vision, as well as anyone who learns best by listening.
Designed to be fully accessible to everyone, Art of Fauna is a puzzle game that combines vintage artwork, animal education, and wildlife conservation. From Apple:
Beautifully illustrated and mindfully designed, Art of Fauna is a puzzle game that blends vintage-inspired wildlife imagery with a deep commitment to inclusivity and conservation. Players can solve puzzles by rearranging visual elements or reordering descriptive text, making gameplay uniquely interactive. With features like full VoiceOver support and haptic feedback, accessibility is woven throughout the experience.
In addition to the award winners, Apple also shared a list of finalists for each category; including Land of Livia which was among the finalists for the Inclusivity category.
The 2025 Apple Design Awards include awards for Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. A complete listing of the winners and finalists for all categories is available on Apple's website. Winners and finalists will be recognized at Apple's 2025 Worldwide Developer's Conference.
Comments
Questions about payment plans, and other musings
It’s nice to see Speechify included on this list, but I know the list is focused on accessibility, not necessarily affordability. Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time I tried to use the app, I tested it on the free 3-day trial. And while yes, it’s accessible, the experience wasn’t that great for me on iPhone—it kept starting and stopping all the time. I don’t know if that’s changed recently because I imagine there have been a few updates since then, but yeah, that was my experience. Now, overall, the app itself is solid. The voices are amazing—very high quality, really well done. But the problem I ran into was the pricing. As far as I know, they don’t offer a monthly plan. From what I’ve seen, you have to pay $140 per year, and that’s all up front. Do they even offer a monthly billing option? Like, can I pay per month and cancel partway through the year like I would with a music streaming subscription? Because I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t afford to drop $140 all at once every single year. I get that it’s an investment—if I pay once for the year, I’m covered for 12 months and I can decide later if I want to renew. But if I’m not using it consistently throughout the whole year, then I’ve basically wasted the money. I’d rather pay for a few months at a time and decide when I want to pause or stop. Honestly, I don’t even know what justifies the price. I get that they’ve got voices from Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others, and I think there are some professional voice actors involved too. So maybe those licensing costs are part of what’s driving the price. Still, that doesn’t make it affordable.
They’re definitely pushing this as an accessibility product, especially for people who are blind or have dyslexia, but the price point feels like it’s made for rich people. There’s no way the average user—especially someone relying on disability support or on a tight budget—is going to be able to swing that price out of pocket unless it’s being covered by an organization or employer. Like I said, I really do appreciate that Apple’s accessibility team is recommending them. And when I had the trial, it worked pretty well. I even used it to read some of my Kindle books, and yeah, the voice quality was great. But that price tag… it’s a lot. If they had a monthly plan with the same features, I’d be way more inclined to use it. But right now, it just feels out of reach.
Honestly, $140 per year? That’s steep. Even if I did go ahead and get it, it would probably be as a one-time thing—a special treat to myself. And once that year’s done, I don’t think I’d renew it unless circumstances changed. That’s the kind of price where once it’s spent, it’s spent. It might last a year, sure, but it’s still hard to justify unless you’re using it constantly or getting outside support. It feels like a contradiction. Yes, it works. Yes, it’s accessible. Yes, the voices are fantastic. But at the end of the day, accessibility also includes financial accessibility. And that’s where I think they’re missing the mark.
agree about Speechify
I do also think it's way too much, TBH. I'm using Speech Central and 11Labs Reader now for free. Not to say that everything has to be free, but price has to be justified.