Accessibility Settings, Tools on Your Smartphone Can Make Life Easier

Sound Recognition. The iPhone can listen for the sounds of a barking dog, breaking glass, crying baby, doorbell, running water, siren, tea kettle and more and send you an on-screen notification when it hears these sounds. Tap Settings | Accessibility | Sound Recognition, then flip the switch for each type of sound for which you want to receive a notification. Android phones also can detect such sounds.

LED Flash Alerts. For people who can’t hear sounds that announce calls or other incoming audible alerts, the iPhone can flash the LED next to the rear camera. The feature works only if the iPhone is locked. Go to Settings | Accessibility | Audio/Visual and tap LED Flash for Alerts. You have the option to enable the feature when the ring switch is set to silent.

Mono Audio. The phone can combine sounds from the left and right audio channels for people who suffer from hearing loss in one ear. On an iPhone, find the Mono Audio setting in Accessibility | Audio/Visual.

On Android, scroll down the Accessibility menu in Settings, tap Audio adjustment and find the like-named switch. On both iOS and Android, you can drag a slider to adjust the audio volume balance between left and right channels.

Help for low vision

Text size. You have lots of choices for making text easier to read in the Display & Text Size section of iPhone's Accessibility settings. You can make text bold, reduce its transparency and increase the color contrast between the app foreground and background colors.

Android phones have similar display and font size features in their respective settings.

Zoom. You can zoom or magnify the screen by turning on the Zoom switch in iOS Settings or the Magnification switch in Android Settings under Accessibility.

You'll have to master gestures: On an iPhone, double tap with three fingers to zoom, and drag three fingers to move around the screen. In Android, rapidly tap the screen three times to zoom, or drag two or more fingers to scroll. You can also tap an accessibility shortcut button to zoom.

TalkBack. The Select to Speak feature inside Android Settings lets you tap specific items on the display to hear them read aloud. Or tap TalkBack to receive spoken feedback to operate the device without looking at the screen by using swiping gestures.

iPhones have similar VoiceOver features to describe what's on a screen, from reading emails to web pages to adding descriptions of objects, scenery and people within a photo. You must master gestures here, too. Tap once to select an item; double tap to activate the selected item. On both Android and iOS, you can change the speed of the speech.

Tools for color blindness. Filters on both smartphone platforms can help people who are color blind. On an iPhone, tap Display & Text Size | Color Filters in the Accessibility settings, followed by the Color Filters switch. Depending on your condition, tap among the Grayscale, Red/Green, Green/Red, Blue/Yellow or Color Tint filter options.

In Android Accessibility settings under Text and display, tap Color Correction to choose filters.

Accommodations for motor-skill problems

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Adaptive accessories. Choosing Switch Control on an iPhone or Switch Access in Android presents options for using adaptive switches and accessories. On the iPhone you can use one or more switches to sequentially select text, tap, drag, type or perform other actions, including using the front-facing camera to control your phone with head gestures. You also can create specialized actions or “recipes” to, say, turn pages in an e-book.

Google recently added a Camera Switches feature that is also found under Switch Access. It lets you navigate Android with six facial gestures: Open Mouth, Smile, Raise Eyebrows, Look Left, Look Right and Look Up. You might use any of these gestures to scan items on the screen until you land on the one you want, the weather app, for example.

Performing a second gesture can select and open the app. In Settings, you can adjust how big you want the gesture to be before it is recognized. In the Google Play Store, you can download a new Android application called Project Activate that lets you use these same gestures for customized actions such as sending a text or speaking a preset phrase.

Changes in touch. You can alter how the screen responds to your touch. On an iPhone under Touch | Touch Accommodations, you can change how long you must touch the screen before your touch is recognized. Or flip a switch so multiple touches of the screen are treated as a single touch.

Android users can tap a Touch & hold display switch that lets you change the duration (short, medium, long) of when a tap is recognized as a “long press."

Dictation. iPhone and Android handsets both can take dictation, letting you use your voice to create lists, compose emails and give other instructions. By speaking, you also summon the assistance of Siri on an iPhone using the “Hey, Siri” verbal command and the Google Assistant via “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google” on Android.

On an iPhone, head to Settings | General | Keyboard and make sure the Enable Dictation switch is turned on. From then on, you can tap the microphone icon to speak rather than type whenever a keyboard turns up within an app.

You even can use your voice to add punctuation. For example, “Dear Ed comma the check is in the mail exclamation mark.”

With its iOS 16 software update, Apple added an auto-punctuation feature for some of its more recent iPhones. The phone will automatically insert those commas and such without you having to specify.

You similarly can tap a microphone icon whenever an Android keyboard appears. Tap Allow rather than Deny if you're cool with the app in question recording your voice so you can speak instead of type. Android also has the auto-punctuation feature for when you type with your voice.

Dictation provides a benefit not just for people with accessibility challenges but anyone who finds typing on relatively tiny keyboards a hassle.

This story, originally published May 26, 2020, has been updated to reflect new features that have been introduced.

An Android app called Action Blocks is designed for people with a cognitive disability but can automate everyday tasks for anyone.

The final steps allow you to choose an image, name and size of button that the Action Block will display on your home screen. Google recently gave users the ability to create Action Blocks that speak aloud. Action Blocks work in tandem with the Google Assistant. The app works on devices using Android 5.0 and higher.

Courtesy Google Action Blocks

Edward C. Baig is a contributing writer who covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune and is the author of Macs for Dummies and the coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies​​.