Apple has announced four new accessibility features for iOS 27, all powered by Apple Intelligence. The features include VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control, and Accessibility Reader. The announcement came on May 19, 2026, just hours before Google I/O.
Four AI-powered accessibility tools debut
VoiceOver now includes Image Explorer, which uses Apple Intelligence to provide detailed image descriptions. It also offers Live Recognition via the Action button. The Magnifier app supports voice commands such as 'zoom in' or 'turn on flashlight' and can be triggered by the Action button for visual queries. Voice Control allows users to control the iPhone and apps using natural language commands. Accessibility Reader provides on-demand summaries and high-fidelity translations for text-heavy content.
Other new features include on-device speech recognition that generates subtitles for any video across Apple's ecosystem. Vision Pro users in the US can control a wheelchair via the Tolt and LUCI drive systems. Vehicle Motion Cues in visionOS help reduce motion sickness for car passengers. Name Recognition can notify hearing-impaired users when their name is called.
The timing of the announcement, just before Google I/O, has been seen as a competitive move. Some observers have noted that the natural language capabilities in Voice Control could be a step toward agentic AI on the iPhone. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has suggested that Apple's AI may lag behind competitors for one to two years, but Apple has not confirmed this assessment.
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