I’ve long been an advocate for the iPhone’s accessibility features. Part of that stems from a long-standing belief that technology should work for as many people as possible, regardless of their circumstances. But also, I have skin in the game.
When iOS 7 arrived in 2013, Apple’s new obsession with motion and parallax triggered a vestibular condition that left me feeling dizzy whenever I used my iPhone. I wasn’t alone. My investigation for The Guardian revealed that potentially millions of people were suffering to various degrees. Fortunately, Apple later responded by introducing Reduce Motion, giving people like me a way to disable the effects.
In iOS 27, Reduce Motion can also be found in the new Appearance section within Settings.
What surprised me wasn’t so much that Apple provided a fix. The company had long prided itself on making its products more accessible. What came as a shock was how many people I knew tried Reduce Motion and left it enabled, despite not having experienced vestibular problems. They simply preferred their iPhone without all the animation. It felt faster, cleaner, and less distracting that way.
That experience reinforced something I’ve long believed: accessibility features shouldn’t be hidden away. They may be designed for specific audiences, but they can often unlock better ways to use your devices. When I wrote about the best accessibility settings for everyone, I really meant it. And in iOS 27, Apple has added new features that excite me because they’ll help people with accessibility needs use their iPhones more easily. But they’ll also give everyone else features they may not realize they want – until they try them.
More than meets the eye
My favorite updates are found in Magnifier. You can now use the Ask button to dig into specific details regarding what your iPhone can see. That has obvious benefits for people with visual impairments. But the appeal goes much wider.
If you’re dyslexic, it’s a great way to make sense of dense text. And if you’re Needs Reading Glasses years old, as I now am, it helps you decipher tiny print on packaging without hunting around for your specs. Siri reads the response aloud, but you can also tap to view answers in gloriously oversized text and ask follow-up questions.
Magnifier: doing what my eyes no longer can.
The immediacy makes this feature special. It’s designed for accessibility but never feels constrained to that label. I’d like Apple’s thinking to be similar when it comes to another great new feature: natural language in Voice Control.
Previously, using Voice Control felt like issuing precise commands to a computer. Now it understands instructions in a more natural way. For example, you can ask it to “open the orange folder” in Files. Or you can go beyond Deckard’s generic Esper machine commands in Blade Runner – “Zoom in!” “Track right!” – by asking your iPhone to zoom in on a specific detail.
To me, this is where AI – not just accessibility – delivers on its promise. Not because it makes your iPhone literally “intelligent” – it’s still software interpreting instructions – but because it makes interacting with your device feel more human. That’s so much better than flashy tricks and gimmicks. I just wish this feature wasn’t hidden away.
Still, it further hints at a future where iPhone software won’t be desperate to show off and will instead quietly continue to make using technology easier, more useful, and more human for everyone. And if Apple continues to use its AI powers for good, that also keeps us from that other science-fiction future, where AI runs amok, stomping across a barren Earth, seeking revenge on anyone who once muttered that Siri was kind of lousy.