The history of Apple’s accessibility work dates back to the early days of the Mac, and while the iPhone took a little while, it’s now the standard-bearer when it comes to accessibility in the smartphone world.
Technologies like VoiceOver that shipped on the iPhone 3GS and the Apple Watch’s ability to detect and warn you about loud noises are important for everyone, even as the impact of those features is felt in different ways for different people.
The newest episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz explores these technologies and features, and covers Apple’s current work to inform users about hearing loss, and then give them tools to combat it. That comes in the form of hearing aid integration, but also things like the multiple audio modes present on the AirPods Pro 2, including protection from loud noises and assistance when in a conversation. Pretty remarkable for the earbuds that I always have in my pocket.
This sort of work is Apple at its very best.