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Apple talks about accessibility in iOS 13 and ensures that mouse support will not be expanded

Conceito de iPad com mouse

One of the features of iOS / iPadOS 13 most celebrated by advanced users is support for pointer devices in the system, as a Mouse or one trackpad – we have already given details about the integration in that article. The idea is that, with a more precise control accessory, the iPad potentially becomes a device more suitable for professional applications, coming even closer to the Mac / PC as a work tool.

On the other hand, Apple goes in a different direction: mouse support, as the company has repeatedly reiterated, is a accessibility feature, designed for people with limited mobility to use the iPad (or iPhone) more easily and accurately. For that reason, it is not activated by default and needs to be configured in very specific menus within the settings of iOS / iPadOS 13.

In a conversation with TechCrunch about the accessibility features of Apple’s new systems, the company’s director of global accessibility policies and initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger, reinforced this view: the iPad and the iPhone will always be, par excellence, touch-controlled devices and that will never change – the mouse control is intended for only a portion of its users.

Herrlinger said he was aware that users without mobility difficulties would also use the feature eventually, in the same way that other Apple accessibility tools (such as “Typing To Siri” or “Universal Magnifier”) are used by people who, in theory, do not depend on them for the use of the devices. She said, however, that mouse support was thought of from the beginning (it started being designed a few years ago) as a resource for users with difficulties, not an expansion of the system’s capabilities.

In other words, it is not because iOS / iPadOS 13 can be controlled by a mouse that we will begin to see more complex applications, with long columns of small buttons inaccessible to touch; there will also be no apps on the App Store with a warning that says “works better with a mouse”. The primacy of mobile devices is still touch, and so it will be for the visible future – nothing more fair, is it not?

Voice Control (Voice Control)

Herrlinger also talked about the new feature of Voice Control which will arrive on iOS / iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina 10.15, giving some more details about its operation.

In a small demonstration made by the executive to journalists, the tool proved to be very powerful and functional, interpreting and executing commands correctly even in a noisy environment. Voice Control accepts simple natural language commands, such as “open Mail” or “send Happy Birthday to Mary on iMessage” (in English – support for other languages ​​will be added later), but it goes beyond a way that you can control basically the entire device with speech only.

Some examples: in a Safari favorites screen, with several pages of huge or unpronounceable titles, you can say “show numbers” so that the resource assigns a number to each option displayed on the screen; from there, just say “click on 21”, for example. You can also ask the tool to show a grid on the screen so that you can perform precise click / tap, drag or zoom commands.

According to Herrlinger, Voice Control will be constantly improved and can be extensively customized by the user, so that even people with total movement disabilities can control devices.

Incredible, isn’t it?