accessibilityApple includes a raft of accessibility options in iOS to meet the various needs of its users, allowing them to customize their iPhone and iPad interface in several helpful ways. To make these features quicker to access, Apple also includes an Accessibility Shortcut feature in iOS that, once set up, can be invoked using a triple click of the Home button (or Side button if you have a device with Face ID).

This shortcut feature is ideal for users who could benefit from fast access to a customized menu of accessibility options. It's also a great solution if you just want a quick way to control a single accessibility mode like Reduce White Point, for example, which dims the screen below standard low brightness levels. Here we'll show you how to set up Accessibility Shortcut for either use case.

How to Set up Accessibility Shortcut in iOS

  1. Launch the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌.

  2. Tap Accessibility.

  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and tap Accessibility Shortcut.

  4. Tap the options you'd like to include in the shortcut menu. You can also drag on the bars at the far right of each option to change the order in which they appear.
    settings

Here are just some of the Accessibility options available to you:

  • AssistiveTouch: Enables the AssistiveTouch onscreen menu, which can help users perform gestures, and find and adjust certain settings like volume, Rotate Screen, Lock Screen, and more.
  • Classic Invert Colors: Inverts all colors on the screen, which can be invaluable for users with certain visual impairments.
  • Color Filters: Specific filters and tint options for users with different types of color blindness.
  • Reduce White Point: Dims the brightness of whites and bright colors on the screen.
  • Smart Invert Colors: Like classic invert, above, but inverts only certain areas of the user interface and leaves images and some graphical elements in their original format and colors.
  • Switch Control: Management hub for controlling ability switches and other adaptive devices, for users with limited mobility.
  • VoiceOver: Makes your iOS device speak to you during use – helpful for people who have trouble seeing display information.
  • Zoom: Three-fingered double tap zoom function that makes display elements bigger and easier to read.

Note that if you tick only one option for your Accessibility Shortcut, you can enable it instantly with a triple-click of the Side/Home button. If you've ticked several, the triple-click action brings up the Accessibility Shortcut menu. Then just tap the option you want to use.

accessibility
If you're having trouble pressing the Side/Home button three times in quick succession, you can adjust the triple-click speed by going to Settings -> Accessibility -> Side Button / Home Button. Alternatively, you can add the Accessibility Shortcut to Control Center in the following way.

How to Add Accessibility Shortcut to Control Center

  1. Launch the Settings app.
  2. Tap Control Center.
  3. Find Accessibility Shortcuts under the "More Controls" list and then tap the entry to include it in Control Center.
    settings

  4. Next, launch Control Center on your iOS device in the following manner: On ‌iPad‌, double-tap the Home button; on ‌iPhone‌ 8 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of the screen; or on an ‌iPhone‌ with ‌Face ID‌, swipe down from the upper right "ear".
  5. Tap the Accessibility Shortcut button in the Control Center grid and select the desired accessibility option from the onscreen menu.
    accessibility 5

Top Rated Comments

Apple_Robert Avatar
69 months ago
Another good article from MacRumors. I hope that articles like this appear weekly, as there are many people who may not know the proverbial in and outs of iOS.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

google drive for desktop1

Google to Roll Out New 'Drive for Desktop' App in the Coming Weeks, Replacing Backup & Sync and Drive File Stream Clients

Tuesday July 13, 2021 1:18 am PDT by
Earlier this year, Google announced that it planned to unify its Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync apps into a single Google Drive for desktop app. The company now says the new sync client will roll out "in the coming weeks" and has released additional information about what users can expect from the transition. To recap, there are currently two desktop sync solutions for using Google...