Phone Accessibility Features Worth Knowing About

Published 2026-10-16 · Marion Phone Repair

Accessibility features on phones were designed for people with disabilities — vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive. But many of these features are useful for anyone in specific situations: reading in bright sunlight, using your phone with one hand while carrying groceries, hearing a phone call in a noisy room, or reducing eye strain at night. Both iPhone and Android have extensive accessibility settings, and most of them are free, built-in, and require no additional apps.

Vision features

Larger text and display

iPhone: Settings, Display and Brightness, Text Size. Drag the slider to increase text size in apps that support Dynamic Type (most built-in apps and many third-party apps). For even larger text, go to Settings, Accessibility, Display and Text Size, Larger Text, and enable Larger Accessibility Sizes — this unlocks sizes well beyond the standard slider
Android: Settings, Display, Font size (or Display size on some phones). Font size changes text, while Display size scales everything — icons, buttons, and text together. Samsung phones have both settings under Settings, Display, Font size and style and Screen zoom
Bold text: Both platforms offer bold text (iPhone: Settings, Display and Brightness, Bold Text; Android: Settings, Accessibility, Bold text). Bold text makes all system text thicker and easier to read without increasing size

Screen magnification

iPhone Zoom: Settings, Accessibility, Zoom. When enabled, double-tap with three fingers to magnify any part of the screen. Drag with three fingers to move around while zoomed. This works over everything — apps, home screen, lock screen, even the keyboard. Window Zoom mode shows a magnified window you can move around rather than zooming the entire screen
Android Magnification: Settings, Accessibility, Magnification. Triple-tap the screen to zoom in, then drag two fingers to pan. You can also set it to activate with an accessibility button in the navigation bar. Magnification works on top of any app

VoiceOver and TalkBack (screen readers)

Screen readers read everything on the screen aloud, allowing the phone to be used without looking at the display:

iPhone VoiceOver: Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver. When enabled, tap an item to hear it described, double-tap to activate it. Swipe left or right to move between items. VoiceOver changes how the phone responds to touch — it takes practice to learn the gesture set. You can enable it temporarily to help someone who cannot see the screen
Android TalkBack: Settings, Accessibility, TalkBack. Works similarly — tap to hear, double-tap to select, swipe to navigate. Both screen readers support braille displays via Bluetooth
Practical uses: Screen readers are essential for blind users but also useful for anyone who needs to use their phone without looking — while driving (with a mount), cooking with messy hands, or navigating with the phone in a pocket

Hearing features

Live Captions

Both platforms can generate real-time captions for any audio playing on the phone — phone calls, videos, voice messages, podcasts, even in-person conversations using the microphone:

iPhone Live Captions: Settings, Accessibility, Live Captions. Captions appear in a floating overlay on any audio source. Works on phone calls, FaceTime, and media. Available on iPhone 11 and later with iOS 16 or later
Android Live Caption: Settings, Accessibility, Live Caption (or press a volume button and tap the Live Caption icon). Captions appear at the bottom of the screen during any media playback. On Pixel phones and newer Samsung phones, Live Caption also works on phone calls
Both features process audio on-device — no internet connection required, and the audio is not sent to any server

Sound amplification and hearing aid support

iPhone: Made for iPhone hearing aids connect directly via Bluetooth Low Energy and are controlled from Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices. Live Listen (under Hearing Devices) turns AirPods into a remote microphone — place the phone near someone speaking in a noisy restaurant and hear their voice amplified directly in your AirPods
Android Sound Amplifier: Settings, Accessibility, Sound Amplifier (on Pixel) or an app available from the Play Store. It amplifies ambient sounds through wired headphones, with controls for boosting quiet sounds and reducing loud ones. Some Samsung phones have a similar feature under Accessibility, Hearing enhancements

Visual and vibration alerts

LED Flash for Alerts (iPhone): Settings, Accessibility, Audio/Visual, LED Flash for Alerts. The camera flash blinks when you receive a notification. Useful in noisy environments where you might miss the vibration
Flash notification (Android): Settings, Accessibility, Flash notification. Some Android phones flash the camera LED, the screen, or both for incoming notifications

Motor and touch features

Voice Control

Full hands-free control of the phone using voice commands — not just voice search or virtual assistant commands, but actual navigation and interaction with every element on screen:

iPhone Voice Control: Settings, Accessibility, Voice Control. When enabled, you can say things like Open Safari, Tap search, Scroll down, Go back, Swipe left. You can also say Show numbers to overlay numbers on every tappable element, then say the number to tap it. Voice Control works offline after downloading the language model
Android Voice Access: Download the Voice Access app from the Play Store. It overlays numbers on interactive elements and responds to voice commands for tapping, scrolling, typing, and navigating. Say Show grid to overlay a numbered grid for precise tapping anywhere on screen

AssistiveTouch and touch accommodations

iPhone AssistiveTouch: Settings, Accessibility, Touch, AssistiveTouch. Adds a floating button that opens a menu with Home, Control Center, Notification Center, volume, lock, and custom actions. Useful when physical buttons are broken or hard to press. You can also customize gestures — assign double-tap or long-press on the floating button to common actions like screenshot, mute, or restart
Android accessibility menu: Settings, Accessibility, Accessibility menu. Adds a large floating button that opens a menu with common actions — screenshot, lock screen, volume, quick settings, notifications. The buttons in this menu are large and easy to tap
Touch accommodations: Both platforms let you adjust how the screen responds to touch — increasing the hold duration required to register a tap (to prevent accidental touches), ignoring repeated touches within a time window, or requiring a longer touch for touch-and-hold. These settings help users with tremors or limited fine motor control

One-handed mode

iPhone Reachability: Swipe down on the bottom edge of the screen to slide the entire display down, bringing the top-row buttons within thumb reach. Enable in Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Reachability
Android one-handed mode: Settings, Accessibility (or Display, or Advanced features on Samsung), One-handed mode. Shrinks the display to one side of the screen so the opposite thumb can reach all corners. Some Android versions let you choose which side the shrunken screen appears on

Cognitive and focus features

Guided Access (iPhone): Settings, Accessibility, Guided Access. Triple-click the side button to lock the phone into a single app with specific areas of the screen disabled. Useful for handing the phone to a child (locks them into one app and prevents them from navigating away) or for focusing on a single task by disabling the home gesture
Focus modes: Both platforms offer Do Not Disturb and Focus modes that filter notifications to reduce distraction. iPhone Focus modes (Settings, Focus) let you create custom profiles for Work, Personal, Sleep, etc., each with its own set of allowed contacts and apps
Reduce Motion: iPhone: Settings, Accessibility, Motion, Reduce Motion. Replaces animations with simple fades, which helps users who experience motion sickness from screen transitions. Also reduces battery usage slightly

How to find all accessibility settings

iPhone: Settings, Accessibility. All features are organized by category: Vision, Physical and Motor, Hearing, General. You can also add accessibility shortcuts to Control Center or set the side button triple-click to toggle a specific feature
Android: Settings, Accessibility. Layout varies by manufacturer. Google Pixel organizes by category. Samsung puts many features under separate menus (Vision, Hearing, Interaction and dexterity). You can also download additional accessibility apps from the Play Store

Accessibility setup in Marion

Marion Phone Repair helps set up accessibility features on iPhone and Android — configuring text size, voice control, hearing aid pairing, and other settings to match what you need.