AppleVis has released its 2025 edition of the Apple Vision Accessibility Report Cardwhich focuses on the needs of people who are blind, DeafBlind, or who have low vision. Here are the highlights.
Since 2016, Jason Snell has been curating and publishing the fascinating Six Colors Report Cardin which he asks “a collection of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people for their opinions about how Apple fared in the year just gone by.”
Inspired by that, AppleVis has been publishing its own report card since 2023, centered specifically on visual accessibility.
Be My Eyes-owned AppleVis was founded in 2020, and it offers “a number of free resources to assist and empower blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users of Apple products and related applications”. You can learn more about them here.
Charting Apple’s 2025 performance in visual accessibility
For the 2025 edition of the Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, AppleVis ran a comprehensive survey covering vision accessibility features on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS:
The survey is open to people who are blind, DeafBlind, or have low vision and who used at least one (1) Apple product or service during 2025. The survey asks you to rate these features and your experience of using Apple software on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 is the least-favorable rating and 5 is the most-favorable), and optionally provide additional written comments. We also invite you to rate and comment on new vision accessibility features introduced by Apple in 2025, as well as Apple’s performance in addressing vision-related bugs over the past year.
In the survey, AppleVis also asked participants to share suggestions on how Apple could improve visual accessibility across its ecosystem.
In a nutshell, Apple’s grades fell pretty much across the board, with its cumulative rating dropping 0.2 points to 3.7.
As AppleVis noted, Liquid Glass “had a significant negative impact on the user experience for many” low vision users. In contrast, VoiceOver and braille users showed “dissatisfaction with software quality and the presence of long-standing accessibility bugs.”
On the upside, three categories saw a slight (0.1) increase in satisfaction: iPadOS Braille User Experience, tvOS Low Vision User Experience, and macOS Braille User Experience.
VoiceOver got multiple positive mentions, being referred to as “a first-class feature on every device” by Matthew Whitaker, and “by far the best screen reader I’ve ever used,” per Leah Dykema’s comment.
Big picture-wise, most participants recognize Apple’s earnest efforts to improve and evolve accessibility features across its systems, which is something the company has made a significant effort to communicate, particularly over the past few years.
However, they also note that Apple has been dropping the ball on some aspects, including long-standing bugs and issues introduced by the Liquid Glass visual overhaul.
The 2025 AppleVis Report Card offers a thorough in-depth analysis of the state of Apple’s visual accessibility efforts, and we highly recommend taking the time to read it. Find it here.
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