Apple’s Assistive Access Feature

Apple’s Assistive Access Feature
A way to make your iPhone simpler

Phones can do more than ever today than they used to, but with more features also comes more complex interfaces. To solve this, Apple has added their Assistive Access feature to their phones which makes the iPhone much simpler and more usable for those with visual, fine mobility issues, or just want a simpler iPhone.

What is it?
Assistive Access is a way to set up your iPhone to have a limited amount of apps and simpler features. It makes icons bigger, easier to navigate, features more focused, and common iPhone apps easier to understand. The phone looks like this:

Useful Features
Along with making common iPhone apps simpler, Assistive Access offers many other features including:

• Adding a limited number of contacts for the person to call and message.
• Need to tap End Call twice so there are no accidental hangups.
• Bigger buttons!
• Add as many or few apps as you need
  • Note* not all apps have been adapted for Assistive Access but can still be used!

How to set up
You can set up Assistive Access yourself or help someone else with setup.
Set Up – Finding Assistive Access

1. Open Settings on the Apple device
2. Click Accessibility
3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Assistive Access
4. Click Set Up Assistive Access.

Set up – Once you have found Assistive Access

1. A pop up will show up saying ‘Set Up Assistive Access. Click ‘Continue’ to set up or swipe down and press ‘Exit & Save’ to exit this screen
2. Log in or confirm Apple ID
3. Choose appearance between rows and grid
4. Select the apps you wish to add using the green + symbol. It will specify which apps are optimised for Assistive Access and which are not
   1. Note* in each of the optimised apps, you will get a list of options to choose from including which contacts to receive messages and calls from and the types of photos you can take.
5. Click ‘Continue’. A page will appear telling you how certain features have changed
6. Click ‘Continue’ and set an Assistive Access Passcode. This is done to turn on and off Assistive Access.
7. You can set an optional Recovery Apple ID if you forget your Passcode. This step does not have to be completed.
8. Click ‘Continue’ and enter the passcode. Assistive Access will take a moment to load.

Exiting/Editing Assistive Access
Exiting Assistive Access
To exit Assistive Access, triple click the side button and tap ‘Exit Assistive Access’. Type your passcode and then you will be taken out of Assistive Access.

To start Assistive Access again, you will need to go to Settings –> Accessibility –> Assistive Access and then click ‘Start Assistive Access’. To make it easier, you can set up a shortcut in the Accessibility settings.

Editing Assistive Access
To change settings for Assistive Access such as adding/removing apps, contacts, etc. follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap ‘Accessibility’
3. Scroll down and tap ‘Assistive Access’

From here, you’ll be able to add/remove apps, how the icons are laid out, wallpaper, etc.