Apple Honors Speechify, Art of Fauna for accessibility at this year’s Apple Design Awards

At WWDC 2025 this week, Apple recognized this year’s Apple Design Award (ADA) winners. The Cupertino-based company celebrated a dozen apps and games for the honor, with one app and one game winning in six categories: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics.

Pertinent to accessibility is, of course, the Inclusivity category. The winners here are Speechify and Art of Fauna. Speechify transforms written text in audio, with support of hundreds of voices and over 50 languages. The app also features robust support for iOS accessibility stalwarts in Dynamic Type and VoiceOver, and is an indispensable tool for anyone who copes with conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia, and/or low vision. Regarding Art of Fauna, made by Austria-based Klemens Strasser, the game is a conservation-themed puzzle title which incorporates wildlife imagery. The game tasks players with rearranging visual elements or pieces of descriptive text, with the game supporting accessibility by way of rich screen reader and haptic feedback support.

Apple announced the ADA finalists and winners earlier this month. The honorees spanned the globe and were chosen as winners because their work demonstrated “excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement,” according to Apple.

“Developers continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, creating apps and games that are not only beautifully designed but also deeply impactful,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, said in a statement. “We’re excited to celebrate this incredible group of winners and finalists at WWDC and spotlight the innovation and craftsmanship they bring to each experience.”

On a related note, the physical trophy Apple gives to ADA winners is truly something to behold. The hardware is a dense, substantially weighty cube milled from a single piece of aluminum. I bring it up because, at last year’s WWDC, I got to see (and hold!) an ADA trophy for the first time. It happened during a briefing at Apple Park with the makers of Oko, an iPhone app which leverages artificial intelligence to make street-crossing more accessible to Blind and low vision people. The team had the cube proudly displayed on a coffee table during our discussion, after which they asked if I’d be interested in picking up the cube and feeling it. I’m sure there exists a picture of me somewhere.

The salient point? The ADA trophy has every bit the fit and finish of an iPhone or iPad.