New iOS, tvOS 26.4 Betas Add Accessibility Options
Apple has added a couple noteworthy accessibility-minded features to the forthcoming iOS and tvOS 26.4 software updates, according to recent reports.
Jeff Benjamin writes for 9to5 Mac this week iOS 26.4 Beta 2 includes a new Reduce Highlighting Effects option (in Accessibility → Display & Text Size) which Benjamin posits “will tweak the spectral highlights of the Liquid Glass display aspects.” I’m not running betas any longer—bless the people on social media who ride or die on the beta train—but his speculation feels right to me; Liquid Glass gives interface elements a glossy, shiny quality in various instances, which can make for tougher determination for people with certain visual disabilities. At a macro level, Reduce Highlighting Effects perfectly aligns with the other customization options Apple has introduced for Liquid Glass since last year. As I quipped in Jason Snell’s Apple Report Card, these aforementioned display tweaks serves as tacit acknowledgment from the company that the “idealized” Liquid Glass shown off at WWDC last June went too far, so the new options are signs of correction. Liquid Glass notwithstanding, that iOS 26.4 does include a new accessibility setting also is a telltale sign that Apple’s work on assistive technologies decidedly isn’t contained to one day a year, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. To quote my pal (and GAAD co-founder) Joe Devon, accessibility should matter the other 364 days of the year—a sentiment Apple surely understands.
As to Apple TV 4K, Ryan Christoffel reports for 9to5 Mac this week tvOS 26.4 adds a new feature which makes editing the visual styles of subtitles—ahem, captions—easier and more accessible. What historically was “buried” under Accessibility, as Christoffel wrote, is now available right from the system’s native video player. Crucially, he rightly motes “any app that uses the default tvOS video player will benefit from the feature.” I don’t mind the stock styling, but this enhancement seems like a good one. A person can edit text styles without necessarily leaving the program they’re currently watching.
