This year, Apple introduced a helpful utility to simplify reading content displayed on screens, primarily aimed at users with vision impairments. It delivers a dedicated full-screen display for all visible text across applications, resembling the Reader View in Safari but applicable everywhere, and supports audio playback of the content.
The utility works on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro models, requiring updates to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, or visionOS 26 respectively.
The interface is intuitive overall, yet it provides multiple activation methods and personalization settings, so here's a step-by-step overview to enable it and adjust preferences.
To enable the function on all supported Apple hardware, navigate to Settings, then Accessibility, followed by Read & Speak, and activate Accessibility Reader at the top of that section. Afterward, various methods become available to start it.
One option involves triple-tapping the side button on iPhone, the top button on iPad or Vision Pro, or the Home button on earlier iPad models. This opens the Accessibility Shortcut menu, featuring an instant access option for Accessibility Reader.
To streamline access, disable unwanted elements in the shortcut menu via Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, allowing a direct launch upon activation.
For convenient use, integrate it into Control Center by swiping down from the upper-right corner, long-pressing an empty area, selecting 'Add a Control' at the bottom, and locating the Accessibility Reader option. From then on, simply select the icon in Control Center to begin.
On Mac systems, the standard keyboard combination is Cmd-Esc, though users can modify it through Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Reader by selecting the info icon beside the menu option.
Additionally, it integrates into the Mac's Accessibility Shortcut, accessible via Opt-Cmd-F5 on the keyboard, three quick presses of Touch ID, or a Control Center item, but the Cmd-Esc method remains the most direct for typical scenarios.
The feature incorporates text-to-speech capabilities; after opening Accessibility Reader, initiate playback with the play icon (▶) and pause it using the pause symbol (⏸) as needed.
Controls also allow navigating by rewinding or fast-forwarding with the corresponding icons, plus adjusting playback speed via the 1x selector.
For hands-free operation, enable automatic reading upon launch in Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Reader, or on Mac by clicking the info symbol next to the relevant menu entry.
Personalization is straightforward: in Accessibility Reader, select the formatting icon (AA) to modify aspects like themes, color schemes, fonts, line spacing, and additional elements.