Shortcuts for Accessibility (#GAAD)

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD). Every GAAD I like to focus on new innovative solutions that make accessibility more personal and more intuitive across our devices. In this article I’ll be talking about one of these, Shortcuts for iOS. You can find Shortcuts on your iPhone or iPad, it is an Apple app that comes included with your device, and what Shortcuts allows you to do is to do everyday tasks with apps on your device just with a tap or by saying Hey Siri. Where it gets really fun and incredibly useful is when you start creating connections between apps to perform life hacks that can be transformative to the way you use your iPhone or iPad. The reason I am talking about Shortcuts today is that Apple have released a whole new gallery of Shortcuts for you to use that are specific to accessibility.

In the video at the top of this post I show you how to use Shortcuts and how to find the Shortcuts for Accessibility gallery. I then showcase my three favourite accessibility shortcuts, including a GIF mood finder that is a revelation in terms of providing varied representations of real emotions to users (think students who require support recognising and projecting emotions); an emoji AAC tool; and a mood diary that records how you are feeling and sends the results to your Notes for later review.

After watching my video, go into Shortcuts and find the accessibility gallery and find ones that will support you, your family and others in your life.

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019,

Craig.