Liquid Glass pushes Apple’s marks down on the accessibility report card

AppleVis has released its 2025 edition of the Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, which focuses on the needs of people who are blind, partially sighted, or have low vision. Here are the highlights.

Since 2016, Jason Snell has been reviewing and publishing the Six Color Report Card, where he asks “a collection of writers, editors, developers, podcasters and other people for their opinions on how Apple has performed in the past year.”

Inspired by that, AppleVis has been publishing its report card since 2023, which focuses mainly on visual accessibility.

AppleVis owned by Be My Eyes was founded in 2020, and offers “many free resources to assist and empower blind, DeafBlind, and visually impaired users of Apple products and related applications”. You can read more about them here.

Charges Apple’s performance of 2025 in virtual access

In the 2025 edition of Apple’s Accessibility Report Card, AppleVis conducted an in-depth study covering aspects of visual accessibility in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS:

The survey is open to people who are blind, visually impaired, or visually impaired and have used at least one (1) Apple product or service in the year 2025. The survey asks you to rate these features and your experience using Apple software on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 is the least favorable rating and 5 is the most favorable rating), and optionally provide additional written comments. We also invite you to rate and comment on new vision accessibility features introduced by Apple in 2025, as well as Apple’s performance in addressing vision-related bugs over the past year.

In the survey, AppleVis also asked participants to share suggestions on how Apple can improve visual accessibility throughout its ecosystem.

In summary, Apple’s scores dropped significantly across the board, with its composite rating down 0.2 points to 3.7.

As AppleVis noted, Liquid Glass had a “significant negative impact on the user experience for many” visually impaired users. In contrast, VoiceOver and braille users showed “dissatisfaction with the quality of the software and the presence of long-term accessibility bugs.”

On the other hand, three categories saw a slight increase in satisfaction (0.1): iPadOS Braille User Experience, tvOS Low Vision User Experience, and MacOS Braille User Experience.

VoiceOver has been praised many times, called “a first-rate feature on every device” by Matthew Whitaker, and “the best screen reader I’ve ever used,” according to Leah Dykema’s commentary.

In terms of the big picture, most of the participants recognize Apple’s sincere efforts to develop and implement accessibility features in all its systems, which is something the company has made a great effort to communicate, especially in the last few years.

However, they also note that Apple has been dropping the ball on other aspects, including lingering bugs and problems introduced by the Liquid Glass visual overhaul.

The 2025 AppleVis Report Card provides an in-depth analysis of the state of Apple’s accessibility efforts, and we highly recommend taking the time to read it. Find it here.

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