For individuals with severe physical motor impairments, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, or ALS, navigating touchscreens using physical fingers or hands presents insurmountable physical barriers. In iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, Apple introduced native Eye Tracking. Built into the core accessibility layer, Eye Tracking utilizes the front-facing TrueDepth camera and on-device machine learning models to track pupil movement across the display, allowing users to navigate apps, trigger buttons, swipe through feeds, and type using Dwell Control with zero additional hardware.
Hardware Prerequisites and Processing Architecture
Because Eye Tracking performs continuous real-time neural pupil segmentation at 60 frames per second:
- Supported Devices: iPhone 12 and newer models, iPad Pro (all models with Apple Silicon), iPad Air (3rd gen or newer), and iPad mini (6th gen or newer) running iOS 18.0 / iPadOS 18.0 or later.
- On-Device Privacy Enclave: The front camera video feed is processed entirely inside the Apple Neural Engine. No raw camera images or eye telemetry data ever leave the device or upload to iCloud.
- Lighting & Positioning: Best results occur when the device is placed on a stable mount or desk stand approximately 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) directly in front of your face.
Calibrating Eye Tracking for the First Time
To calibrate the front-facing sensors to your gaze:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Under the Physical and Motor section, tap Eye Tracking.
- Toggle the Eye Tracking switch to On.
- The calibration wizard initializes: a smooth animated dot appears on a dark screen.
- Follow the dot smoothly with your eyes as it travels across different sectors of the display canvas. Keep your head relatively still while moving only your eyes.
- Once the circular progress fills for all calibration points, calibration locks into active memory.
Mastering Gaze Pointer and Dwell Control
Once active, a smooth pointer tracking circle follows your gaze across the screen:
- Gaze Navigation: Look toward any application icon, button, or toggle. The pointer glides to your focal point.
- Dwell to Tap: Fix your gaze on an interactive element and hold steady for a split second (the Dwell timing). A subtle outline ring completes a rotation around the target, automatically triggering a primary touch tap.
- Adjusting Dwell Time: In Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Dwell Control, adjust dwell duration (default is 1.5 seconds) faster or slower depending on personal comfort.
Executing Swipes, Scrolling, and System Actions
To perform complex touch gestures without hands:
- Enable AssistiveTouch alongside Eye Tracking.
- Gazing at the floating AssistiveTouch button triggers the action menu.
- From the menu, choose gestures such as Scroll Down, Scroll Up, App Switcher, Home, or Notification Center.
- Pairing Eye Tracking with Vocal Shortcuts creates the ultimate hands-free experience: navigate with your eyes and speak short custom vocal sounds to trigger taps instantly.