Apple’s “Liquid Glass” and What It Means for Accessibility

Tim Cook once said "When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don't consider the bloody ROI."

Yesterday Apple unveiled their new “Liquid Glass” design language at WWDC 2025. The whole user interface becomes layers of translucent elements floating over your content, with glass-like behavior that refracts light and reacts to movement. It’s interesting stuff. But I'm wondering what this means for readability for the millions of people who struggle with traditional interfaces already.

Here we have a company that positions accessibility as a human right introducing a design system that seems at odds with basic accessibility principles. Like they built a glass house and forgot that not everyone can walk in it without bumping into walls.

I can't even tell how I feel about how it looks yet. But I know I feel weird about how it works. Once you start thinking about stuff like contrast ratios, and the whole thing feels off.

Why should I care? I run a digital design agency called Mumino, where we create custom websites and brand identities. So I spend time thinking about WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These guidelines require at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text. That's not some random number, it's based on research about what people need to read comfortably. When you have translucent elements letting background colors bleed through, you're creating variable contrast ratios that might work well over one background, but fail over a bright photo of the sunset.

Complying with accessibility guidelines is deep & complex. There are layers to this stuff that even experienced designers miss. I'm fortunate to have healthy eyesight, no disabilities, and I'm aware there's always more to learn about creating fully inclusive experiences. But that's exactly why it's interesting to see Apple, a company with all the resources and expertise in the world, making design choices that raise a bunch of questions.

Apple's been an accessibility leader. They gave us VoiceOver on macOS in 2005 at no extra cost at a time when competitors viewed screen readers as expensive add-ons. They push the industry forward. But in all their coverage of Liquid Glass (so far), there's not a word about accessibility. No words on contrast issues, no words about whether they’re considering users with visual impairments.

This silence feels odd because Apple knows better. They understand their design decisions ripple through the entire tech industry. When Apple removed the headphone jack, everyone removed the headphone jack. When Apple turned the iPhone's notch into the Dynamic Island, Android phones that don’t have notches started making fake notches, just so they could have a Dynamic Island too. That's influence. But here they are making what looks like a purely aesthetic decision without addressing the accessibility implications.

The contrast problem isn't theoretical. When you have text appearing over multiple colors at the same time because of translucent backgrounds, readability becomes a moving target. Someone with low vision might read a notification fine over one wallpaper, but if the same notification slides over a different wallpaper photo, that notification went just went poof. People with dyslexia, who already struggle with busy backgrounds and low-contrast text, now deal with an interface where visual noise is baked into the design language. People with attention disorders may have their focus messed up when they see multiple translucent layers creating a whole lot of visual noise. Hell, it already feels distracting to me.

Then there's the philosophical part. Apple has a "Reduce Transparency" setting that swaps transparent elements for mostly solid colors. I bet they'll point to this as their accessibility solution. In their defense, this should be fine. But there's something off about designing an interface where the main marketed feature – Liquid Glass – is talked about like it’s this amazing thing…for some. The others get some toggle deep in their Settings app that they’ll probably never know exists. I mean, it’s called Liquid Glass. If you reduce transparency then what is it now? Opaque Glass? Flint-Michigan-Glass?

It's like having a grand entrance and a side door marked "accessible." Technically compliant. But missing the point.

The legal landscape adds another layer. There’s thousands of digital accessibility lawsuits filed in the U.S. yearly for violating the ADA, or the American Disabilities Act. Companies are paying millions in settlements. But this is Apple. They have millions. Plus all the resources in the world to save them from legal risks. But their influence means they're setting precedents. Smaller companies will follow suit even though they don’t have the same resources for testing and implementing accessibility solutions. And now they just got sued. Apple's design language means the spread of its design language, and now that means accessibility problems without accessibility solutions.

As someone in the design industry, I've seen this pattern before. A major company makes a cool new aesthetic and people copy it. The difference is that when a small agency makes these choices, it affects hundreds or maybe thousands of users. When Apple does it, it affects billions and sets the standard for an entire industry.

Apple definitely has smart, talented people working on accessibility. They understand these issues better than myself and almost anyone else. Which makes the silence around Liquid Glass's accessibility problems even more intriguing. Are they confident they've solved any problems? Are they planning to address concerns after everyone tries out the developer betas? Or have they simply decided that the vibes outweigh their accessibility focus?

The answer matters because this is Apple. If they ignore accessibility concerns, it’ll be interesting to see if that gets normalized industry-wide.

Maybe Apple has solutions they haven’t announced yet. Maybe there are accessibility considerations in Liquid Glass we can't see yet. But the burden might be on Apple to show their design language works for everyone. Not just people who see clearly. Until then, we have a design system that looks cool in demos but creates barriers for millions already facing obstacles.

The real test won't be whether Liquid Glass gets good press coverage, gets awards, or wins the hearts of people on TikTok. It’ll be when millions of people across the world update their phones to iOS 26, and we see if someone with low vision can read notifications, or someone with dyslexia can navigate their phone without being visually overwhelmed, or whether people with cognitive disabilities can focus without being thrown off by glass bubbles.

Making design accessible is hard. Really hard. There's always another edge case, another consideration, another standard to meet. It’s overwhelming. But that's why all this is so interesting.

I'm not here to throw stones from my glass house. Just observing, wondering what the future of accessible design will be for Apple, and for the rest of us.