How to share your accessibility settings with another iPhone and iPad

Learn how to temporarily share your personal accessibility settings from one iPhone or iPad to another without overwriting the accessibility settings on that device.

iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 (currently in beta) bring a new feature that lets you share your personal accessibility settings from one iPhone or iPad to another. Doing so will make using someone else’s iPhone or iPad more familiar and comfortable to you.

The shared accessibility settings are in place temporarily; once you stop sharing, the accessibility settings on another device will return to their previous values. If you lock another device, it will stop using the shared accessibility settings until unlocked.

Share accessibility settings from one iPhone to another

1) Enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on all devices; you don’t need to be connected to a wireless network for this to work..

2) Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap Accessibility, then scroll to the bottom and tap Share Accessibility Settings.

3) Tap Share Accessibility Settings on the next screen and hit Continue. You’ll now see all devices in your proximity; tap the nearby iPhone or iPad that you’d like to temporarily share your accessibility settings with.

4) The other iPhone or iPad will display a requeut to receive accessibility settings. Tap Accept in the prompt to approvie the reqiest or Decline to cancel it.

In the screen recording embedded below, you can see that the Zoom accessibiltiy feature is turned off on my iPhone. But after accepting accessibility settings from another device where Zoom is turned on, it’s also enabled on my iPhone.

Stop sharing accessibility settings with another iPhone

Once you’re done using another device, remove your accessibility settings by hitting the tiny blue accessibility icon in the status bar and selecting “Stop Sharing.”

Some things to keep in mind

Sharing accessible settings requires iOS 25 beta 4 or later; it didn’t work for me in the previous betas. The sharing process resembles the AirDrop feature, but doesn’t require it. In fact, sharing accessibility settings even works (with moderate success) when Bluetooth is turned off on the host device. To ensure hassle-free operation, be sure to turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both devices.

You can also touch and hold with three fingers the screen of another iPhone to accept the incoming accessibility sharing request, but this doesn’t always work.

If you turn on Sync to iCloud,” in the share accessibility settings, accessibility settings from this device will sync across all your other devices signed into the same Apple account. However, this doesn’t seem to be working in the current iOS 26 beta.

If you can’t share your accessibility settings

It can happen because of temporary system glitches or bugs in iOS 26. To fix this, turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both devices and be sure to keep them within Bluetooth range of 33 feet, or ten meters.

If you still get a Failed message when sharing your accessibility settings, restart the devices and try again. If you cannot restart another device, restart your own iPhone or iPad and re-try sharing your accessibility settings.

Accessibility for the rest of us

Apple’s devices provide the best accessibility features in the industry. Although these features are primarily designed for people with disabilities, many of them are too good to pass on.

For example, if you cannot read small type, the VoiceOver feature can provide spoken cues. You can also set up the Zoom feature to enlarge anything on the screen, text included, with fullscreen zoom.

The AssistiveTouch feature is great for people who have difficulty pressing the physical buttons, but you can use it to perform system functions like taking a screenshot when physical buttons are broken. We’ve rounded up the top 40 accessibility features on the iPhone and iPad for those interested.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/07/28/how-to-share-accessibility-settings/