Consciousness Labs

Accessibility at Awakening

Last updated: 28 November 2025

Awakening is designed so that as many people as possible can use the app to meditate, including people who are blind or have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, or have motor or cognitive disabilities.

Our goal is to align with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA over time and to respect the accessibility features built into Apple platforms (VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion, and more).

Key Accessibility Features

Screen Readers (VoiceOver)

Awakening is built to work with VoiceOver on iOS:

  • Core flows such as the home screen, meditation list, meditation player, and mini player expose clear labels and hints.
  • Meditation cards and mini player controls are grouped into logical accessibility elements, with decorative elements hidden from VoiceOver.
  • Playback progress is announced via accessible values and traits so users can track how far along they are in a session.

We are continuing to expand and refine VoiceOver support on some secondary screens such as Profile, Settings, and certain static content pages.

Subtitles and Transcripts for Guided Meditations

All guided meditations include on-device subtitles based on standard SRT (SubRip) files:

  • Subtitles mirror the spoken narration in real time, including all intention-specific audio segments.
  • Users can toggle subtitles on or off from within the player; preference is remembered per meditation.
  • Subtitle text respects Dynamic Type, adjusts padding at larger sizes, and is exposed to VoiceOver as a single readable element.

Our aim is to make the full meditation content available as text for deaf and hard-of-hearing users and anyone who prefers to read along.

In future releases, we plan to expand subtitles to include more non-speech information (for example: [bell sound] or [ambient music]), making them closer to full SDH-style captions.

Dynamic Type and Text Legibility

Awakening supports Dynamic Type, including the larger accessibility text sizes:

  • Text uses semantic styles that scale with the system text size.
  • Layouts are designed and tested to remain usable at the largest accessibility sizes.
  • Color choices and contrast are chosen to meet or exceed WCAG AA contrast guidelines in both light and dark appearance.

Motion and Animations

The app respects the system “Reduce Motion” setting in some areas:

  • Certain interactive elements (such as duration selection and tab transitions) reduce or remove animations when Reduce Motion is enabled.

We are actively working to extend this support so that all major animated elements, including breathing visuals and other meditation animations, fully respect the Reduce Motion setting.

Touch Targets and Hit Areas

Interactive elements are designed to meet or exceed the recommended minimum touch target size of 44×44 points, including:

  • Player controls
  • Duration and timer controls
  • Main navigation items

This helps users with motor impairments or limited precision tap controls reliably.

Known Limitations and Ongoing Work

Accessibility is an ongoing process. Today, we are aware of the following areas that still need improvement:

  • Some secondary screens (for example, Profile and certain Settings views) do not yet have complete VoiceOver labels, traits, or reading order refinements.
  • A few custom controls could better expose actions such as scrubbing or adjusting timers through accessible actions.
  • Some animations and visual effects do not yet fully honor the system Reduce Motion setting.
  • Large-content previews (zoomed views of small controls or images) are not yet implemented for all custom components.

We are actively iterating on these areas and treat accessibility issues as product bugs, not feature requests.

Third-Party Services

Awakening may link to external services such as the App Store. These third-party platforms have their own accessibility policies. While we choose partners who strive for accessibility, we cannot guarantee their compliance with WCAG or other standards.

Feedback and Contact

If you experience any accessibility barriers while using Awakening, or if you have suggestions that would make the app easier to use with assistive technologies, we’d really like to hear from you.

Please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]
(If email is not accessible for you, please indicate this and we will work with you to find an alternative way to communicate.)

When you contact us, it helps if you can include:

  • A short description of the problem
  • The device and iOS version you’re using
  • The version of Awakening (if known)
  • Any assistive technologies that were turned on (for example, VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion)

We review all accessibility feedback and use it to guide future updates to Awakening.

Thank you for using Awakening and helping us build a more accessible meditation experience for everyone.