By ear
If you're blind or have low vision, or would simply rather listen, VoiceOver reads every poster, button, and rating by name. Each part of a screen is a heading you can jump to.
Accessibility
Made for every kind of movie lover
Some people listen to their screen. Others speak to it, read it at the largest text size, or browse with the sound off. Limelight works with the accessibility features built into iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so it fits the way you watch.
Last updated October 15, 2026
Who Limelight is for
Disability is part of being human and is integral to the human experience.
1 in 6
People worldwide living with significant disability, about 1.3 billion
Permanent
A film fan who is blind catches up on this week's new releases with VoiceOver.
Temporary
Someone with a broken wrist adds titles to their Watchlist with Voice Control.
Situational
A parent with a sleeping baby on their lap picks tonight's movie with the sound off.
Ability changes over a lifetime, and from one evening to the next. Microsoft's inclusive design team groups it into permanent, temporary, and situational, and the same feature serves all three.
In the app
Limelight follows the settings you already use
Limelight reads the accessibility settings on your device and adapts to them, so there's nothing extra to turn on.
Up close
Low vision, tired eyes, reading glasses left in the other room: on iPhone and iPad, text grows to the largest accessibility sizes, and layouts rearrange so nothing important gets cut off.
By voice
If moving your hands is hard, or they're full, say what you see. Controls are named with the words on screen, and actions that need a long press are buttons too.
Sound off
Apart from trailers, nothing in Limelight relies on sound. People who are deaf or hard of hearing get everything else in words, and so does anyone watching beside someone asleep.
Gentle motion
For people with vestibular disorders, migraines, or motion sensitivity, Reduce Motion turns movement into a simple fade, or stops it altogether.
Beyond color
Whether you see color differently or need a darker screen, nothing depends on color alone. Scores are printed as numbers, states are named in words, and text stays clear in Light and Dark appearance.
At a glance
Supported on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
These are the accessibility features Apple lists on the App Store, and Limelight's support for each one.
| Feature | iPhone | iPad | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| VoiceOver | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice Control | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Larger Text | Yes | Yes | Not applicable |
| Dark Interface | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Differentiate Without Color Alone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sufficient Contrast | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reduced Motion | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Captions | No | No | No |
| Audio Descriptions | No | No | No |
Captions and audio descriptions apply to trailers, the only video in Limelight. See where Limelight falls short.
The details
How each feature works in Limelight
VoiceOver
Every button, poster, and control has a spoken label, and every section of a screen is a heading, so you can move between them with the rotor.
- Posters are read by title, and the Watchlist button tells you whether a title is already on your Watchlist.
- Ratings are read with their scale, for example "8.4 out of 10".
- The title strip and your star rating can be adjusted by swiping up or down.
- Home's Trending card stays still while VoiceOver is on, so it never changes under you.
- The episode ratings map reads each episode's season, number, title, and score, and offers Seasons and Highest Rated rotors. It can also be played as sound with Audio Graphs.
Voice Control
Controls are named with the words you see on screen, so you can say what you see. Actions that otherwise need a long press, such as adding a title to a list, are also available as buttons.
Larger Text
On iPhone and iPad, all text in Limelight follows your text size setting, up to the largest accessibility sizes, and layouts rearrange at the largest sizes so nothing important is cut off. Two places are limited on purpose; they're listed under where Limelight falls short. On Mac, Limelight uses the system's standard text sizes.
Light and Dark appearance
Limelight follows your device's Light or Dark appearance automatically. You can also choose Light or Dark for Limelight alone in Settings > Appearance.
Color and contrast
Color is never the only way information is shown. Rating rings print their score as a number, the episode ratings map prints every episode's score, selected filters change weight and fill as well as color, and states such as Seen or On Your Watchlist are shown with words and icons.
Text meets a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background in both Light and Dark appearance, the level WCAG sets for AA. With Increase Contrast on, Limelight uses stronger versions of its colors. It also works with Bold Text and Reduce Transparency.
Reduce Motion
With Reduce Motion on, Limelight replaces movement with simple fades or no animation at all. That covers the Trending card on Home, poster tilt and parallax, the transition between titles, QuickSort's cards, and the colors that mark Apple Intelligence in Search.
How it's checked
Checked by hand and by machine
Limelight is made by one person (I'm Jordan Kennedy), and every screen goes through the same accessibility checks.
A checklist for every screen
Before a screen ships, it's checked in Light and Dark, at the smallest and largest text sizes, with Reduce Motion on, and for a VoiceOver label on everything you can tap.
Automated audits
Automated tests run Apple's accessibility audit over Home, a title's page, Search, and Settings in both appearances. It flags low contrast, small tap targets, missing labels, and clipped text.
Every size of screen
Layouts are checked upright and sideways on the smallest and largest iPhones and on iPad, and in resizable windows on Mac.
Known limits
Where Limelight falls short
A few things don't work as well as they should yet. Here's each one, and what to do in the meantime.
Trailers
Trailers play from YouTube, and Limelight doesn't yet turn on their captions or offer audio descriptions. Whether a trailer has captions at all depends on what each studio uploads.
Everything else on a title's page, from the overview to the cast and ratings, is text that VoiceOver reads.
Poster captions
A poster's caption stays on one line beneath its artwork, so at the largest text sizes long titles are shortened.
The full title is in the poster's VoiceOver label and at the top of the title's page.
Episode ratings map
Text in the map stops growing at the third accessibility size, so enough episodes still fit on screen to read as a map.
Tap any episode to see its details at your full text size.
Other services
The TMDB sign-in page, YouTube's player, and streaming service logos come from other companies, and their accessibility is up to them.
If one of them gets in your way inside Limelight, tell me and I'll look for a way around it.
Feedback
Tell me what gets in your way
If something in Limelight doesn't work with the way you use your device, I want to know. Say what you were trying to do, which accessibility features you use, and which device you were on. I read every message.
Find something to watch tonight
Search any title, see where it's streaming, and keep track of what you've watched. Free to download on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no ads.
