Yesterday Apple unveiled their new design system, Liquid Glass. It is replacing the design we currently see in order to provide more design options to your device. The basic concept of liquid glass is that all UI will look like glass. This includes spectral aberrations, highlights, and shadows. All these elements are presented on a transparent background. The default font color looks adapts based on the background. Lighter backgrounds are supposed to show darker fonts, and dark background shows lighter fonts.They didn’t address what happens if the background has both.
Out of the box, this new design style presents accessibility issues. The contrast will rarely be correct for normal vision users to see, much less low vision users. Users can adjust this easily, and I expect Apple to respond with this as their “compliance” answer.
Hostile much?
Am I being aggressive here? I hope not. I believe it is important to call out Apple on this. Apple is aware that the design styles they create will eventually take over design. It happened with the Mac, the iMac translucent back, and iMac swivel head. It also happened with MacBooks, the iPod, and the iPhone. Skeuomorphism is another example. Must I go on?
Unfortunately, Apple is more than a product company. They’re more than a software company. They’ve become a lifestyle company. They shift thinking. They spawn design thieves who make knock off products.
The federal government is taking actions that appear threatening to disabled people. Over the years, Apple, you have been doing a good job as an accessibility leader. We need you on our side now more than ever. Liquid Glass is not what we need in this moment.
Update 9.26.25
Apple has iOS 26.1 in developer beta and some of the concerns about Liquid Glass are being addressed.
See me on LinkedIn or Bluesky if you want to discuss this.
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