Captions have been the default accessibility option for Deaf viewers for decades, and for a lot of people they're a second best one. They translate the words, but they don't carry the language many Deaf viewers actually think in. Starting Friday, November 13, the Apple TV app adds another option next to audio and subtitles: a sign language interpreter on screen, made for the movie you're watching.

Apple announced the feature on Tuesday, November 10. It launches with the streaming premiere of Being Heumann, the Apple Original Film about disability rights activist Judy Heumann, which is about as fitting a first title as Apple could have picked. F1 also gets American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation, and Apple says Way of the Warrior Kid and Greyhound will follow later this year, with more Apple Originals after that.

How to turn it on

The feature starts switched off. Turn on Sign Language in the Apple TV app's settings, and supported titles show a Sign Language button while you watch. On a smart TV or streaming device, Apple's support guide puts the switch inside the TV app: open the sidebar, choose Settings, then Accessibility and Sign Language.

You'll need iOS 27.2, iPadOS 27.2, macOS 27.2, tvOS 27.2 or visionOS 27.2 or later, or the latest version of the Apple TV app on a supported third party device. Apple TV owners got tvOS 27 in September with Siri AI and a pile of other changes, and our Latest Apple Software page shows which version each of your devices should be on now.

Finding titles gets easier too. Supported movies carry a Sign Language icon, search understands phrases like "with ASL," and a new collection called Movies & Shows with American Sign Language gathers them in one place.

Why a setting beats a separate version

Sign language on streaming isn't new. HBO Max offers ASL on titles like The Last of Us, but it does it with two versions of each title, one interpreted and one not, picked from a Versions tab. Apple's version is a setting you turn on once and a button on the player, the same way subtitles work. For someone who wants interpretation on everything that has it, that means no hunting for a special edition of every movie.

Apple also says each interpretation was designed and tested by Deaf and native signers and crafted to fit the film it interprets. Daniel Durant, who appears in Being Heumann, directed its sign language interpretation. "It's incredibly meaningful to see our beautiful language authentically represented onscreen," he said in Apple's announcement.

Four titles is a small start, and everything Apple named so far is an Apple Original. Apple's announcement talks about sign language becoming more widely available across streaming services, which leaves room for other studios' titles in that collection later, but it doesn't promise any. The next thing to watch is how many titles arrive after Greyhound, and whether any of them come from outside Apple's own studio.