1 of 20

macOS

Accessibility Features

2 of 20

macOS Accessibility Options

Hearing

  • Mono Audio
  • Close Captions
  • facetime

​

​

Learning

​

Vision

​

Mobility

​

​

​

​

​

2

3 of 20

Hearing Supports

Show subtitles or captions in QuickTime Player on Mac

If a movie has subtitles or captions, QuickTime Player can display them while the movie is playing. If the movie doesn’t have subtitles, you won’t see an option to view them.

Note: Captions need to be embedded using the CEA-608 format to allow the Closed Captioning option.

In the QuickTime Player app on your Mac, do any of the following:

  • View subtitles: Choose View > Subtitles, then choose a language. You can also click the Subtitles button in the playback controls (or press and hold the Subtitles button in the Touch Bar) to see a list of available options.
  • View closed captions: Choose View > Show Closed Captioning.

3

4 of 20

Change Audio Settings for Accessibility

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Source:https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-accessibility-audio-preferences-unac611/10.14/mac/10.14

Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs

Make your screen flash when you receive an alert.

Test Screen Flash

Demonstrate a screen flash.

Play stereo audio as mono

Make your Mac play stereo audio tracks as mono audio in the left and right speakers or headphones.

​

On your Mac, use the Audio pane of Accessibility System Preferences to make the screen flash when an alert occurs and play stereo sound as mono.

To change these preferences, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Accessibility, then click Audio.

4

5 of 20

macOS: Reading Assistance

Text to Speech + Safari

Highlight text

Edit

Speech

Start Speaking/Stop Speaking

OR

Highlight text → Option + Esc

​

​

​

​

5

6 of 20

macOS: Reading Assistance

System Preferences → Keyboard

Summarize Text to Audio

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts tab → Services → Text dropdown → Check Summarize

​

​

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts tab → Services → Text dropdown → Check Add to iTunes as Spoken Track

6

7 of 20

macOS: Vision

Low Vision

  • Change font style, font size, color, bold text
  • VoiceOver
    • Turn on/off by pressing Command+F5
    • Turn on/off by Telling Siri “Turn VoiceOver on” “Turn VoiceOver off”
    • VoiceOver modifier (VO)+key allows user to enter voice commands
  • Zoom
    • ⌘+ or ⌘- to zoom in and out

​

​

7

8 of 20

macOS: Vision

Low Vision

  • VoiceOver image descriptions in Markup
    • In the desired Photo select edit
    • Select Extensions icon>markup icon
    • Select image description icon>Enter your description
    • Then tap Done>save changes
  • VoiceOver descriptions for PDF signatures
    • After creating a signature
    • Click the description pop-up menu
    • Then choose a description (e.g. initials) or choose custom to create your own description
    • Then click done

​

​

​

8

9 of 20

macOS: Mobility

Physical disability that precludes use of both hands

  • System Preferences → Accessibility → Keyboard → Enable Sticky Keys/Enable Slow Keys

OR

  • ⌘+Option+F5 opens up Accessibility Options
  • Select Enable Sticky Keys option under Mouse and Keyboard

9

10 of 20

Mobility: Switch Control

Physical disability that precludes use of both hands

​

System Preferences → Accessibility → Switch Control- enable for switch users

Accessibility keyboard

System Preferences → Accessibility → Keyboard → Accessibility keyboard → Dwell Control - used for head and eye tracking devices

​

​

Siri

System Preferences → Accessibility → Siri

10

11 of 20

Learning: Text to Speech

Text to Speech will read selected text when the user presses a user defined Shortcut Key. The text to speech option also works in the Apple Calculator.

To start, open the System Preferences panel under the Apple icon and click on Speech.

  1. Check the option “Speak selected text when the key is pressed
  2. Click the Set Key option
  3. Choose one modifier key — Command, Control, Option, or Shift — plus one other key of your choice
  4. Then click OK

​

​

*Each time you type this key combination, your Mac will read aloud any text you have selected. To stop the speech, type the same key combination again.

*The default hotkey for TTS is Option+Escape. You can adjust the voice and speech rate in the Dictation and Speech options in System Preferences

11

12 of 20

Learning: Content Management

​

  • A word to find meaning (Dictionary)
  • An equation (Calculator)
  • Basic conversions (Calculator)

Activate Spotlight on the upper right hand corner of your screen and type in

12

13 of 20

Learning: Note taking + Executive Function

Notes + Safari

      • Capture web pages within notes when doing research by clicking at the top toolbar in Safari

​

Stickies

Type Stickies in Spotlight and type reminders/ideas. Right click within the sticky note to enlarge and change font, speak note, check grammar, share

13

14 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

Dictation

​

Open System Preferences

Open Keyboard

Click ON Dictation

Check Use Enhanced Dictation (allows offline use and protects privacy)

​

14

15 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

Text substitution

Open System Preferences

Open Keyboard

Click on Text and +

​

omw = On my way!

​

​

​

15

16 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

Text Edit + Esc

Open the built-in TextEdit app from the Apps menu or through Spotlight search

Type a word midway, press Esc and a drop down of predicted words will appear

16

17 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

On-screen keyboard

Open System Preferences

Open Keyboard

Click on Input Sources and Add US keyboard (or any other language keyboard click +)

Check Show Input menu in menu bar

On upper right toolbar next to the clock and battery click the US flag → Click the US flag → show Keyboard Viewer

​

Add external keyboard

​

Customize Keyboard

​

​

17

18 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

Improved Full Keyboard Access

Open System Preferences

Open Accessibility

Click on Keyboard and Enable Full Keyboard Access

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

To view commands click options>then commands

18

19 of 20

macOS: Writing Assistance

Custom mouse pointers

Open System Preferences

Open Accessibility

Click on Display and Pointer

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

19

20 of 20

Resources

​

​

For updates on Mac OS accessibility features, visit Apple:

www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/

​

​

​

20

Updated 08/28/2020 MFS

​