“The Mac Attack” - Mac Tips, Tricks, and Hints
http://www.stevecom.com Copyright © 2006 SteveCom, Inc.
Mac OS X Accessibility Features – Universal Access
by Steve Stanger
In this months article I'll be taking a look at the accessibility features in Mac OS X. The accessibility features built in to Mac OS X can help users who may be visually or hearing impaired and users with physical or motor difficulties. Even though this article is a about accessibility I really think many Mac users may find the features useful.
From Apple’s
Accessibility web page: Apple’s commitment to accessibility is evident throughout
the Mac OS X operating system which is by design, easy to use, but also
includes a wide variety of features and technologies specifically designed to
provide accessibility to users with disabilities. Apple refers to these
features collectively as Universal Access and has integrated them right into
the operating system so they can be used in conjunction with a variety of
applications from Apple and other developers.
The majority of Mac OS X's accessibility features can be found in the Universal Access preference pane in system preferences.
The first tab in the
Universal Access preference pane is called ‘Seeing’. The first item under the seeing tab is Voice Over.
Voice Over allows you to hear audio cues as you navigate dialog boxes, navigational controls, web pages, file and folder names and menus. The Voice Over Utility allows you to fine tune exactly how Voice Over works. There are a number of options and steps to go through to get Voice Over customized to the individual users needs, but once it's set Voice Over does a great job.
To see a short demo of what Voice Over does follow this link. Click here (http://www.apple.com/macosx/theater/voiceover.html)
Another way to get audible feed back is in the Speech preference pane. Under the ‘Text to speech’ tab you can turn on ‘Announce when alerts are played’, ‘Announce when an application requires your attention’, and 'Speak selected text when the key is pressed'.
Back to the Universal Access prefs pane - The next option under 'Seeing' is Zoom. Zoom magnifies a specific portion of the screen. This is system wide and works with any application. There are keyboard shortcuts to turn this feature on and off, plus keyboard commands to zoom in and out.
Note: I have used the Zoom feature a number of times when doing demos and training. It is very useful when you want to specify or zero in on a specific part of the screen during a presentation. It is very impressive when used with a projected image.
The last option under 'Seeing' is Display. Display allows you to invert the screen image. The default setting is black on white, black lettering on a white background. By clicking on white on black it inverts the screen so you get white writing on a black or dark background. With either of these settings you can click on use grayscale so everything on your screen is then represented in shades of gray. There is also a slider allowing for varying degrees of screen contrast.
One more vision related setting and it's under the ‘Mouse & Trackpad’ tab and that is cursor scaling. There is a slider at the bottom of the window that allows you to easily increase the size of the mouse cursor so it's easier to find the on the screen.
Note: Cursor scaling also comes in handy if you happen to lose the cursor due to the size of your screen or have if you have your screen set to a high resolution. This is another setting that you may find useful during demos or training and want the participants to be able to follow your cursor easily.
Under the 'Hearing' tab in the Universal Access pane you can set the screen to flash when an alert sound occurs. The visual alert flashes the whole screen to let you know that a window or dialogue box requires your attention.
Video content developers can create and display a text track to provide closed captioning in QuickTime. Closed captioning is also an added benefit in noisy environments where you might not be able to hear the audio track, but be able to see and read the screen. Another feature of QuickTime video content with closed captioning is that you can search for specific text and move to that location of the video based on your search.
Hearing impaired users can use iChat and an iSight camera to communicate using sign language over the Internet. iChat produces high quality video good enough to clearly see the finger and hand movements of sign language.
Mac OS X can also help users with physical and motor difficulties navigate their computer—even if they have difficulty using the keyboard, mouse, and track pad. These setting can be found under the Keyboard tab in the Universal Access prefs pane.
For example, Sticky Keys lets you create “key chords” (i.e. Command-Q and Shift-Option-8) by pressing them sequentially. With Sticky Keys active, each key in the sequence is displayed on screen so you can verify the sequence and correct it before it’s executed. This gives you more flexibility if you can press only one key at a time. The Slow Keys setting adds a delay between when a key is pressed and when it takes effect to help prevent unintended multiple keystrokes.
Under the 'Mouse & Trackpad' tab you can turn Mouse Keys on - this allows the user to use the numeric keypad to move the cursor around the screen. Mac OS X also lets you navigate menus, the Dock, windows, toolbars, palettes and other controls via the keyboard. Everything you can do with a mouse you can do using the keyboard.
Another accessibility feature built in to OS X is Speech Recognition. It's called 'Speakable items' and it lets you command and control the computer using your voice, without requiring you to train the computer. You can use commands to open and close programs, navigate the menu bar, switch between programs, control application-specific items, to enter keyboard shortcuts and speak front window controls such as check box names, radio button names, list items and buttons. You can access the speech recognition settings in the Speech preference pane under the ‘Speech Recognition’ tab. You can get a list of speakable commands by clicking on the 'Open Speakable items folder' button under the command tab.
If you would like more information about the accessibility features of Mac OS X or to find out more information about third party assistive technologies, visit Apple’s Accessibility web site and Apple’s Macintosh Product Guide
(http://www.apple.com/accessibility)
(http://guide.apple.com/uscategories/assisttech.lasso)
If you have any questions or comments about this Article please feel free to email me at sstanger@maccompanion.com
