Apple MacOS Accessibility Settings

MacOS System Preferences screen with Accessibility icon circled.  

MacOS Accessibility Settings

Apple computers - desktops and MacBooks - come loaded with high quality assistive technologies. However, the options available differ based on which version your computer is running. The quality can differ too. For those reasons, it's best to keep your Apple computer updated to the most recent operating system that can run on your machine. 

How to Open MacOS Accessibility Settings

  1. Open the System Preferences window by clicking the Gear icon in the Dock (it usually appears in the far left), or by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of the screen and selecting "System Preferences" from the list.
  2. Click the blue Accessibility icon - it looks like a man with his arms and legs outstretched in a circle.

The Accessibility settings are listed on the left, and are grouped into three categories: Vision, Hearing, and Motor. Please take some time to click on each one to learn what it does.

Demo for MacOS Accessibility Settings

The MacOS has had accessibility and assistive technologies built in for years. Especially beginning with the Catalina version, these features are of very high quality.

Please make sure to keep your MacOS computer updated to the latest version to access constantly improved accessibility settings. The video below was released in 2022, but the tips it provides should be useful for most MacOS computers that are reasonably up-to-date.

 

Tip: To learn about the accessibility features in any version of the MacOS, go to the Apple "Use Accessibility Features..." web page Links to an external site.. Choose a specific version by clicking the Select Version field at the top left of the screen and finding your version in the drop-down list.