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Built-in accessibility features

Assistive technologies are products or systems that support and assist individuals with disabilities, to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. Nowadays many operating systems have built-in assistive technologies while many software implements built-in accessibility supportive functions.

Microsoft Windows

This guide is for Windows 10. Accessibility features are available with other versions too.

In Settings, there are various accessibility settings that help users to customise their computer to their needs. You can access these settings via Windows > Settings > Ease of Access. Discover Windows accessibility features

Vision

Display

Under this settings you have the option to: Make text bigger, Make everything bigger, Make everything brighter, Show animations in Windows, Show transparency in Windows, Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows, Show desktop background image and set times the notifications are shown (Show notifications for).

Mouse pointer

Under this settings you have the option to: Change pointer size and colour and change touch feedback (show visual feedback around the touch points when I touch the screen, make visual feedback for touch points darker and larger).

Text cursor

Under this settings you have the option to: Turn on text cursor indicator, Change text cursor indicator size, Change text indicator colour, Change the text cursor thickness.

Magnifier

Under this settings you have the option to: Turn on Magnifier (Windows and Plus to turn on Magnifier and Windows and Esc to turn off Magnifier), Change the zoom level, when to start Magnifier (before or after login), Smooth edges of images and text, Invert colours (Ctrl + Alt + I to invert colours), Change Magnifier view, Enable Magnifier to follow mouse pointer, keyboard focus, text cursor, Narrator cursor), Keep mouse pointer and text cursor setting and options for setting modifier key for Reading.

Colour filters

Under this settings you have the option to: Turn on colour filters (Windows + Ctrl + C to toggle filer on or off), Select a colour filter to see elements on the screen better or select a colour blindness filter.

High contrast

Under this settings you have the option to: Turn on high contrast (Left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen to turn high contrast mode on and off), Choose a theme and select colours for text, hyperlinks, disabled text, button text and background.

Narrator

Under this settings you have the option to: Turn on Narrator, Start-up options for Narrator, Personalise Narrator’s voice, Select where you hear Narrators voice, Change what you hear when reading and interacting, Change what you hear when typing, Choose keyboard settings, Use Narrator cursor, Use braille (this requires downloading and installing braille), and Manage your data and services.

Hearing

Audio

Under this settings you have the option to: Make your device easier to hear, Turn on mono audio, Show audio alerts visually

Closed captions

Under this settings you have the option to: Change caption font, colour, transparency, style, size, effects; Change caption background, and Dim window content.

Interaction

Speech

Under this settings you have the option to: Talk instead of type, Dictate text and control your device using only your voice (speech recognition is available for English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish).

Keyboard

Under this settings you have the option to: Use your device without a physical keyboard, Use Sticky Keys (this allows you to press keys in sequence without having to hold down more than one key at a time to activate a function), Use Toggle Keys, Use Filter Keys, Change how keyboard shortcuts work, Make it easier to type.

Mouse

Under this settings you have the option to: Control your mouse with a keypad, Select your primary button, Cursor speed, Roll the mouse wheel to scroll, Choose how many lines to scroll each time, Scroll inactive windows when I however over them.

Eye control

Under this settings you have the option to set up an eye tracking device.

macOS

This guide is for macOS Vetura 13.Accessibility features are available with other versions too.

Apple menu > System Settings > Accessibility (in the sidebar - you may have to scroll down)

Vision

Settings in this section allows to zoom in on the screen, make pointer or menu bar gigger and apply colour filters. View macOS accessibility features for vision

Hearing

These settings will allow you to show and customise captions on screen, make and recieve Real-time Text (RTT) calls, and get live captions of audio. View macOS accessibility features for hearing

Motor

Settings in this section allows features to control your Mac and apps using spoken commands, keys on the keyboard, on screen keyboard, the pointer or assistive devices. There are options to for customising a mouse and trackpad to make them easier to use. View macOS accessibility featurs for mobility

General

These are other features to easily turn the accessibility features on or off, and to type your Siri requests. View macOS general accessibility features

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader provides several features that makes reading PDFs more accessible. View accessibility features provided by Acrobat Readear

The accessibility settings are available under preferences. Select Edit > Preferences . The accessibility features available under each category is summarised here

Accessibility panel

Settings in this section allows you to set-up your preferences to: Replace document colours, Always use page layout style, Always use zoom settings, Use document structure for tab order when no explicit tab order is specified, Always display the keyboard selection cursor, Always use the system selection colour and Show portfolios in files mode.

Reading panel

Settings in this section allows selecting preferences for: Reading order, Infer reading order from document, Left-to-write Top-to-bottom reading order, Use reading order in raw print stream, Override the reading order in tagged documents, Pave vs Document, Confirm before tagging documents and Read out loud options.

Documents panel

Allows selection or deselection of Automatically save document changes to temporary file . When deselected this disables auto-save action. Each time a PDF is saved, the screen reader or magnifier must reload the document.

Forms panel

Settings in this section allows the selection of Fields highlight colour, Required fields highlight colour and Auto-complete.

Multimedia panel

Allows settings to be specified for: Show subtitles when available, Play dubbed audio when available, Show supplemental text captions when available and Show audio description (or video description) when available.

Page Display panel

Allows setting Zoom and Smooth text preferences.