Mac Inside & Out · System Settings & Accounts · Lesson 4 of 5

Accessibility on the Mac

Make your Mac easier to see, hear and use, your way.

Bigger text, zoom and Hover Text

Accessibility means features that help people with their eyes, ears, hands or attention. They are for everyone, though. Anyone with tired eyes can use them. On a Mac, they live in System Settings, in the Accessibility section.

There are three easy ways to make things bigger. Start with the gentlest one.

• Text size. In Accessibility, click Display, then Text size. Drag the slider to make words bigger on the desktop, in sidebars and in many apps.
• Zoom. This magnifies the screen, like a magnifying glass. Turn it on in Accessibility, then Zoom. You can turn on keyboard shortcuts there. Option+Command+8 turns zoom on and off. Option+Command+= zooms in, and Option+Command+- zooms out.
• Hover Text. When it is on, hold down the Command key and point at some words. A large, clear copy of them appears in a box. Let go and it disappears. It is great for small print in a menu or a form. Search hover text in System Settings to find it.

Zoom can fill the whole screen, or show a small magnified window that follows your pointer. Try both and keep the one that feels comfortable.

Just want one web page bigger? In most browsers, Command++ makes the page bigger and Command+- makes it smaller.

On Windows, the matching tools are Text size and Magnifier in Settings, under Accessibility.

VoiceOver and Live Captions

VoiceOver is a screen reader, a feature that reads out loud what is on the screen. It is built for people who are blind or have low vision. You move around with the keyboard or trackpad, and VoiceOver says each button, menu and line of text.

To turn VoiceOver on or off, press Command+F5. On some keyboards, you also hold the Fn key. If your Mac has Touch ID, you can hold Command and quickly press Touch ID three times.

If VoiceOver starts talking and you didn't mean it, don't worry. Press the same keys again to turn it off. Nothing is broken.

VoiceOver takes practice. The first time you turn it on, the Mac offers a short guide, called the VoiceOver tutorial, that teaches the basics.

Live Captions show spoken words as text on the screen, as they are said. They work for video calls, videos and even people talking near the Mac. This helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or anyone in a noisy room.

Turn them on in Accessibility, then Live Captions. Two things to know:

• Live Captions only work on Macs with Apple silicon, Apple's own chips.
• They are not available in every language or country yet.

The listening happens on the Mac itself, not on the internet.

On Windows, the matching tools are Narrator and live captions.