New in macOS High Sierra Accessibility Keyboard
Accessibility Keyboard on Mac
Now you can navigate macOS with minimal use of a physical keyboard. The new Accessibility Keyboard is a customisable, onscreen keyboard that gives users with mobility impairments more advanced typing and navigation capabilities. It also supports head-tracking hardware to move the cursor and select or drag onscreen items. And the Accessibility Keyboard has full Dwell support, allowing all of macOS to be used without ever needing to click a mouse button.
Accessibility Keyboard on Mac
Updated Siri
Siri on Mac
Siri helps you do more with your desktop.1 If you prefer to communicate by typing, there’s a new accessibility option to set Siri to “Type to Siri” mode and make requests using a physical or onscreen keyboard. Enter requests to search the web, send messages, locate documents, create reminders, and even turn various accessibility settings on and off using a physical or onscreen keyboard. And you can use predictive typing to help predict the next word based on your typing.
Siri on Mac
Switch Control
Switch Control is a powerful accessibility technology for anyone with extensive physical and motor skill limitations. Built directly into macOS, it gives you the ability to navigate onscreen keyboards, menus and the Dock using a system commonly referred to as scanning. Create your own customised panels and keyboards — system-wide or app by app — to provide you with the most efficient access to your Mac. You can use a variety of adaptive devices such as a switch, a joystick, a keyboard Space bar or even a single tap on the Multi-Touch trackpad for easy control.
Platform Switching for Switch Control
Switch Control supports Platform Switching, which allows you to use a single device to operate any other devices you have synced with your iCloud account. So you can control your Mac directly from your iPhone or iPad, without having to set up your switches on each new device.2
Sticky Keys
Sticky Keys combines your keystrokes for you by letting you press keys one at a time, instead of simultaneously, to enter commands. Enter a key combination — such as Command-S (for Save) — and macOS displays each pressed key, accompanied by a sound effect, so you can make sure the right keys are entered.
Slow Keys
Slow Keys adjusts the sensitivity of the keyboard to process only the keystrokes you mean to make. It builds in a delay between when a key is pressed and when it’s entered. You can adjust the delay and choose to have a sound play when a key is entered.
Mouse Keys
If you have difficulty using a mouse or trackpad, use Mouse Keys to control the cursor with the numeric keypad. Press a number key as the mouse button, and use other number keys to move around the screen or to drag and drop items. Easily navigate menus, the Dock and all your windows.
Dictation Commands
macOS has more than 50 editing and formatting commands. So you can turn on Dictation and tell your Mac to bold a paragraph, delete a sentence or replace a word. You can also use Automator workflows to create your own Dictation commands.