By Graham K. Rogers

There have been a number of changes to System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion. In earlier versions of OS X, Universal Access provided settings aimed at assisting the disabled. With the latest iteration of OS X, these settings have seen a major overhaul and are now available in the Accessibility preferences panel. There is a lot to digest here.

In all the previous versions of Universal Access there were four categories of assistance, organised across the panel: Seeing, Hearing, Keyboard, and Mouse & Trackpad. With the new Accessibility panel, the functions are displayed in a window to the left. There are 7 items: Display, Zoom, VoiceOver, Audio, Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad, and Speakable Items. Some of these items were available in different panels in the past: for example, Speakable Items was previously in the Speech preferences.

As each item in the left side window is highlighted, so the controls available are shown in the main panel. At the bottom of every pane are two checkboxes: Enable Access for assistive devices (e.g. special keyboards); and Show Accessibility status in menu bar. When the menu bar feature is on, as well as a an icon, turning a feature on shows a scrolling text for a short period.

Display

In OS X 10.7 and before, it was also possible to invert the colors using the key combination of Control + Option + Command + 8 which is complex, although babies and cats seem to manage this with ease.

The shortcut is now used as one of the Zoom commands (below). Using Keyboard Shortcuts in the Keyboard preferences, these keys may be reallocated.

Below the checkboxes are two sliders: Enhance Contrast (Normal to Maximum); and Cursor Size (Normal to Large). The largest cursor is about 1" from end to end. Near the bottom of the panel is a button that opens Displays preferences.

Zoom

• Option + Command + 8 (previously Invert colors), zooms in and out;
• Option + Command + = zooms in;
• Option + Command + - zooms out'
• Option + Command + \ toggles smooth images (when off, jagged edges appear).

Below these key command options is a checkbox to allow the scroll gesture (2 fingers on a trackpad) to be used with a key to zoom in and out smoothly. This had been in the Trackpad preferences before and was sadly missed. The default key that this works with is Control, but Option and Command are also available.

Two other checkboxes below are to turn on Smooth images (wise when zooming); and to Follow the keyboard focus. A button below these checkboxes allows options for the Zoom style. This is allows either a full screen zoom or "picture in picture" when a panel displays the section of screen zoomed, with the surrounding part not zoomed (I was unable to capture this with a screen shot).

The screen shot shows the "picture in picture" panel but not the enlarged text within

A further Options button shows a panel with two sliders for adjusting Maximum and Minimum Zoon as well as a checkbox to turn on a preview rectangle. Radio buttons in this panel control how the screen image moves when zoom is applied.

VoiceOver

Near the bottom of the screen are two buttons: Open VoiceOver Training; and Open VoiceOver Utility. The training application reveals a large screen and the system voice reads out the training pages and talks the user through the operations. The voice was a little fast for my liking (certainly too fast for a non-native speaker), so I adjusted the speed down from Normal in the Text to Speech panel of Dictation & Speech preferences. Even so, it might take a couple of runs through to grasp the full idea.

The VoiceOver Utility is a panel (similar to System Preferences in appearance) with 10 separate functions, each with their own fine-tuning panels, that allow VoiceOver to be set up for a user's specific needs and includes settings for any Braille display attached.

Audio

Keyboard

Sticky keys leaves the last-selected modifier key -- those used in combinations, like Command or Control -- active. When turned on or as a modifier key is pressed, the computer makes a sound. Another sound is made when the feature is turned off. Pressing the key a second time, highlights it (with an optional sound), and pressing a third time cancels the key.

An options button allows some fine tuning: checking a box allows this feature to be active once the shift key is pressed five times. A checkbox below this marked "Beep when a modifier key is set" may be slightly misleading as the sound is more like a mechanical clunk. The placement of the icon that appears may be selected with options for top, bottom, left or right of the screen.

With the addition of Slow Keys, a delay is introduced for difficulties with initial or repeated keystrokes. Rather than simply tapping a modifier key as in touch typing, the key remains active and a second Key (or more) may be pressed. As an example I pressed Command then Shift, and then 3 to take a screen shot using one finger only. There is a short mechanical sound when the key is pressed and another when it appears on the screen.

An Option button reveals a slider allowing the acceptance delay to be adjusted, so those with disabilities that make typing very slow can be accommodated. I found that moving the slider more than about 25% along produced a delay so significant I was not sure the keys were being recognised.

To access more features, there is a button here that opens the Keyboard preferences.

Mouse & Trackpad

On a notebook computer where there is no number pad, 7, 8 and 9 control upward (and diagonal) movement; U and O control left and right movement; J, K and L control downward (and diagonal down) movement. As it is not convenient to keep turning this on and off to resume typing, an option panel allows a checkbox to be used to toggle the feature on and off using the Option key five times. A further useful checkbox here is the ability to Ignore the built-in trackpad when this feature is on. Two sliders control Initial Delay and Speed.

Speakable Items

In Settings, two radio buttons are available to turn this feature on and to turn it off. A button allows a specific microphone to be selected, with the default being the computer's internal microphone. A further option is Line In, but others appear if a microphone is attached, say via USB.

A Calibrate button opens a panel with a number of phrases that the user can repeat to assist with recognition, along with a slider to adjust input levels. Below this is a box that when checked gives a spoken command recognition and a button beneath allows selection of a system sound to add to confirmation (or None).

The panel for Listening Key allows the user to specify which key is pressed when speaking a command so that the computer listens. The ESC key was the default on my Mac, but a button allows the user to change this to another key (or combination). Below are two radio buttons that control listening: only when the key (e.g. ESC) is pressed, or continuously.

When the latter is active, a Keyword option is used: Optional, before each command, 15 seconds after or 30 seconds after the last command. A panel below is for a user-specified keyword. I typed in "Fred" when I was using OS X 10.5, Leopard and that remains the keyword still.

The Commands panel allows certain specified types of key commands to be used, such as for Contacts or for Application Switching. Some of these (such as names in the Address Book) are configurable using a button available on the panel. Two other buttons are available: Open Speakable Items Folder which shows the contents (and commands that can be used); and Helpful Tips, a panel with some suggestions on how the feature can be used.

When this is turned on (in Settings) a microphone icon appears on the screen, with the Keyword (Fred) shown. At the bottom of this is a button that allows access to the Speech Commands window or to Speech Preferences. As one speaks, the icon shows that sounds are being received, although I would admit to having limited success with this feature and do not persevere.

Comments

Whether all users will warm to the way this has been done, and to the considerable number of other changes that have occurred in System Preferences, time will tell. Experience suggests that once the feature is found and used, the perceived difficulties are reduced.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.