I am an experienced user of IT, have designed and managed my own websites, written simple programs, &c, and am online for hours every day. However, I am now over 80, and my sight is no longer good. When I try to compose a message in Mail on this MacBook Air, I can see the text in the body of the message, but all other text, for example what is shown in the sidebar, is illegible, or virtually so. This difficulty does not occur when I use my iPhone to compose messages, but of course Mail in iOS does not display any sidebar, and that is a feature that I need to use regularly. Can Apple do nothing to remedy this ?
Comments
Try using the mail app on…
Try using the mail app on your Mac with voiceover turned on. You can turn on voiceover by pressing command+F5.
Mail: address-field, &c
Thank you, that is an excellent idea. But it does not remove the difficulty in reading the address-field, subject-field, &c. when I compose a message, or what is in the sidebar. Can anything be done to improve that ? For example, Dark Mode would help, but for the fact that this elderly MacBook Air uses OSX 10.11.6, which seems to lack that feature in Mail. Perhaps it is time I bought a later model, it is 10 years old, after all !
Making adjustment to the screen
I am also a low vision user and operate a 12 inch MacBook as my personal machine. I do not use VoiceOver on my Mac, only built in low vision features. Dark mode is a huge help because it is difficult for me to see when there is a white background. In accessibility, I go to Display and check increase contrast to make words stand out a bit more. I also adjust the display resolution to make everything on the screen larger. Lastly I I turn on Zoom to adjust the size when it is needed. With all this enabled I do not have issues seeing the sidebar. I am a tech support advisor and use an iMac at work and utilize all this there too. I hope some of this helps.
Dark Mode and other improvements
Thank you for that, and, Yes, I too make those adjustments. However, the essential improvement that I needed is Dark Mode for Mail and other applications. This is not available in earlier versions of OSX, but I have bought a refurbished MacBook Air, which uses Monterey instead of the antique El Capitan, and this has made an enormous improvement. However, Apple still does not permit one to change the font for system text. So, just as an example, when I want to Search in Mail, the magnifying-glass is so tiny that I have been obliged to memorise where it is, if I am to be able to use it, which I do regularly.