Apparently you can using VOCR. I have no experience with this. When I did use Mac OS, I would use either VMWare or UTM, both of which are actually fully voiceover accessible.
I'd also say, however, though windows works fine once you have it installed, trying to access parallels settings is also difficult. There are some shortcuts you might want to play with or re-map within parallels, but it's really difficult to do.
I know parallels is the official way of running windows on apple silicon and may have some performance benefits but, considering you're never going to be running AAA games, it ight be worth looking at a different virtual machine environment which has better accessibility.
Use vo ocr, and you won't need sighted assistance at all. Re, shortcuts, realistically speaking, the only thing's you might want to remap are the vm shortcuts. This is fairly easy to do once you focus on the table with vo OCR then voiceover works as normal. That beeing said, however, other accessible options... The only other alternative is fusion which is kinda going down the drain. Utm, while it can run windows will not run it as smoothly as parallels, and of course, you will get the same problem with the lack of audio in Windows 11 you will need to plug in a external adaptor to get audio in the first instalation phase. Plus vmware no longer offers automatic updates which, given the headache the site is... I wouldn't recommend it myself. Vertual box... Might work however compared to Parallels... I have no idea how well.
I've found parallel settings quite easy to navigate without ocr passed the first not accessible setup screen for windows 11. Just for the price alone and given my needs, and especially considering I have only an m2pro and apple arbitrarily limits nested virtualization to m3>, I am fine with Fusion which is free and the only downside to it as far as I am concerned is the company owning it :(
When you say passed the installer, of which OS? If windows, 10 or 11? Intel or arm? I'm asking because as said, windows 11 both for intel and arm as far as I can tell, don't have the audio drivers in the first installer phase so you'll either need a audio adaptor like a usbc to headphone jack to hear narrator during that first phase or VOCR or sighted assistance to get through that. Windows 10 doesn't have this problem if memory serves. But yeah, you can get passed the installer but you'll need either an adaptor or sighted help or to use VOCR to get passed it, its possible, however.
Given that you explicitly mention requiring sighted assistance, and other users have mentioned requiring using an OCR, I'm kind of confused on how that software can be considered accessible in any way. Therefore, as a mental exercise, what exactly would they have to remove from parallels for you to consider it inaccessible to blind people?
Being brutally honest here, I think that any disabled people who consciously decide to pay for software from vendors who demonstrate complete disregard for accessibility, which is the case here, are self-sabotaging by enabling bad behavior. UTM might not be as convenient, performant, and feature-rich as other alternatives, but on the other hand it's a highly accessible native application, and disabled people not making accessibility their top priority leaves me completely baffled.
Most of Parallels is accessible. The settings? Mostly fully usable with VoiceOver. The only other time you need VOCR is once during setup, to tick the āinstall Windows automaticallyā box. Thatās not inaccessible software, thatās one checkbox with an easy workaround. Day to day, Parallels is perfectly usable.
Calling blind people āself-sabotagingā for using Parallels is laughable. If you want to talk about blind people actually self-sabotaging, Iāll give you real examples. Still paying thousands for JAWS or Freedom Scientificās subscription racket when NVDA is free and often better, that is self-sabotage. Throwing money at obsolete junk like Kurzweil 1000/3000 long past its prime, that is self-sabotage. Buying overpriced blind-only hardware like Victor Readers, BrailleNotes, talking calculators, kitchen gadgets, when mainstream tech does the same for a fraction of the price, that is self-sabotage. Paying obscene monthly fees for Aira instead of using Be My Eyes or cheaper alternatives, that is self-sabotage.
Those are real cases of enabling companies that exploit blind people. Parallels doesnāt belong anywhere near that list. Most of it works natively, and the one checkbox that needs VOCR is nothing compared to companies that flat-out block us from using their products at all.
And your UTM point? Falls flat. Installing Windows 11 in UTM still requires VOCR, a sighted person, or an external audio dongle, because Windows gives you no Narrator at first boot. So pretending UTM is the accessible alternative is dishonest, it hits the same wall in the exact same place.
By your logic, using VOCR in Parallels equals self-sabotage. Okay then, letās apply that standard. Using Screen Recognition on iOS to handle apps that arenāt accessible, self-sabotage. Using a cane or guide dog to navigate a sighted-designed world, self-sabotage. Shopping at a supermarket where aisles arenāt labeled in Braille, self-sabotage. Buying food or medicine where packaging isnāt blind-labeled, self-sabotage. Using barcode scanners or Seeing AI to identify products, self-sabotage. Cooking in a pan and flipping food by sound, smell, or timing instead of sight, self-sabotage. Using bump dots on a microwave, or tactile markers on a stove, or timers in the kitchen, self-sabotage. Crossing the street using auditory traffic cues instead of vision, self-sabotage. And while weāre at it, using screen readers themselves to access computers built for sighted users would count as self-sabotage too.
See how absurd your argument sounds when you follow it through? Adaptation isnāt sabotage, itās how blind people live. Itās how we work, shop, cook, travel, and exist.
So no, blind people buying Parallels arenāt self-sabotaging. The real sabotage is pushing this all-or-nothing purity test that shames blind people for using tools that actually work for them. That mindset is the enemy, not Parallels.
I agree that it's not self sabotage. Once it's set up, I believe it is a better experience. Setup happens only once, you need to use it for the long haul.
I do get your point though. There is the question of giving our money, on mass, to a company who hasn't done anything about including accessibility for the last six years. On the other side of that, is personal choice and need. If one is willing to put up with the pain of it for a greater reward, it's really down to the individual but this is why forums such as this one are so good as, despite the hyperbole and between the flames, there is some good information that can inform people's purchasing decision.
Live and let live, I say. We're all different, we all have varying requirements and, though none of us like to admit it, we all make poor choices, from time to time... And learn from them.
It's pretty tiring hearing people get upset when they find out, yet again, people have a differing view. The world will be better when we finally understand that no one is objectively correct, and the more interesting thing is lots of people being correct about their own experience and requirements.
For me u t m gave this odd dialog with a lot of numbers in it, i will retry and see if i can reproduce this error. It was not your typical windows installer, maybe it got stuck on the step before the installation could begin?
See, they have done something though. If they hadnāt, most of the app wouldnāt be accessible ā like the settings, which work fine with VoiceOver. So I wouldnāt say theyāve done nothing. Itās also worth noting that on macOS and iOS, accessibility can sometimes come about almost by accident. If developers use Appleās standard controls and donāt screw up labeling, VoiceOver support is basically built in. That may well be the case here. But whether itās intentional or accidental, the fact remains: most of Parallels is accessible.
And honestly, I wouldnāt call using VOCR once during setup āputting up with pain.ā If it was constant, where you had to lean on OCR every single time you wanted to do something, sure, thatās a pain. But once? Not really. Hereās a better example of what Iād actually call painful: Pro Tools plug-ins. Most of them arenāt natively accessible, so you have to use OCR every single time you want to adjust one. Not once, not twice, but every time. Thatās the kind of situation that deserves the āpainfulā label, not a one-off checkbox in Parallels.
And hereās the difference. I didnāt just stop at pointing it out ā I actually contacted Parallels, sent them a detailed write-up with recordings, and they told me itās being passed to the dev team. Maybe it takes a while, maybe not, but at least thereās a shot at progress. And nothing stops other users from doing the same. When feedback comes from more than one person, itās harder to ignore. Itās easy to throw around dramatic lines like āself-sabotage,ā but that doesnāt fix anything. What actually has a shot at moving accessibility forward is giving vendors detailed, practical feedback.
Thatās why I think the āself-sabotageā line misses the mark. Itās the kind of absolutist policing that sounds dramatic but doesnāt actually help anyone. What does help is showing what works, what doesnāt, and giving vendors concrete feedback. Big sweeping statements donāt move accessibility forward ā practical info and real feedback do. Would it be nice if Parallels fixed that setup checkbox so VOCR wasnāt needed at all? Absolutely. But once youāre past that, it works ā and for most people, thatās what matters.
From how you described it, it sounds like you may have hit the point before Windows even gets into the installer ā more like the Secure Boot/TPM check stage. I could be mistaken since you didnāt say it explicitly, but the odd dialog with numbers matches what Iāve seen when the VM is waiting for input and then times out, which is very likely what you described.
When Iāve dealt with that in UTM, hereās what works for me. After I press start on the virtual machine, I make sure the keyboard input is actually captured in the VM window so itās receiving keystrokes. Then I press Enter four or five times, wait a couple of seconds, and run VOCR on the screen. If I did it right, VOCR will pick up the Windows setup screen. If not, thatās usually when it stops at the kind of error you described. Itās trial and error because thereās no audio feedback at that stage, so the only way to confirm is to OCR the screen after you try.
And this isnāt just a UTM issue ā Fusion behaves the same way. Both leave you stuck in that first-phase installer where Narrator simply isnāt available yet. The reason Parallels feels smoother is because it handles that stage with an unattended setup file behind the scenes. It doesnāt skip it, but it auto-fills the language, keyboard, and region parts so you never have to. Thatās why Parallels drops you straight into the actual Windows setup ā the account creation, Wi-Fi, etc. ā where Narrator is already available to be turned on if you need it.
In theory, you can make UTM or Fusion behave the same way with Microsoftās autounattend.xml system. But itās not as simple as just downloading one from a generator site. Even if the XML itself is valid, Windows setup only looks for it in very specific places: either in the root of the installer media, which means you have to unpack the Windows ISO, add the XML, and then rebuild the ISO as bootable; or on a separate virtual disk/ISO mounted alongside the installer. And even if you go through all that, itās still hit-or-miss. Those generator sites spit out a file that might technically be correct, but if you get the Windows version or build number wrong by even a little, Setup can just ignore it. Different releases of Windows expect slightly different schema details, and one mismatched tag is enough to break the automation silently. I tried both methods in Fusion ā rebuilding the ISO and using a separate autounattend ISO ā and neither one worked. The file may have been fine, but the VM just didnāt use it. Thatās the difference: Parallels has this pipeline baked in and guarantees Windows sees and applies the answer file, while with UTM or Fusion youāre left hacking ISOs and hoping it sticks. For most people, Parallels is the only option that reliably automates that first phase without leaving you staring at a dead screen of numbers.
I admit to really struggling with the concept of "self-sabotage" and the term itself. As it relates to matters of blindness, I feel that it isn't for me to say whether something someone else does is self-sabotage. When people give me that type of feedback, my experience is that it is reflective much more about them and their take on life than it is anything about me. It's like telling someone who works a minimum wage job and enjoys what they do, "That job is so beneath you." Say whaaaaat?
These things are not black and white, all or nothing. As casual observers of others' situations, I think the most we can fairly say is "I won't give my money to a company that doesn't prioritize accessibility," "I won't pay hundreds of dollars per year for a screen reader when free tools are available," etc. etc. These are individual choices where different people, who want the same basic things and have similar goals, can come to different conclusions.
I have an M4 MacBook Air and am interested in putting Windows on it, for curiosity more than any real need. With Parallels, is the inaccessible checkbox something that can be navigated to and used with something like Be My AI? Does VoiceOver see it as an element that can be interacted with? Thanks!
With be my AI, probably, however with VOCR you can do this no problem. Itās more a button more than a checkbox but yeah it can be done without a problem. I do not have my personal computer where I have parallels in front of me right now, but once I do later today, I can make a small screen/audio recording doing it with VOCR. That being said, Iām not sure if it will work with Be my AI, in theory, I donāt see why not, however, given that I havenāt tested it with be my AI, I cant say for sure. With that being said, it will work no problem with VOCR as stated above.
I've never used Parallels myself, so I was merely replying to a comment stating that a software that requires OCR or sighted assistance to do anything at all with it was accessible to blind people, which has been a problem that I've been reading about on these forums for years, and yet people keep paying these developers when native, free, and open alternatives already exist. The reason why I call it self-sabotage, and I remain firmly behind my opinion, is because by choosing to support developers who clearly don't care about accessibility because there's an unconventional way to work around it, while choosing to ignore products from developers who apparently go out of their way to do things right, are simply communicating the idea that accessibility isn't that important anyway, thus ultimately contributing negatively to the long-term goal of blind independence.
Personally I'm deeply thankful for all the work people have put into accessibility over the years. because if it wasn't for that work I wouldn't even be able to use any kind of computer or mobile device these days. Furthermore, as someone from the community with self-enabling accessibility projects and contributions to existing projects in my pipeline, the vibes of indifference and sometimes even active resistance that I get from the people whom I thought should care the most about this, make me wonder whether it's actually worth spending time polishing any technology that I end developing for myself with the goal of making it available to the community.
Ultimately people are perfectly free to choose by themselves, and I don't oppose choice, but I am also entitled to my personal opinion, and since the definition of self-sabotage actually implies having the ability to choose, it is totally compatible with choice. The very definition of self-sabotage centers around engaging in behaviors that do not align with one's long-time goals, either individual or collective, which I think fits perfectly here given the analysis that I make in my first paragraph.
As for merely informing developers about accessibility problems, I personally don't think that it's a very efficient strategy, because generally companies only really care about their bottom line, so by continuing to support them anyway you're just telling them that your accessibility needs aren't worth their time as you'll be paying them no matter what. If you read the comments to the thread that I link to in my first paragraph of this comment, you will notice that one participant explicitly mentions that these accessibility problems have existed at least since 2014, making it perfectly clear that the developers don't really care and that voting with our wallets by promoting positive behavior instead of supporting negative behavior is the only realistically viable option at our disposal. While in 2021 Parallels was the only option available to legally run Windows on ARM-based Macs, making finding workarounds for that software a reasonable choice, this is not the case anymore.
Youāve basically admitted youāve never used Parallels, so right there your whole argument collapses. Youāre throwing around āself-sabotageā without even knowing how the thing actually works. Parallels doesnāt ārequire OCR or sighted help to do anything at all.ā It requires VOCR once, to hit the āInstall Windows automaticallyā button, and thatās it. After that, the app is natively accessible with VoiceOver. Thatās not inaccessible, thatās one button with a workaround.
And your so-called āfree, open alternativesā arenāt any better. UTM, Fusion ā they dump you at the exact same silent Windows 11 installer where Narrator isnāt even available. You still need OCR, a dongle, or sighted help. And letās be clear: this isnāt even a Parallels problem. Even bare-metal installs on physical PCs leave you hanging at first boot. No Narrator, no feedback, no way forward without outside help. Your only options are clumsy OCR with a second device pointed at the screen, or hoping a USB sound dongle kicks in early enough. Thatās been the reality since Windows 11 launched, and itās 2025 and still unfixed. This isnāt Parallels failing blind users ā itās Microsoft.
And letās not forget BIOS. Completely inaccessible for decades. HP played with a talking BIOS in 2008, Dell demoed one later, but nothing stuck. In 2025, firmware menus are still a sighted-only wall. Now compare that to Apple. When Apple Silicon came out, the boot picker ā their equivalent of BIOS ā shipped fully accessible. VoiceOver is built right in, so you can pick volumes, recovery, or external drives without sighted help. Apple proved it can be done. Microsoft and the PC industry just havenāt bothered. If ādevelopers who donāt careā is the standard, Microsoft and every motherboard vendor are far guiltier than Parallels.
And since you brought up āsupporting devs who donāt care,ā letās talk Microsoft again. Blind people have been paying for Windows for decades while relying on third-party screen readers like JAWS and NVDA just to get basic access. What message do you think that sent Microsoft? That the bare minimum was good enough. Yes, Narrator has improved, but itās still nowhere near NVDA or JAWS. By your own logic, every blind person who ever bought Windows was āself-sabotaging,ā because Microsoft left the heavy lifting to others.
As for the thread you linked ā thatās from 2021, right at the start of Apple Silicon. Boot Camp was gone, Microsoft wasnāt distributing ARM ISOs to consumers yet, and Parallels was still adapting to Appleās new architecture. In that messy transition, people leaned on workarounds: one person said inaccessible, another said it worked fine after installation, another posted terminal commands. And VOCR wasnāt even well known at that point, so people didnāt have the tools we have today. That context matters. Quoting an outdated post like nothing has changed in four years is a cop-out.
Meanwhile, Parallels actually did something. They built in unattended setup so the whole first-phase (language, keyboard, region) is handled automatically. Thatās why with the āInstall Windows automaticallyā option, you land directly in the real Windows setup where Narrator can be turned on. No rebuilding ISOs, no generator websites, no second autounattend image that may or may not work. It just works. UTM, Fusion, and bare metal all still leave you stranded.
So letās be real. Youāve never touched Parallels, you leaned on outdated threads, and you ignored that the same problems exist in every VM and even on physical PCs. Microsoft themselves havenāt fixed first-boot accessibility in four years of Windows 11, and their BIOS/firmware has been inaccessible for decades, while Apple already proved itās possible on their side. By your own logic, every blind person who has ever installed Windows has been āself-sabotaging.ā Throwing that label at people for using what actually works isnāt advocacy ā itās gatekeeping.
Youāve basically admitted youāve never used Parallels, so right there your whole argument collapses.
No it doesn't, since I am attacking another comment from a logical perspective, meaning the only way my argument could ever collapse would be by actually pointing flaws in the logic leading to my deduction, which you did not. Instead you decided to appeal to my inexperience with the software in question in an attempt to subvert the debate, which is a textbook ad hominem argument fallacy.
Parallels doesnāt ārequire OCR or sighted help to do anything at all.ā It requires VOCR once, to hit the āInstall Windows automaticallyā button, and thatās it. After that, the app is natively accessible with VoiceOver. Thatās not inaccessible, thatās one button with a workaround.
This is quite a contradiction, not only because you make the claim that it doesn't require OCR or sighted assistant at all only to state that it does indeed require either to push a button right after,, but fundamentally because even if the inaccessibility problems all boiled down to that single button, from your own description it's actually the most fundamental button in the whole application, without which you are simply unable to use it for its intended purpose. Therefore it's not even a minor detail, I am definitely not splitting hairs here, and so far my deduction seems accurate. Furthermore your allegation about all accessibility problems being limited to that single fundamental button actually weakens your position, since making a single button accessible isn't exactly a challenging software engineering problem.
And your so-called āfree, open alternativesā arenāt any better. UTM, Fusion ā they dump you at the exact same silent Windows 11 installer where Narrator isnāt even available. You still need OCR, a dongle, or sighted help. And letās be clear: this isnāt even a Parallels problem. Even bare-metal installs on physical PCs leave you hanging at first boot. No Narrator, no feedback, no way forward without outside help. Your only options are clumsy OCR with a second device pointed at the screen, or hoping a USB sound dongle kicks in early enough. Thatās been the reality since Windows 11 launched, and itās 2025 and still unfixed. This isnāt Parallels failing blind users ā itās Microsoft.
That's not the application that is in accessible, it's the content you're running on it, so I'm not referring to any of that, only to the application's user interface itself.
And letās not forget BIOS. Completely inaccessible for decades. HP played with a talking BIOS in 2008, Dell demoed one later, but nothing stuck. In 2025, firmware menus are still a sighted-only wall. Now compare that to Apple. When Apple Silicon came out, the boot picker ā their equivalent of BIOS ā shipped fully accessible. VoiceOver is built right in, so you can pick volumes, recovery, or external drives without sighted help. Apple proved it can be done. Microsoft and the PC industry just havenāt bothered. If ādevelopers who donāt careā is the standard, Microsoft and every motherboard vendor are far guiltier than Parallels.
Having accessibility available right from the firmware is precisely the reason why I stick to Macs with macOS. It might have lots of quirks, but I never feel totally disabled with this setup, so by buying Macs I am promoting behavior that aligns with my long-term goals of becoming a truly independent blind individual, and therefore this comment doesn't really apply to me at all. As for attribution of guilt, the existence of worse offenders out there doesn't really relieve Parallels developers from their social responsibilities, and any attempts to diminish the relevance of the problem only contribute to the perpetuation of mediocrity, which is another example of collective self-sabotage.
And since you brought up āsupporting devs who donāt care,ā letās talk Microsoft again. Blind people have been paying for Windows for decades while relying on third-party screen readers like JAWS and NVDA just to get basic access. What message do you think that sent Microsoft? That the bare minimum was good enough. Yes, Narrator has improved, but itās still nowhere near NVDA or JAWS. By your own logic, every blind person who ever bought Windows was āself-sabotaging,ā because Microsoft left the heavy lifting to others.
Well you're definitely aiming elsewhere with this paragraph, because if there's a thing that I am likely to be known for on this particular forum is pointing the finger at Microsoft exactly for those reasons. While I often recommend regular blind users to just use Windows for practical reasons, I always make sure that I choose to not use it myself, and often also explain why so that they can make an informed choice, which I am not against despite having my own personal opinion that I consistently and coherently follow myself.
As for the thread you linked ā thatās from 2021, right at the start of Apple Silicon. Boot Camp was gone, Microsoft wasnāt distributing ARM ISOs to consumers yet, and Parallels was still adapting to Appleās new architecture. In that messy transition, people leaned on workarounds: one person said inaccessible, another said it worked fine after installation, another posted terminal commands. And VOCR wasnāt even well known at that point, so people didnāt have the tools we have today. That context matters. Quoting an outdated post like nothing has changed in four years is a cop-out.
Well for starters I did not quote anything from that thread, only linked to it, and secondly I explicitly and preemptively address the argument you're making there when I stated that, while I feel that it was reasonable to use Parallels back then, I don't think it's reasonable to do that now considering that other native, free, open, and accessible alternatives exist these days, so I'm definitely not basing my arguments on a 2021 environment. Furthermore, and I think that I made it clear, but just in case I didn't, the reason why I even linked to that thread in particular was to demonstrate that accessibility problems in Parallels have actually been widely known for many years, and used that as evidence to back up my argument about the ineffectiveness of asking developers for accessibility accommodations and suggestion to vote with our wallets instead.
I have only used parallel during the 7 days trial. At the time I had only tried UTM, which was fine for my needs aside some instability bug I had at the time. Yes, the first setup not accessible is a major reason along the price itself for why I will probably never pay parallel, when for me fusion does more than enough the job, and on my m2 pro with asahi when I have time to properly explore that I might have even better experience with windows arm VM on this hardware than on mac itself, and if I am lucky even nested virtualization via asahi something that apple artificially restricts for more recent chips.
Vispero have been in a really tough position recently in the community, and I follow double tap closely on that. For me, Jaws pricing is... I mean, I live in Quebec, where RAMQ covers 100% of JAWS initial cost as well as SMAs for upgrades as long as we are students or in the workforce. I know that in France for example, only like 75% of that cost is covered hence the massive userbase of NVDA thee compared to Quebec.
Jaws is a luxury (yes) I am happy to have when I really need it, which is rare. I still have difficulty to get that in India my home country tons of money is :wasted" with JAWS while NVDA seems to be unknown there from what I gathered on english blindness forums, which feels just criminal to me...
At least, Humanware are actually trying to innovate with Monarch, and the more I hear about from the really lucky people to own it the cost is almost worth it given what we can already get, tactile graphic literacy. Even then, DotPad X seems to do more with some more features for 3 times as cheap, which makes me just wonder why US assistive tech is completely in stagnation while the real innovation nowadays comes from Europe, Australia (nvaccess), and companies like DotPad and Orbit who are the real disrupters of the market, and even hims/selvas?? are actually trying with senseplayer being the only blind audiobook player to allow sideloading of APKs. Not to mention the really dangerous stagnation of high speed, reliable, non ai/emotional, tts, with us legally forced to pay for literal abandonware while we clearly now these voices we are used to / love have not been actually updated at their cor since the 2000s if not worst. Only Espeak is truly being enhanced, but its major problem for most is that the voice is difficult to get used to. Apple have just screwed the siri voices since ios 12, and recently, nuance french voices are just getting so bad that haven't I had eloquence I would be in a very difficult time now. Nobody is probably going to touch these softwares even after 2038, so, good luck to everyone. Can't nobody really hire enough lawyers to stop this nonsense? Are nuance or whoever owning their voices now (microsoft I think) and the current owner of eloquence, really that different of the so-called patent trolls like Oracle? The difference here is really nobody complaining enough. I will not even mention the $1000 FS openbook that's more broken than VO ever has been on Mac, something that's still sold and bought by RAMQ for example.
I can at least respect Acapella honesty, they stopped their tts business and they are very clear on that. Only the thing for NVDA is still on sale, and I'd rather pay for VoiceDream anualy before paying for these bear minimum viable products.
Sorry to go even more off topic with this but since the this started above I thought useful to give my honest point of view on that.
is also a big reason I'd rather stick with mac in spite of its accessibility and convenience shortcomings as long as a software dev and CS student now I am able to learn and do a job. And my narrative about mac for blind people is more or less a carbon copy of that mentioned above.
It's coming. It has taken a long time, but I believe one day bios will be fully accessible. We already have partial accessibility, between using PowerShell and with a Lenovo utility that comes with certain Lenovo models. Maybe we will see something happening in Windows 12. Who knows?
In the meantime, I would like to share with all of you, a tried and true accessible deviceāpossibly the most accessible device ever invented. š
So, just to clarify the setup process in the current version of Parallels 26... This is using VOCR... I'm afraid there is no real way around this part without sighted help.
Install from either the app store or, better, from the Parallels website, (this version gives you better functionality).
All you need to do is use VOCR, command control shift W for page scan, and then command control arrow keys to navigate. You find where it says something like 'install Windows 11' and you click it with VO shift space (mouse click), then you do another scan with command control shift W... and so on.
I think there is a warning that there are some limitations of what Windows 11 can do. You'll also have to authorise the app somewhere along the line, either the 14-day trial on app version, or I think there is a trial version on the stand-alone too. If you have to enter the activation code, you use VOCR to click on the field and can copy and paste then hit enter.
As far as I know there isn't a checkbox involved in installation.
Once you start the installation it will take a few minutes but will play the Windows start-up sound when it is installed, then simply command control enter to turn on narrator and you're off to the races!
The reason I'd suggest the stand-alone app is that it has something called Coherence mode which means you can treat Windows apps much like Mac apps. There will be a folder called Applications (Parallels), which contains shortcuts to all your installed Windows apps. You can grab these and stick them in your Applications folder.
Set up is a nuisance, nothing more. Usage is pretty smooth after that.
Pro tip: When you have it installed, get on the Microsoft store and download Sharp Keys. This allows you to re-map keys within Windows. I've remapped my right Windows key (right command on Mac) to special application (it's Windows version of VO shift m), and the right Alt (right option key on Mac) to incert, which is required for screen readers to work properly, their version of the VO key.
Sorry, this is all a bit garbled, but I hope it helps. Please drop me a line if you want further assistance.
FYI everyone the sound driver is an issue on windows end and it's been there since forever I think on 10/11, nothing to do with any vm software on either mac hardware, arm or x86.
Comments
kinda
You'll need sighted assistance to set up the VM but after that you can use the windows part if you have a windows screen reader like NVDA.
Parallels Desktop
Is there a way you can do this and not need sighted assistance? if so what is that solution?
Apparently you can usingā¦
Apparently you can using VOCR. I have no experience with this. When I did use Mac OS, I would use either VMWare or UTM, both of which are actually fully voiceover accessible.
This is correct. You need toā¦
This is correct. You need to use VOCR.
I'd also say, however, though windows works fine once you have it installed, trying to access parallels settings is also difficult. There are some shortcuts you might want to play with or re-map within parallels, but it's really difficult to do.
I know parallels is the official way of running windows on apple silicon and may have some performance benefits but, considering you're never going to be running AAA games, it ight be worth looking at a different virtual machine environment which has better accessibility.
RIP bootcamp.
Needing sighted assistance is incorrect
Use vo ocr, and you won't need sighted assistance at all. Re, shortcuts, realistically speaking, the only thing's you might want to remap are the vm shortcuts. This is fairly easy to do once you focus on the table with vo OCR then voiceover works as normal. That beeing said, however, other accessible options... The only other alternative is fusion which is kinda going down the drain. Utm, while it can run windows will not run it as smoothly as parallels, and of course, you will get the same problem with the lack of audio in Windows 11 you will need to plug in a external adaptor to get audio in the first instalation phase. Plus vmware no longer offers automatic updates which, given the headache the site is... I wouldn't recommend it myself. Vertual box... Might work however compared to Parallels... I have no idea how well.
I've found parallel settingsā¦
I've found parallel settings quite easy to navigate without ocr passed the first not accessible setup screen for windows 11. Just for the price alone and given my needs, and especially considering I have only an m2pro and apple arbitrarily limits nested virtualization to m3>, I am fine with Fusion which is free and the only downside to it as far as I am concerned is the company owning it :(
re, i've found parallels settings
How? I mean I tried it as far as shortcuts but getting to the table of keyboard shortcuts kinda, difficult without VOCR, any tips?
u t m
Has anyone gotten u t m to work successfully on mac, I never could get it past the installer screen. any advice is appreciated.
Re, UTM
When you say passed the installer, of which OS? If windows, 10 or 11? Intel or arm? I'm asking because as said, windows 11 both for intel and arm as far as I can tell, don't have the audio drivers in the first installer phase so you'll either need a audio adaptor like a usbc to headphone jack to hear narrator during that first phase or VOCR or sighted assistance to get through that. Windows 10 doesn't have this problem if memory serves. But yeah, you can get passed the installer but you'll need either an adaptor or sighted help or to use VOCR to get passed it, its possible, however.
Re: kinda
Given that you explicitly mention requiring sighted assistance, and other users have mentioned requiring using an OCR, I'm kind of confused on how that software can be considered accessible in any way. Therefore, as a mental exercise, what exactly would they have to remove from parallels for you to consider it inaccessible to blind people?
Being brutally honest here, I think that any disabled people who consciously decide to pay for software from vendors who demonstrate complete disregard for accessibility, which is the case here, are self-sabotaging by enabling bad behavior. UTM might not be as convenient, performant, and feature-rich as other alternatives, but on the other hand it's a highly accessible native application, and disabled people not making accessibility their top priority leaves me completely baffled.
Re, kinda
Most of Parallels is accessible. The settings? Mostly fully usable with VoiceOver. The only other time you need VOCR is once during setup, to tick the āinstall Windows automaticallyā box. Thatās not inaccessible software, thatās one checkbox with an easy workaround. Day to day, Parallels is perfectly usable.
Calling blind people āself-sabotagingā for using Parallels is laughable. If you want to talk about blind people actually self-sabotaging, Iāll give you real examples. Still paying thousands for JAWS or Freedom Scientificās subscription racket when NVDA is free and often better, that is self-sabotage. Throwing money at obsolete junk like Kurzweil 1000/3000 long past its prime, that is self-sabotage. Buying overpriced blind-only hardware like Victor Readers, BrailleNotes, talking calculators, kitchen gadgets, when mainstream tech does the same for a fraction of the price, that is self-sabotage. Paying obscene monthly fees for Aira instead of using Be My Eyes or cheaper alternatives, that is self-sabotage.
Those are real cases of enabling companies that exploit blind people. Parallels doesnāt belong anywhere near that list. Most of it works natively, and the one checkbox that needs VOCR is nothing compared to companies that flat-out block us from using their products at all.
And your UTM point? Falls flat. Installing Windows 11 in UTM still requires VOCR, a sighted person, or an external audio dongle, because Windows gives you no Narrator at first boot. So pretending UTM is the accessible alternative is dishonest, it hits the same wall in the exact same place.
By your logic, using VOCR in Parallels equals self-sabotage. Okay then, letās apply that standard. Using Screen Recognition on iOS to handle apps that arenāt accessible, self-sabotage. Using a cane or guide dog to navigate a sighted-designed world, self-sabotage. Shopping at a supermarket where aisles arenāt labeled in Braille, self-sabotage. Buying food or medicine where packaging isnāt blind-labeled, self-sabotage. Using barcode scanners or Seeing AI to identify products, self-sabotage. Cooking in a pan and flipping food by sound, smell, or timing instead of sight, self-sabotage. Using bump dots on a microwave, or tactile markers on a stove, or timers in the kitchen, self-sabotage. Crossing the street using auditory traffic cues instead of vision, self-sabotage. And while weāre at it, using screen readers themselves to access computers built for sighted users would count as self-sabotage too.
See how absurd your argument sounds when you follow it through? Adaptation isnāt sabotage, itās how blind people live. Itās how we work, shop, cook, travel, and exist.
So no, blind people buying Parallels arenāt self-sabotaging. The real sabotage is pushing this all-or-nothing purity test that shames blind people for using tools that actually work for them. That mindset is the enemy, not Parallels.
I agree that it's not selfā¦
I agree that it's not self sabotage. Once it's set up, I believe it is a better experience. Setup happens only once, you need to use it for the long haul.
I do get your point though. There is the question of giving our money, on mass, to a company who hasn't done anything about including accessibility for the last six years. On the other side of that, is personal choice and need. If one is willing to put up with the pain of it for a greater reward, it's really down to the individual but this is why forums such as this one are so good as, despite the hyperbole and between the flames, there is some good information that can inform people's purchasing decision.
Live and let live, I say. We're all different, we all have varying requirements and, though none of us like to admit it, we all make poor choices, from time to time... And learn from them.
It's pretty tiring hearing people get upset when they find out, yet again, people have a differing view. The world will be better when we finally understand that no one is objectively correct, and the more interesting thing is lots of people being correct about their own experience and requirements.
UTM
For me u t m gave this odd dialog with a lot of numbers in it, i will retry and see if i can reproduce this error. It was not your typical windows installer, maybe it got stuck on the step before the installation could begin?
Re, I agree its not self
See, they have done something though. If they hadnāt, most of the app wouldnāt be accessible ā like the settings, which work fine with VoiceOver. So I wouldnāt say theyāve done nothing. Itās also worth noting that on macOS and iOS, accessibility can sometimes come about almost by accident. If developers use Appleās standard controls and donāt screw up labeling, VoiceOver support is basically built in. That may well be the case here. But whether itās intentional or accidental, the fact remains: most of Parallels is accessible.
And honestly, I wouldnāt call using VOCR once during setup āputting up with pain.ā If it was constant, where you had to lean on OCR every single time you wanted to do something, sure, thatās a pain. But once? Not really. Hereās a better example of what Iād actually call painful: Pro Tools plug-ins. Most of them arenāt natively accessible, so you have to use OCR every single time you want to adjust one. Not once, not twice, but every time. Thatās the kind of situation that deserves the āpainfulā label, not a one-off checkbox in Parallels.
And hereās the difference. I didnāt just stop at pointing it out ā I actually contacted Parallels, sent them a detailed write-up with recordings, and they told me itās being passed to the dev team. Maybe it takes a while, maybe not, but at least thereās a shot at progress. And nothing stops other users from doing the same. When feedback comes from more than one person, itās harder to ignore. Itās easy to throw around dramatic lines like āself-sabotage,ā but that doesnāt fix anything. What actually has a shot at moving accessibility forward is giving vendors detailed, practical feedback.
Thatās why I think the āself-sabotageā line misses the mark. Itās the kind of absolutist policing that sounds dramatic but doesnāt actually help anyone. What does help is showing what works, what doesnāt, and giving vendors concrete feedback. Big sweeping statements donāt move accessibility forward ā practical info and real feedback do. Would it be nice if Parallels fixed that setup checkbox so VOCR wasnāt needed at all? Absolutely. But once youāre past that, it works ā and for most people, thatās what matters.
@nikos daley, UTM
From how you described it, it sounds like you may have hit the point before Windows even gets into the installer ā more like the Secure Boot/TPM check stage. I could be mistaken since you didnāt say it explicitly, but the odd dialog with numbers matches what Iāve seen when the VM is waiting for input and then times out, which is very likely what you described.
When Iāve dealt with that in UTM, hereās what works for me. After I press start on the virtual machine, I make sure the keyboard input is actually captured in the VM window so itās receiving keystrokes. Then I press Enter four or five times, wait a couple of seconds, and run VOCR on the screen. If I did it right, VOCR will pick up the Windows setup screen. If not, thatās usually when it stops at the kind of error you described. Itās trial and error because thereās no audio feedback at that stage, so the only way to confirm is to OCR the screen after you try.
And this isnāt just a UTM issue ā Fusion behaves the same way. Both leave you stuck in that first-phase installer where Narrator simply isnāt available yet. The reason Parallels feels smoother is because it handles that stage with an unattended setup file behind the scenes. It doesnāt skip it, but it auto-fills the language, keyboard, and region parts so you never have to. Thatās why Parallels drops you straight into the actual Windows setup ā the account creation, Wi-Fi, etc. ā where Narrator is already available to be turned on if you need it.
In theory, you can make UTM or Fusion behave the same way with Microsoftās autounattend.xml system. But itās not as simple as just downloading one from a generator site. Even if the XML itself is valid, Windows setup only looks for it in very specific places: either in the root of the installer media, which means you have to unpack the Windows ISO, add the XML, and then rebuild the ISO as bootable; or on a separate virtual disk/ISO mounted alongside the installer. And even if you go through all that, itās still hit-or-miss. Those generator sites spit out a file that might technically be correct, but if you get the Windows version or build number wrong by even a little, Setup can just ignore it. Different releases of Windows expect slightly different schema details, and one mismatched tag is enough to break the automation silently. I tried both methods in Fusion ā rebuilding the ISO and using a separate autounattend ISO ā and neither one worked. The file may have been fine, but the VM just didnāt use it. Thatās the difference: Parallels has this pipeline baked in and guarantees Windows sees and applies the answer file, while with UTM or Fusion youāre left hacking ISOs and hoping it sticks. For most people, Parallels is the only option that reliably automates that first phase without leaving you staring at a dead screen of numbers.
My Opinion on the "Self-Sabotage" Concept
I admit to really struggling with the concept of "self-sabotage" and the term itself. As it relates to matters of blindness, I feel that it isn't for me to say whether something someone else does is self-sabotage. When people give me that type of feedback, my experience is that it is reflective much more about them and their take on life than it is anything about me. It's like telling someone who works a minimum wage job and enjoys what they do, "That job is so beneath you." Say whaaaaat?
These things are not black and white, all or nothing. As casual observers of others' situations, I think the most we can fairly say is "I won't give my money to a company that doesn't prioritize accessibility," "I won't pay hundreds of dollars per year for a screen reader when free tools are available," etc. etc. These are individual choices where different people, who want the same basic things and have similar goals, can come to different conclusions.
A Question About That Checkbox
I have an M4 MacBook Air and am interested in putting Windows on it, for curiosity more than any real need. With Parallels, is the inaccessible checkbox something that can be navigated to and used with something like Be My AI? Does VoiceOver see it as an element that can be interacted with? Thanks!
re, A Question About That Checkbox Bookmark
With be my AI, probably, however with VOCR you can do this no problem. Itās more a button more than a checkbox but yeah it can be done without a problem. I do not have my personal computer where I have parallels in front of me right now, but once I do later today, I can make a small screen/audio recording doing it with VOCR. That being said, Iām not sure if it will work with Be my AI, in theory, I donāt see why not, however, given that I havenāt tested it with be my AI, I cant say for sure. With that being said, it will work no problem with VOCR as stated above.
Fitness of the self-sabotage concept
I've never used Parallels myself, so I was merely replying to a comment stating that a software that requires OCR or sighted assistance to do anything at all with it was accessible to blind people, which has been a problem that I've been reading about on these forums for years, and yet people keep paying these developers when native, free, and open alternatives already exist. The reason why I call it self-sabotage, and I remain firmly behind my opinion, is because by choosing to support developers who clearly don't care about accessibility because there's an unconventional way to work around it, while choosing to ignore products from developers who apparently go out of their way to do things right, are simply communicating the idea that accessibility isn't that important anyway, thus ultimately contributing negatively to the long-term goal of blind independence.
Personally I'm deeply thankful for all the work people have put into accessibility over the years. because if it wasn't for that work I wouldn't even be able to use any kind of computer or mobile device these days. Furthermore, as someone from the community with self-enabling accessibility projects and contributions to existing projects in my pipeline, the vibes of indifference and sometimes even active resistance that I get from the people whom I thought should care the most about this, make me wonder whether it's actually worth spending time polishing any technology that I end developing for myself with the goal of making it available to the community.
Ultimately people are perfectly free to choose by themselves, and I don't oppose choice, but I am also entitled to my personal opinion, and since the definition of self-sabotage actually implies having the ability to choose, it is totally compatible with choice. The very definition of self-sabotage centers around engaging in behaviors that do not align with one's long-time goals, either individual or collective, which I think fits perfectly here given the analysis that I make in my first paragraph.
As for merely informing developers about accessibility problems, I personally don't think that it's a very efficient strategy, because generally companies only really care about their bottom line, so by continuing to support them anyway you're just telling them that your accessibility needs aren't worth their time as you'll be paying them no matter what. If you read the comments to the thread that I link to in my first paragraph of this comment, you will notice that one participant explicitly mentions that these accessibility problems have existed at least since 2014, making it perfectly clear that the developers don't really care and that voting with our wallets by promoting positive behavior instead of supporting negative behavior is the only realistically viable option at our disposal. While in 2021 Parallels was the only option available to legally run Windows on ARM-based Macs, making finding workarounds for that software a reasonable choice, this is not the case anymore.
Re, fitness of the self sabotage concept
Youāve basically admitted youāve never used Parallels, so right there your whole argument collapses. Youāre throwing around āself-sabotageā without even knowing how the thing actually works. Parallels doesnāt ārequire OCR or sighted help to do anything at all.ā It requires VOCR once, to hit the āInstall Windows automaticallyā button, and thatās it. After that, the app is natively accessible with VoiceOver. Thatās not inaccessible, thatās one button with a workaround.
And your so-called āfree, open alternativesā arenāt any better. UTM, Fusion ā they dump you at the exact same silent Windows 11 installer where Narrator isnāt even available. You still need OCR, a dongle, or sighted help. And letās be clear: this isnāt even a Parallels problem. Even bare-metal installs on physical PCs leave you hanging at first boot. No Narrator, no feedback, no way forward without outside help. Your only options are clumsy OCR with a second device pointed at the screen, or hoping a USB sound dongle kicks in early enough. Thatās been the reality since Windows 11 launched, and itās 2025 and still unfixed. This isnāt Parallels failing blind users ā itās Microsoft.
And letās not forget BIOS. Completely inaccessible for decades. HP played with a talking BIOS in 2008, Dell demoed one later, but nothing stuck. In 2025, firmware menus are still a sighted-only wall. Now compare that to Apple. When Apple Silicon came out, the boot picker ā their equivalent of BIOS ā shipped fully accessible. VoiceOver is built right in, so you can pick volumes, recovery, or external drives without sighted help. Apple proved it can be done. Microsoft and the PC industry just havenāt bothered. If ādevelopers who donāt careā is the standard, Microsoft and every motherboard vendor are far guiltier than Parallels.
And since you brought up āsupporting devs who donāt care,ā letās talk Microsoft again. Blind people have been paying for Windows for decades while relying on third-party screen readers like JAWS and NVDA just to get basic access. What message do you think that sent Microsoft? That the bare minimum was good enough. Yes, Narrator has improved, but itās still nowhere near NVDA or JAWS. By your own logic, every blind person who ever bought Windows was āself-sabotaging,ā because Microsoft left the heavy lifting to others.
As for the thread you linked ā thatās from 2021, right at the start of Apple Silicon. Boot Camp was gone, Microsoft wasnāt distributing ARM ISOs to consumers yet, and Parallels was still adapting to Appleās new architecture. In that messy transition, people leaned on workarounds: one person said inaccessible, another said it worked fine after installation, another posted terminal commands. And VOCR wasnāt even well known at that point, so people didnāt have the tools we have today. That context matters. Quoting an outdated post like nothing has changed in four years is a cop-out.
Meanwhile, Parallels actually did something. They built in unattended setup so the whole first-phase (language, keyboard, region) is handled automatically. Thatās why with the āInstall Windows automaticallyā option, you land directly in the real Windows setup where Narrator can be turned on. No rebuilding ISOs, no generator websites, no second autounattend image that may or may not work. It just works. UTM, Fusion, and bare metal all still leave you stranded.
So letās be real. Youāve never touched Parallels, you leaned on outdated threads, and you ignored that the same problems exist in every VM and even on physical PCs. Microsoft themselves havenāt fixed first-boot accessibility in four years of Windows 11, and their BIOS/firmware has been inaccessible for decades, while Apple already proved itās possible on their side. By your own logic, every blind person who has ever installed Windows has been āself-sabotaging.ā Throwing that label at people for using what actually works isnāt advocacy ā itās gatekeeping.
Informal logic
No it doesn't, since I am attacking another comment from a logical perspective, meaning the only way my argument could ever collapse would be by actually pointing flaws in the logic leading to my deduction, which you did not. Instead you decided to appeal to my inexperience with the software in question in an attempt to subvert the debate, which is a textbook ad hominem argument fallacy.
This is quite a contradiction, not only because you make the claim that it doesn't require OCR or sighted assistant at all only to state that it does indeed require either to push a button right after,, but fundamentally because even if the inaccessibility problems all boiled down to that single button, from your own description it's actually the most fundamental button in the whole application, without which you are simply unable to use it for its intended purpose. Therefore it's not even a minor detail, I am definitely not splitting hairs here, and so far my deduction seems accurate. Furthermore your allegation about all accessibility problems being limited to that single fundamental button actually weakens your position, since making a single button accessible isn't exactly a challenging software engineering problem.
That's not the application that is in accessible, it's the content you're running on it, so I'm not referring to any of that, only to the application's user interface itself.
Having accessibility available right from the firmware is precisely the reason why I stick to Macs with macOS. It might have lots of quirks, but I never feel totally disabled with this setup, so by buying Macs I am promoting behavior that aligns with my long-term goals of becoming a truly independent blind individual, and therefore this comment doesn't really apply to me at all. As for attribution of guilt, the existence of worse offenders out there doesn't really relieve Parallels developers from their social responsibilities, and any attempts to diminish the relevance of the problem only contribute to the perpetuation of mediocrity, which is another example of collective self-sabotage.
Well you're definitely aiming elsewhere with this paragraph, because if there's a thing that I am likely to be known for on this particular forum is pointing the finger at Microsoft exactly for those reasons. While I often recommend regular blind users to just use Windows for practical reasons, I always make sure that I choose to not use it myself, and often also explain why so that they can make an informed choice, which I am not against despite having my own personal opinion that I consistently and coherently follow myself.
Well for starters I did not quote anything from that thread, only linked to it, and secondly I explicitly and preemptively address the argument you're making there when I stated that, while I feel that it was reasonable to use Parallels back then, I don't think it's reasonable to do that now considering that other native, free, open, and accessible alternatives exist these days, so I'm definitely not basing my arguments on a 2021 environment. Furthermore, and I think that I made it clear, but just in case I didn't, the reason why I even linked to that thread in particular was to demonstrate that accessibility problems in Parallels have actually been widely known for many years, and used that as evidence to back up my argument about the ineffectiveness of asking developers for accessibility accommodations and suggestion to vote with our wallets instead.
Editing to correct the spelling of ad hominem.
I have only used parallelā¦
I have only used parallel during the 7 days trial. At the time I had only tried UTM, which was fine for my needs aside some instability bug I had at the time. Yes, the first setup not accessible is a major reason along the price itself for why I will probably never pay parallel, when for me fusion does more than enough the job, and on my m2 pro with asahi when I have time to properly explore that I might have even better experience with windows arm VM on this hardware than on mac itself, and if I am lucky even nested virtualization via asahi something that apple artificially restricts for more recent chips.
Vispero have been in a really tough position recently in the community, and I follow double tap closely on that. For me, Jaws pricing is... I mean, I live in Quebec, where RAMQ covers 100% of JAWS initial cost as well as SMAs for upgrades as long as we are students or in the workforce. I know that in France for example, only like 75% of that cost is covered hence the massive userbase of NVDA thee compared to Quebec.
Jaws is a luxury (yes) I am happy to have when I really need it, which is rare. I still have difficulty to get that in India my home country tons of money is :wasted" with JAWS while NVDA seems to be unknown there from what I gathered on english blindness forums, which feels just criminal to me...
At least, Humanware are actually trying to innovate with Monarch, and the more I hear about from the really lucky people to own it the cost is almost worth it given what we can already get, tactile graphic literacy. Even then, DotPad X seems to do more with some more features for 3 times as cheap, which makes me just wonder why US assistive tech is completely in stagnation while the real innovation nowadays comes from Europe, Australia (nvaccess), and companies like DotPad and Orbit who are the real disrupters of the market, and even hims/selvas?? are actually trying with senseplayer being the only blind audiobook player to allow sideloading of APKs. Not to mention the really dangerous stagnation of high speed, reliable, non ai/emotional, tts, with us legally forced to pay for literal abandonware while we clearly now these voices we are used to / love have not been actually updated at their cor since the 2000s if not worst. Only Espeak is truly being enhanced, but its major problem for most is that the voice is difficult to get used to. Apple have just screwed the siri voices since ios 12, and recently, nuance french voices are just getting so bad that haven't I had eloquence I would be in a very difficult time now. Nobody is probably going to touch these softwares even after 2038, so, good luck to everyone. Can't nobody really hire enough lawyers to stop this nonsense? Are nuance or whoever owning their voices now (microsoft I think) and the current owner of eloquence, really that different of the so-called patent trolls like Oracle? The difference here is really nobody complaining enough. I will not even mention the $1000 FS openbook that's more broken than VO ever has been on Mac, something that's still sold and bought by RAMQ for example.
I can at least respect Acapella honesty, they stopped their tts business and they are very clear on that. Only the thing for NVDA is still on sale, and I'd rather pay for VoiceDream anualy before paying for these bear minimum viable products.
Sorry to go even more off topic with this but since the this started above I thought useful to give my honest point of view on that.
BIOS accessibility
is also a big reason I'd rather stick with mac in spite of its accessibility and convenience shortcomings as long as a software dev and CS student now I am able to learn and do a job. And my narrative about mac for blind people is more or less a carbon copy of that mentioned above.
Re: BIOS accessibility
It's coming. It has taken a long time, but I believe one day bios will be fully accessible. We already have partial accessibility, between using PowerShell and with a Lenovo utility that comes with certain Lenovo models. Maybe we will see something happening in Windows 12. Who knows?
In the meantime, I would like to share with all of you, a tried and true accessible deviceāpossibly the most accessible device ever invented. š
Edited because I forgot to add a link ...
So, just to clarify theā¦
So, just to clarify the setup process in the current version of Parallels 26... This is using VOCR... I'm afraid there is no real way around this part without sighted help.
Install from either the app store or, better, from the Parallels website, (this version gives you better functionality).
All you need to do is use VOCR, command control shift W for page scan, and then command control arrow keys to navigate. You find where it says something like 'install Windows 11' and you click it with VO shift space (mouse click), then you do another scan with command control shift W... and so on.
I think there is a warning that there are some limitations of what Windows 11 can do. You'll also have to authorise the app somewhere along the line, either the 14-day trial on app version, or I think there is a trial version on the stand-alone too. If you have to enter the activation code, you use VOCR to click on the field and can copy and paste then hit enter.
As far as I know there isn't a checkbox involved in installation.
Once you start the installation it will take a few minutes but will play the Windows start-up sound when it is installed, then simply command control enter to turn on narrator and you're off to the races!
The reason I'd suggest the stand-alone app is that it has something called Coherence mode which means you can treat Windows apps much like Mac apps. There will be a folder called Applications (Parallels), which contains shortcuts to all your installed Windows apps. You can grab these and stick them in your Applications folder.
Set up is a nuisance, nothing more. Usage is pretty smooth after that.
Pro tip: When you have it installed, get on the Microsoft store and download Sharp Keys. This allows you to re-map keys within Windows. I've remapped my right Windows key (right command on Mac) to special application (it's Windows version of VO shift m), and the right Alt (right option key on Mac) to incert, which is required for screen readers to work properly, their version of the VO key.
Sorry, this is all a bit garbled, but I hope it helps. Please drop me a line if you want further assistance.
FYI everyone the soundā¦
FYI everyone the sound driver is an issue on windows end and it's been there since forever I think on 10/11, nothing to do with any vm software on either mac hardware, arm or x86.