Guides

In macOS Ventura, Apple replaced the familiar System Preferences app with a new app called System Settings. This app is fully accessible with VoiceOver, however the interface is quite different and many settings have been relocated, which may at first be disorienting to longtime Mac users. However, the new layout may feel familiar if you’ve used iOS or iPadOS, and you may eventually find that the increased parody between the two platforms makes the experience of locating and changing…

Introduction

The following guide has been inspired by this episode of the Apfel-Fleger Podcast, a podcast in German for blind users of Apple products. All credit goes to Jürgen Fleger and his friend for discovering and presenting this little trick.

One thing that Braille Screen Input apps for Android, the likes of Soft Braille Keyboard or Advanced Braille…

Hello, everyone. Two years and literally thousands of changes later, the second edition of Personal Power is now available. It's an ebook which I wrote and am giving away freely. Basically, the book takes people from setting up their iPhones to thriving in the iOS environment. It teaches how to use VoiceOver, the various parts of iOS, and a whole lot of apps.

In fact, one of my major goals with this book was to point newcomers to a large collection of accessible apps. Many people get…

Hello everyone!
Ever since I switched to the Mac, I've only really had one regret. I wished to play some of my old favorite audio games on the Mac. Parallels is a bit overcomplicated and resource heavy for my needs, but I've discovered with crossover by code weavers:
https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover
one can actually play a lot of audio games on the Mac.
Some caveats:
1. anything that needs…

In my first Pages guide, I described what certain typographic elements looked like such as bold text and underlining. In my second guide, I provided a crash course in how you can quickly apply styles in your Pages documents. In this guide, let’s tackle some more complex concepts. You can apply these to…

As time rolls on, the digital Covid-19 Vax Card is one you may need to show quickly in ore places and situations. Though it may be saved in your photo library, how do you grab it quickly without searching?
Though their are no doubt multiple ways to accomplish this, I will cover, using the Shortcuts, app, to make this happen.
You first need a photo of your Vax card. If you took it on the day you got your final dose of the vaccination, look back at your photos library and it may be…

In my last guide on Pages and design, I described how visual documents appear with font variations and how you can manipulate fonts, sizes, styling and more so your documents can look aesthetically pleasing to your sighted colleagues.

In this guide, I’ll describe how you can quickly apply styles and customize them in your documents. Nothing here requires advanced VoiceOver skills, however you…

Before I lost my sight, the usable low vision I had allowed me to fall in love with typography, design and the Apple aesthetic which I'd describe as clean and simple. I’ve kept this design philosophy throughout my life and have continued to edit and design my documents so they match this aesthetic.

These skills may take some time to master, but are worth the investment especially if you work in an organization that values design. Your documents will not only look better, but you will…

As a Voiceover user, the Simplenote app by Automatic is an app I use daily. It's free and are versions for IOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and in a browser.

Your notes sync seamlessly between platforms, no extra steps required.

You can read all about it here but I will focus on two features I find most useful as a Voiceover user of the IOS app in particular.

Markdown and preview on demand…

For iOS 16, macOS Ventura

Intro

If you have an iPhone, you’re probably fairly familiar with the Messages app on iOS, using it to send and receive texts, photos, videos, and other files. As part of Apple’s interconnected ecosystem, this capability is also available on macOS.

An example of how the Messages app could be useful on macOS is if you’re working on your Mac and a text comes in. Rather than stop what you’re doing and switch devices to view and respond to the…

Applies to: iPhone and iPad IOS 13+,

If you find that you come across (or yourself write) short chunks of text that you need to translate on the fly, like Facebook comments or an email, here is one solution.

You can copy the text to the clipboard, and then you can use a shortcut to translate the contents of the clipboard using Microsoft’s translation engine. You can activate the shortcut in several different ways. We’ll take each of these steps in turn:

Copying text…

Compiled below is a rearrangement of Apple’s published VoiceOver key commands charts, edited/confirmed for macOS Ventura.

Editor’s note: VO Key Commands are arranged by Levels. Press and hold the keys below while typing any other key.

Level One: Press Control-Option.

Level Two: Press Control-Option-Shift.

Level Three: Press Control-Option-Command.

Level Four: Press Control-Option-Command-Shift.

A “Combined Listing” has been provided at the end…

For iOS 16

Intro

If you’re new to or thinking about getting an iPhone, you may be wondering, as I was at one time, “How, exactly, can a person who can’t see a screen use a device whose primary input surface is one?”

I would soon realize that it wasn’t nearly as crazy as it sounded, and that I could do things with it that I couldn’t have imagined that would increase my level of independence and improve my overall quality of life. However, if you’re just getting…

This guide assumes that you have already received an invitation to AO3, and created your account. These steps will most likely be most easily followed using an ipad and bluetooth keyboard, but should also be doable on any mobile device with voiceover.

There are many ways to access the post new story (or work as the site refers to it) page, but I will show you the most direct way. Double tap the post link after the link labeled hi, followed by your chosen user name.…

This guide assumes that you have previously created a fanfiction.net account and have waited the amount of time before you are allowed to create a new story. i recommend you use a hardware keyboard of some sort, otherwise this will be quite difficult, maybe even impossible.

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to your page. yOu do this by selecting the link labeled as your chosen user name. ONce there, you will be taken to your account preferences page, with a…

For macOS Ventura

Intro

If you’re coming to the Mac from Windows, you’re probably used to either downloading apps from the Microsoft Store, or downloading an app package from a website and running its included installer. On macOS, there are several ways apps can be installed and uninstalled, which I will give an overview of in this guide.

The good news is that whatever methods the developer has employed, the installation and uninstallation processes should seem very…

Warning

3D printing is an emerging technology. It uses hot materials, moving mechanisms and the quality of components cannot be assured. Please bear this in mind and take appropriate proportions in the pursuit of 3D printing glory... Now you have been warned...

I need to begin this by managing expectations. 3D printing is an art, it requires patients, it requires failure and understanding why that failure occurred, it requires knowledge and it often requires…

Intro

If you use a Mac, at some point or another, you will need to drag an item from one place to another. You could be, among other things, trying to move a file, reorder a list, or attach photos and other files to a document.

While there is no, “Magic solution,” to drag and drop with VoiceOver, there are several methods you can employ that just might work to accomplish the task at hand. These tips come predominantly from my own personal use, as literature on how to do…

hello,

this guide will explain to you how to pair an apple watch at the first time with your Iphone and voice over.

first, go to your Apple watch app in your Iphone, which called Watch.
double tapp on it then, swipe until you hear "start pearing " button and double tapp on it.
if you're blind, i suggest you not to use the camera option to pair the apple Watch.
in the next screen, find the button "pair Apple watch manually.
when your…

Ever since I changed to using Windows 10 in my VMware Fusion virtual machine, I've struggled with a fair bit of latency and audio problems when using the standard HDAudio device. Changing the buffer time didn't make a huge difference, but now I've found a way to install the VMaudio driver and revert to the old es1371 audio device so I can lower the latency. This makes my Windows 10 run like my Windows 7 VM latency-wise, and I figured everyone else could use this info, so here…