Accessibility Features of Mac OS X Tiger: Apple and Third Party Solutions

The Former versions of Mac OS X did not possess many accessibility features. The Mac OS X Tiger allows each user of a computer to have their own accessibility settings, including the universal access features.

For the price of a commercial screen reader for MS Windows, one can purchase a whole new Mac and get the VoiceOver screen reader built into Mac OS X Tiger included for free. The Mac OS X is rock solid; it does not crash and does not suffer from virus invasions, which has proven to be a major problem with MS Windows.

Accessing the accessibility options

The Universal Access System Preference panel encompasses the key accessibility features of Tiger. The System Preferences can be accessed through the Apple menu. After the System Preference window poops up, click on the Universal Access component, which has a blue circular icon with a white figure with spread arms in the center. The Universal Access panel has four components: Seeing, Hearing, Keyboard, and Mouse & Trackpad. It also has a checkbox labeled “Enable access for assistive devices” at the bottom. This option allows assistive applications (as well as some more general purpose utility software) to access information about other applications, such as the location, size and name of windows, buttons, and menus.

The “enable access” option should be turned on for the running of some assistive applications. When “enable access” is turned on, a pop-up will ask administrator’s password for confirmation, as it reduces the security of the machine allowing program A to see some of the information in the windows of program B.

Accessibility options for vision impairments

The Seeing component provides three functions: VoiceOver, Zoom and Display. VoiceOver is Apple’s screen-reader for people with vision impairments. It can be turned on using a radio button or toggled on/off using cmd-F5. For advanced control over verbosity, navigation, voices, display, and pronunciation, the VoiceOver Utility button can be used. For more information visit the following URL: (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/voiceover/).

The Zoom feature allows people with low vision to zoom in on part of the screen at user-adjustable magnification. Zoom can be turned on with a radio button or toggled on/off using cmd-opt-8. The Mouse & Trackpad component can be used to increase the cursor size.

Accessibility options for hearing impairments

There is only one option which flashes the screen when there is an alert sound.

Accessibility options for people with physical impairments

There are two components that are useful for people with physical impairments. These are the Keyboard component and the Mouse & Trackpad component. The Keyboard component offers two features, namely the Sticky Keys and the Slow Keys. The Mouse and Trackpad component offers the above mentioned option to increase the cursor size, as well as a feature called Mouse Keys. The other option useful for some people with physical impairments is voice commands.

Third party solutions

This is useful to cover those accessibility options, which the Mac OS X does not offer.

• Software
  AssistiveWare’s TouchStrokes on-screen keyboard, AssistiveWare’s KeyStrokes, RJ Cooper’s SmartClickX, RJ Cooper’s CrossScannerX, MacSpeech’s iListen and AssistiveWare’s Proloquo are some of the add-ons to the Mac OS X.
• Hardware
  Origin Instruments HeadMouse Extreme, RJ Cooper’s SmartNav, Don Johnston’s USB Switch Interface Pro 5 and Quizworks USB Switch Interface, to name a few. For detailed comparison of switch interfaces.

Mac OS X Tiger provides a rich set of accessibility features. The variety of excellent third party software and hardware solutions further extends the accessibility of Mac OS X Tiger. Mac OS X such a great platform for all users. Mac OS X Tiger (single user $129 USD; family pack $199 USD)