Mac Accessibility Features Everyone Should Try

The Accessibility section of System Settings is where Apple keeps some of the most useful options on the Mac, and most people never open it. Several of these are not accessibility features in any narrow sense — they are simply better ways to use a computer that ended up filed under a heading nobody browses.

Three finger drag

The best-hidden setting on the Mac. Instead of pressing the trackpad down to drag a window or select text, you drag with three fingers on the surface.

1. System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control.
2. Click Trackpad Options.
3. Set Dragging style to Three Finger Drag.

It takes a day to adapt and then pressing hard to drag feels primitive. The trade-off is that three-finger swipe for Mission Control moves to four fingers.

Zoom with a modifier and scroll

Accessibility → Zoom → Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom. Hold Control and scroll, and the screen magnifies around the pointer. Useful for reading small text, checking pixel detail, and showing something to a room during a presentation. Release and you are back.

Also on that screen: Hover Text, which shows a large, high-contrast version of whatever is under the pointer when you hold Command. Genuinely useful on a high-resolution display with small interface text.

Reduce motion

Accessibility → Display → Reduce motion. Spaces cross-fade instead of sliding, Mission Control stops zooming, and the whole machine feels faster. It also helps if full-screen switching ever makes you queasy, which is more common than people admit.

Next to it, Reduce transparency removes the blur behind menus and the Dock. It makes text easier to read and costs the Mac slightly less work to draw.

Pointer controls

• Shake mouse pointer to locate — shake the trackpad and the pointer briefly grows. On a large or multi-display setup this saves real time.
• Pointer size and colour — in Display → Pointer. Worth increasing when presenting.
• Ignore built-in trackpad when a mouse is present — in Pointer Control → Mouse & Trackpad. Stops your palm moving the cursor while typing on a laptop with a mouse attached.

Spoken content, which is not just for reading aloud

Accessibility → Spoken Content → Speak selection, with a keyboard shortcut. Select any text and have the Mac read it back. Proofreading by ear catches errors your eye skips, which is why writers use this more than anyone.

There is also Speak item under the pointer and, in the same area, the option to announce notifications. The voices are downloadable and the higher-quality ones are worth the space.

Audio and captions

• Audio → Play stereo audio as mono — useful with a single earbud in.
• Audio → Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs — for working with the sound off.
• Captions — style, size and colour of subtitles across the system, so you set it once rather than per app.

Keyboard and typing helpers

• Sticky Keys — press modifiers one at a time instead of holding a combination. Useful with one hand occupied, which is more of the day than you would think.
• Slow Keys — requires a key to be held briefly before it registers. Genuinely helpful on a keyboard that double-types.
• Dictation — turn it on in Keyboard and press the shortcut twice. On modern Macs it runs on device for many languages, so it works without a connection and stays local.

Sticky Keys has one side effect worth knowing: pressing Shift five times toggles it, which is why some people find their Mac beeping and behaving oddly after a burst of typing. If that has happened to you, this is the setting to turn off.

The shortcuts panel

Press Option-Command-F5, or triple-press Touch ID on Macs that have it, and a panel appears with your most-used accessibility features as switches. Configure which appear in Accessibility → Shortcut. Once set up it is the fastest way to turn zoom, hover text or reduce motion on and off without going near System Settings.