Mac OS X Tiger delivers elegant, innovative solutions for those with vision, hearing and motor skills disabilities. Built right into Tiger, Universal Access works with many applications, not just the Finder. And because Mac OS X supports multiple users, everyone can have a positive, personalized experience from the same computer.

Vision

If you have a visual impairment, Mac OS X Tiger provides a range of options to help you see what’s on screen more easily. The built-in zoom feature magnifies the screen up to 20x and automatically follows the mouse cursor — which is also resizable — so you can focus on your work, not waste time scrolling. If you work better with high contrast or a reduced color space, you can adjust the screen to white on black or grayscale. Mac OS X Tiger also includes a robust, integrated screen reader called VoiceOver, which narrarates what’s happening on screen, reads the content of your documents and provides full keyboard navigation for control of your computer. VoiceOver also allows you to magnify items in the VoiceOver cursor independently of the screen zoom and includes an innovative Caption Panel that displays what the computer is speaking in large print on screen.

Hearing

If you have difficulty hearing, set Mac OS X Tiger to flash the screen to alert you instead of playing an audio system beep. You can also use quick-access key commands to adjust the system volume, choose a custom system beep alert, set the alert beep volume independent of the system volume setting and play unique sounds that identify various system events. Set audio feedback to play or remain silent each time you adjust the system volume settings.

Motor Skills

If you have difficulty using the mouse, Mac OS X Tiger provides several alternatives to assist you. Mouse Keys let you use the numeric keypad to move the mouse cursor, click, double-click and drag. Sticky keys allows you to enter “key chords” such as Shift-Option-8 sequentially. With Sticky Keys active, Mac OS X Tiger displays each key in the sequence on screen so you can correct and verify the sequence before you execute it. Full Keyboard Access provides key commands to navigate menus, windows, the Dock and other interface elements using only the keyboard. You can even assign and reassign key commands used system wide or in individual applications. And a built-in speech recognition system allows you to speak commands instead of typing them.