High-functioning Apple workflows with peripheral vision loss

As far as I know there's no way to actualy make the text bigger, or at least it's not something i've learnt about.

Applevis is mostly completely blind users who use voiceover on their macs and Iphones.

Maybe r/blind might be useful, they even had a discord.

I have RP and used my Mac as a low-vision user before eventually requiring VoiceOver.

You can make things a little bit bigger on the Mac - there are a few display options but even the biggest one isn't that great, but obviously better than nothing. Many apps allow you to adjust their font size individually - things like Cmd with + and - usually increase and decrease the text, particularly in web browsers.

The mouse pointer can be made really big - this makes it a touch clumsy to use but I would recommend whacking that right up if you are forever losing the cursor like I was. This initially was made me fall for the Mac, believe it or not.

Obviously the magnification tool in the Mac is worth getting to grips with. I used to zoom in with, I think, option+mouse wheel and I was forever zooming in and out of the screen - it could make you a little sick if you were to really think about it but it was OK. There are likely better options than that.

Not strictly related to what you are saying, but I found light backgrounds intolerable. I switched the Mac to use the dark theme and installed Dark Reader in all my browsers. This extension turns all web sites dark. I then setup a shortcut to invert the Mac's colours for those times I found an app that didn't have a dark theme. This made a huge difference to me. I know there are other browser extensions to do this sort of thing so might be worth exploring.

If you are likely to need a screen reader in the future, I would start messing about with one as soon as possible. Even if you just turn on VoiceOver and get used to the constant noise without doing anything else it will help. To start with I found it incredibly intimidating and upsetting just to hear all that sound all the time, so giving yourself the space to get used to it before you need it is probably helpful. And then you can start playing about with it - use it for some things and build up from there. You could also dabble with Spoken Content on the Mac which will speak selected things to you without having to go the full fat VoiceOver approach. Or an even lighter way would be to use Microsoft Edge to speak web pages to you with those lovely natural voices. You can also do other things - if you listen to podcasts or use a smart speaker, try bumping up the speech rate a little to help get used to hearing things at a faster rate. Anything that gets you listening to information rather than reading it visually will help in the long run.

It took me a long time to get used to VoiceOver and I was glad I had put some effort in, but it was still a shock when I lost my last remaining sight and suddenly had to start depending on it, so the more you can do up front the better. It is quite complicated and buggy so getting some practice helps. I found text editing incredibly confusing and frustrating initially.

It might also be worth reviewing the apps you use on a day to day basis and make sure that their accessibility features meet what you need. For example, can you make things bigger, change the colours etc and do they work with VoiceOver. Start to use apps that will last you so that you don't have to suddenly learn new ones should your vision loss go that way.

In all cases, get used to keyboard shortcuts. If you have peripheral vision issues then this means you can do things without looking for toolbars or menus or whatever. The Mac menu bar is great because it usually lists the shortcuts there. If you find yourself routinely doing something with the mouse then try to bit by bit replace it with a keyboard shortcut as and when you can.

One interesting thing I learned recently from the Double Tap podcast was that you can assign any keyboard shortcuts to any application menus in the Mac. I believe it is under System Settings, then Keyboard, then there should be a list of apps in there somewhere.

Anyway sorry if you've already gone through these things or if they aren't relevant to you, but these are the things that helped me.

One other thing that I forgot before - if you don't know how to touch type, this is really worth learning as soon as possible. I'd just google it and go through some online tutorials and games and get some practice in. It's easy to concentrate so much on the screen that you can forget about the keyboard, but if you are currently looking at it a lot the n it's worth trying to reduce that reliance.

I never learned how to do it properly. I can type without looking at the keyboard in my own way but I'm not very good and make a lot of mistakes. It's easier to deal with mistakes when you can see them, but it can slow you down a lot more when you can't. I regret never learning how to do this properly.

Of course it's never too late to learn, but it's just another thing that's worth doing ahead of time if you can.

Also, one other tip - don't feel disheartened if you find moving to a screen reader quite overwhelming to start with. I was convinced it was impossible for a while and was incredibly worried about frustrated for a long time. But it really does get easier with practice, and there's usually someone on applevis to help you out if you struggle with something in particular. I asked a lot of very stupid questions early on and was given a lot of help without any judgment on here which I will always be grateful for.

For me actually using the iPhone with VoiceOver was the thing that made me realise it was all possible. It's a much, much simpler interface and can be a good first step into this world. (If you use Android then I'm sure TalkBack is similar)

Apple did setup feature where the app can be made simple and easy to use. I believe someone here can let us know which feature that is. Suppose to make sure people are able to move around the app and avoid complications. Suggest that you check the many podcast setting voiceover and how to use it. Thomas did them and they still relevant. Agree that learning to use it now is better than learning later.

VOiceover has some nice tutorials now, particularly on iOS. On the Mac, it will ask if you want to start it the first time you start Voiceover. I'm not sure what it does on iOS since I was using the phone before it showed up. But settings/accessibility/Voiceover has Voiceover practice and Voiceover tutorial.

Hi Philipp,

I’m also a low-vision user, and one thing that has helped me a lot is starting to learn VoiceOver before I absolutely need it.

When I still had usable vision, I mainly relied on magnification and larger text. But over time I found that learning VoiceOver early reduced a lot of anxiety about future vision changes. Instead of making a sudden transition one day, I gradually developed a hybrid workflow using both vision and speech.

Apple’s official VoiceOver tutorials and accessibility resources are a great place to start. Even if VoiceOver is not your primary tool today, becoming comfortable with basic navigation, reading, email, and document review can be very valuable later.

Personally, I also find it helpful to let VoiceOver handle some tasks that would otherwise require long periods of visual concentration. In some situations, reducing unnecessary visual strain can help me preserve my remaining vision for tasks where visual information is most valuable.

Your approach of building a robust workflow before you urgently need it makes a lot of sense to me. I think starting to learn VoiceOver early is one of the best investments you can make.

Best wishes.