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Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts

This appendix lists keyboard shortcuts that are reserved for use with various Universal Access features in Mac OS X.

To turn VoiceOver on or off, use Command-F5.

Table A-1 lists the keyboard shortcuts that are reserved for use with screen zooming in Mac OS X. A user turns on the zoom feature in the Seeing pane of Universal Access preferences.

Mac OS X version 10.2 and later provides the option of full keyboard access mode, in which users can navigate through windows, dialogs, menus, toolbars, and the Dock using the keyboard alone, without a mouse or other pointing device.

Users can turn on full keyboard access in the Keyboard Shortcuts pane of Keyboard & Mouse preferences. Control-F1 is a reserved keyboard shortcut for turning full keyboard access on or off. Control-F7 toggles between keyboard access for all controls in windows and dialogs and the default state, in which only text fields and scrolling lists are accessed with the keyboard. Don’t use these combinations for any other purpose.

With keyboard access turned on in windows and dialogs, the arrow keys move between values within a control. For example, if the user selects a slider with the Tab key, the arrow keys move the slider control along the slider track. For vertically oriented choices, such as menu items, the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys move the selection. For horizontally oriented choices, such as a row of tabs, the Right Arrow and Left Arrow keys move the selection. In some cases, it makes sense to support both orientations. For example, a vertical slider could use both the Up Arrow and the Right Arrow to increase the value.

In some cases, such as radio buttons, moving the focus to an item selects it as well. In other cases, such as push buttons, the user activates a selected item by pressing the Space bar. In full keyboard access mode, pressing the Space bar is equivalent to clicking the mouse button.

The Esc (Escape) key is used to cancel a dialog and to cancel a selection in a pop-up menu or list. In a Dock menu, Esc dismisses the menu and moves focus to the frontmost window.

The user can also quickly place focus in the menu bar, the Dock, toolbars, and utility windows using key combinations described in Table A-2.

This behavior is provided for all applications that use the standard controls. If you are implementing your own controls, you need to provide these behaviors for your users.

Table A-2 lists the key combinations used in full keyboard access mode.

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