Mac keyboard shortcuts for accessibility features

Accessibility shortcuts help control your Mac with a keyboard or assistive device.

General accessibility

     Shortcut      Description
Command-Option-F5 Display Accessibility Options.
Command-F5
or Fn-Command-F5
Turn VoiceOver on or off.1
Option-Control-F8
or Fn-Option-Control-F8
Open VoiceOver Utility, if VoiceOver is turned on.1
Command-Option-8 Turn zoom on or off.2
Command–Option–Plus Sign (+) Zoom in.2
Command–Option–Minus Sign (-) Zoom out.2
Command-Option-Control-8 Turn the Invert colors setting on or off.
Command-Option-Control-Comma (,) Reduce contrast.
Command-Option-Control-Period (.) Increase contrast.
  1. To use VoiceOver and VoiceOver Utility, you may need to turn on "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" in Keyboard preferences. You may also need to make VoiceOver ignore the next key press before you can use some of the other Mac keyboard shortcuts.
  2. To use the zoom shortcuts, you may need to turn on "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom" in Accessibility preferences.

Full Keyboard Access

Full Keyboard Access lets you use your keyboard to navigate and interact with items on the screen. 

     Shortcut      Description
Control-F7 Switch between navigation of all controls on the screen, or only text boxes and lists.
Tab Move to the next control.
Shift-Tab Move to the previous control.
Control-Tab Move to the next control when a text field is selected.
Shift-Control-Tab Move the focus to the previous grouping of controls.
Arrow keys Use Left Arrow, Right Arrow, Up Arrow, and Down Arrow to move to the adjacent item in a list, tab group, or menu. Or move sliders and adjusters: Up Arrow to increase values, Down Arrow to decrease values.
Control–arrow keys  Use Control with Left Arrow, Right Arrow, Up Arrow, and Down Arrow to move to a control adjacent to the text field.
Space bar Choose the selected menu item.
Return or Enter Click the default button, or perform the default action.
Esc Click the Cancel button, or close a menu without choosing an item.
Shift-Control-F6 Move the focus to the previous panel.
Control-F8 Move to the status menu in the menu bar.
Command-Accent (`) Activate the next open window in the front app.
Command-Shift-Accent (`) Activate the previous open window in the front app.
Command-Option-Accent (`) Move the focus to the window drawer.

Mouse Keys

When Mouse Keys is turned on, you can use the keyboard or numeric keypad keys to move the mouse pointer.

     Shortcut      Description
8 or numeric keypad 8 Move up.
K or numeric keypad 2 Move down.
U or numeric keypad 4 Move left.
O or numeric keypad 6 Move right.
J or numeric keypad 1 Move diagonally down and to the left.
L or numeric keypad 3 Move diagonally down and to the right.
7 or numeric keypad 7 Move diagonally up and to the left.
9 or numeric keypad 9 Move diagonally down and to the right.
I or numeric keypad 5 Press the mouse button.
M or numeric keypad 0 Hold the mouse button.
. (period) Release the mouse button.

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