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Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

> It actually surprises me given Apple is very pro accessibility.

I have a hard time accepting that seeing as there is no way to configure system-wide fonts. CMD+scroll-wheel in Chrome doesn't even work properly (you can zoom the entire desktop, but it doesn't scale just the fonts on the website + remember your setting like it does on Linux and Windows machines).

I had to use a Mac for work and found it very difficult on the eyes when using an external monitor. To me this was not just an accessibility issue but THE accessibility issue. The fact that Linux gets this right of all operating systems, but Mac doesn't, speaks volumes to how much Apple actually cares about accessibility IMO.

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On a Mac you just scale the whole display, not fonts.

I've never understood why someone would want to scale just fonts rather than all UX elements. What good is it to be able to read text but not see checkboxes or click the window's close button?

There's also a magnify feature if you need to scale so much that things don't fit on the screen anymore.

Yes, Apple is not only pro-accessibility but basically sets the standard for it. Nobody else even comes close.

because I need to be able to read text. I only need to see a square box and click on it. it does not need to be the size of the line of text.

because I don't need the windows close button at all and it takes up useless space. I close windows using the keyboard.

because icons don't need to be big. i don't need to read them. i can tell a stop sign is a stop sign even if it's too small to read the text on it.

that is why scaling the whole display, is a ridiculous idea functionally. now if you want your display to look more pretty while fitting less things, you should buy a painting to look at, or something from google with lots of that sweet pretty empty space and some light gray on white text. me, I have work to get done.

I have experienced this on both nix and MacOS. Increasing the font size gives the benefits of the high resolution display desktop space without making the text uncomfortably small. Scaling the display makes the desktop space feel like you're downgrading the resolution of the whole display.

> Yes, Apple is not only pro-accessibility but basically sets the standard for it. Nobody else even comes close.

That attitude summarizes the problem, thanks. Those who have actual accessibility issues and explain them are dismissed by Apple and their zealous fans as if their opinions, as actual end users struggling to use the product and asking for particular accessibility features, just don't matter.

I came across this "accessibility" setting up a Mac mini using just voice over. Selecting a WiFi network was almost but not quite impossible because it was doing something strange going through the list of SSIDs. I have no idea how it compares to a Windows PC during setup, but it seemed obvious that it was untested in a real environment. We're talking Catalina, I think, so plenty of opportunity to have gotten it right before that.

Thankfully I'm not blind, just a victim of Apple's notoriously bad HDMI port on the mini.

System wide font adjustment is "coming later this year"

> For users with low vision, Text Size is now easier to adjust across Mac apps such as Finder, Messages, Mail, Calendar, and Notes.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-previews-live-s...

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