Welcome to Mojave
Today, Apple released macOS 10.14, named Mojave. As always, this is a free
upgrade for Macs that support it <https://support.apple.com/macos/mojave> .
The good news is that we haven't found any serious bugs in our testing, so
if you're running High Sierra already, you can probably upgrade without
worrying about running into problems with the new OS. The less-great news is
that there are no accessibility updates for us to talk about in Mojave. Much
like iOS 12, Apple seems to have put their resources into bug fixes and
stability this year, rather than making major changes. This is good, and I'm
happy to see it.
Because there are no big changes in VoiceOver or Zoom, I'll focus on the
mainstream features instead. I'll explain each feature briefly, then note
any accessibility-specific details I, or the other testers on the AppleVis
Editorial Team, have discovered. For full details on the non-VoiceOver
changes in Mojave, I recommend Apple's Mojave overview page
<https://www.apple.com/macOS> .
The Migration Begins
At WWDC in June 2018, Apple announced a project set to be released in a year
or so. The goal is to allow developers to make apps that will work on both
macOS and iOS, with minimal work from the developer. Partly as test
subjects, and partly to introduce some much-needed productivity and utility
to macOS, Apple started testing this feature on apps they make in-house.
Mojave introduces News, Home, Voice Memos, and Stocks.
All four of these apps do what you'd expect, and act similar to their iOS
counterparts. With the cloud syncing all your preferences and information
(favorite stocks, news interests, and even Voice Memos recordings), each app
feels like you're using the app's service, not the app itself. Whether
you're on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone, you get the same information in a
more-or-less familiar layout. It's quite nice, and I find myself liking News
on macOS more than I like it on iOS in some ways. Think about how similar
email is on either platform, and you'll understand where I'm coming from. In
either case, you have lists of messages sorted into mailbox folders, and you
can reply, forward, delete, move, and so on. The Mac offers more keyboard
shortcuts and a different layout, but your mail and the actions it supports
are the same.
Apple has started something similar with the migration of these apps. News,
for example, will still show you stories from the outlets and topics you've
set up on iOS, yet it does so in a somewhat more Mac-like manner. Rather
than rotor actions and buttons to like a story or manage channels, you have
hotkeys and dropdown menus. Instead of a list of stories broken up by
headings, you get a table of contents from which you can pick a topic or
channel, then a list of stories that fit your choice. Yet the whole
experience is intuitive and easy.
Home--the other app I tested the most--has a similar feel. You can do
everything you can in the iOS version, though I didn't try adding an
accessory or making an automation. All the settings for all your homes will
sync from macOS to iOS and vice versa, and you can get and set the actions
for any of your devices. Yet, rather than tabs and rotor actions, you have a
toolbar and more dropdown menus.
The only odd thing we found in testing is that some iOS behaviors seem to
have followed these apps into Mac land. When you press vo-space, for
instance, you hear the sound VoiceOver on iOS makes when you double-tap.
Also, text fields sometimes have hints like, "press control, option, space
to start editing", yet no such action is needed before the field will accept
keyboard input. These small quirks don't get in the way, and I've even found
that I really like the double-tap sound when I vo-space. I hope it comes to
the rest of macOS in the future.
Desktop and Finder
There are a few changes here. I'll quickly list most of them without
providing much detail, as none of us were able to test these.
* Dynamic Desktop wallpapers let the wallpaper change to match the
time of day
* Stacks automatically uses file types, tags, and dates to make
stacks of files on your desktop, organizing them without you having to do
any manual sorting.
* Finder offers expanded options--from quick actions to basic file
editing for some file types--right in Quick Look. It also shows full
metadata.
* You can customize the available actions, metadata, and other
details of the newly available views.
Gallery View
Now, the feature I did test, albeit relatively briefly: Gallery View.
Visually, this new Finder view puts a preview of one file at a time on the
screen, with file details below it. It's great for glancing over text files,
PDFs, or images, especially when paired with actions. So why did I put it in
its own section? I find it quite useful, believe it or not.
For VoiceOver users, Finder shows your current files, one at a time, as you
navigate them. You'll hear the name of the newly selected file when you move
to it, just as you always do in Finder. Movement is accomplished with left
or right arrow, though, not up or down as you might be used to.
Here's the cool part, though. When a file is selected, you can press vo-left
to land on the file's content. I use this with RTF documents, so I can
interact with and read the text of the current file without opening the file
in another app. If this is the file I want, I can press cmd-o to open it, or
else I can arrow to another file and try again. If I vo-right from the file
list, there's a scroll area with file details--location, size, date, type,
and so on. Finally, there's a button (which currently has no VoiceOver
label) that lets you access the actions for the file. I haven't set those up
yet.
Gallery View isn't something you'll use all the time. It has its place,
though. You can certainly make the argument that it's as many keystrokes to
vo-arrow and interact as it is to press cmd-i or use the Quick Look feature.
Certainly, Quick Look wins if you're reviewing audio files, as it plays them
automatically while Gallery view does not. Yet, Gallery View requires only
basic VO commands, with no need to remember extra keystrokes or take your
fingers away from where they are while you're using VoiceOver's navigation.
I also suspect that low-vision users might find Gallery to be a useful
option, though none of us using the Mojave betas have enough sight to test
my theory.
Hello, Darkness
Dark Mode has finally arrived on the Mac. While VoiceOver users may not care
about what their screens look like, some low vision users will definitely
enjoy this addition. Head to System Preferences > General to turn it on.
Dark Mode does what it says on the box: it darkens things. It doesn't turn
screen brightness down, but rather makes backgrounds dark instead of white
and adjusts the color of text accordingly. This can cut down on glare,
making things easier to see for many users. I can only see the light on my
screen, not what it's doing or any detail at all, but I've kept Dark Mode
enabled the entire time I've tested Mojave. Why? It's dim enough that the
glaring light of my screen is reduced, yet I can keep the screen on for when
others need to look at it.
Other Changes
Mojave includes a lot of good features, but none that impact VoiceOver
directly, to the best of our knowledge. I'll run through most of these
below, but I again point you to Apple's website or other write-ups and
articles for full information.
* Continuity Camera lets you request a photo on your Mac, take it on
your iPhone when it automatically opens the Camera app, then have the photo
appear on the Mac
* Safari lets you use website icons on tabs, block trackers more
aggressively than ever, and more easily use strong passwords it can
auto-generate
* Siri has more abilities, including control over HomeKit devices,
locating saved passwords, and "knowledge" of food, celebrities, and
motorsports, according to Apple's website
Bugs
Now the bit we all hate: the problems. Mojave, like iOS 12, has relatively
few new accessibility bugs to speak of. Plus, we found no
serious bugs, as already mentioned. Here are the Mojave-specific bugs we
were able to find.
* VoiceOver's reading of Wikipedia articles in the built-in
Dictionary app is unreliable
* VoiceOver may announce "System Preferences has new window," when
navigating certain preference panes
* when going back a page in Safari, VoiceOver's focus does not
always land on the point of the returned-to page from which you left
* when sending a message in Mail, VoiceOver speaks "send again"
rather than "send," since the menu item for this action has the wrong text
* in Safari's address bar, VoiceOver may speak the character to the
left of a character just erased, rather than the removed character itself
* Apps ported from iOS have small oddities, like playing the
double-tap sound when vo-space is pressed
* there may be navigation problems in the App Store
* The TouchBar can, on rare occasions, act as though VoiceOver is
not running, responding instantly to touches
* Finder's Gallery view has a menu button for file actions. This
button lacks a label for VoiceOver and is spoken as "button," not even "menu
button" as it should be
Overall.
Mojave is a solid update. Its focus is stability and bug fixes, but it still
manages to offer HomeKit control; Dark Mode; Gallery View; and a slew of
other features and improvements. We can't think of any major bugs for
VoiceOver users, and we encountered no show-stopping bugs elsewhere in this
version of macOS. Our recommendation is to update when you're ready. You may
want to give others some time to find the bugs or other problems we missed,
but most users should be okay to pull the trigger now.
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