Accessibility
MeowDisplay,
accessible by design.
MeowDisplay puts your Mac on your iPhone, iPad, Android device or another Mac. This page says plainly what works for people who use assistive technology today, what changed in 2.0, and what does not work yet, so you can decide before you install.
At a glance
The official iPhone and iPad release is 2.0. Mac 2.0 is also the stable release, with a unified app and a separate receiver-only app. Accessibility improvements described here are implementation details, not a claim of completed assistive-technology testing. Where something only applies to 2.0, this page says so.
- Your Mac is shown as live video. MeowDisplay’s own buttons, settings and status can be made accessible, but the Mac desktop inside the stream is a picture. VoiceOver on your iPhone or iPad cannot read the windows, text or menus in it.
- The Control Tray is not usable with VoiceOver or Voice Control in 1.20.0. Its keys are labelled but cannot be activated by assistive technology. This is fixed in 2.0.
- Several features help with reach, fine motor control and low vision, such as Trackpad mode, adjustable pointer speed, zooming into the Mac picture, Zoom While Typing and customizable trays. They are ordinary app features, not assistive technology, and they are described as such below.
Accessibility support
Apple asks apps to describe nine accessibility features on the App Store. The table shows the state of each one on iPhone and iPad. “Not yet” means we cannot honestly say the feature works for the app’s common tasks.
| Feature | 1.20.0 (previous iOS) | 2.0 (current iOS) |
|---|---|---|
| VoiceOver | Not yet. Settings and the home screen are labelled, but Control Tray keys cannot be activated. | Not yet. Tray keys become buttons, status is announced, and the Mac picture ignores VoiceOver gestures. Not yet tested on a device. |
| Voice Control | Not yet. Control Tray keys cannot be activated by voice. | Not yet. Keys get speakable names such as “Cmd”, “Esc” and “Gear”. Not yet tested on a device. |
| Larger Text | Partial. Settings and the home screen follow your text size. The trays and their keys do not. | Partial. Same, with fixes for the demo banner and the pairing sheet at large sizes. |
| Dark Interface | Follows your Light or Dark setting. The session controls are always dark. The Mac picture looks the way your Mac looks. | Same. |
| Differentiate Without Color Alone | Connection status always shows text next to its colored dot. On and off states use brightness and text, not color alone. | Same. |
| Sufficient Contrast | Not verified. The trays are translucent over live video, and Increase Contrast is not yet supported. | Not verified. |
| Reduced Motion | Partial. Only a few animations respond to Reduce Motion. | Mostly. Slides become fades and the Stage Peek tilt goes flat. A few small animations remain. |
| Captions | Not applicable. MeowDisplay has no videos or spoken content of its own. Mac audio is passed through as-is and is not captioned. | |
| Audio Descriptions | Not applicable, for the same reason. | |
We will only list a feature as supported on the App Store once it has been tested with that feature turned on, on real devices.
Ways to interact
VoiceOver, Voice Control and Switch Control
In 1.20.0, VoiceOver can read Settings, the home screen and connection status, and MeowDisplay turns off its own multi-finger and edge gestures while VoiceOver is running so they don’t clash with VoiceOver gestures. The Control Tray, keyboard bar and shortcut keys cannot be activated with VoiceOver, Voice Control or Switch Control.
In 2.0, those controls become real buttons with actions, glyph keys get spoken names for Voice Control, connection changes and results are announced, and prompts stay on screen while VoiceOver is running. While VoiceOver is on, the Mac picture is a single “Mac screen” element that ignores touches until you choose Turn On Direct Touch from its actions, so exploring the screen never clicks your Mac by accident. This work has not yet been tested on a device with VoiceOver, Voice Control or Switch Control.
Touch and pointer
- Direct Touch puts the pointer where you touch. Trackpad moves the pointer relative to your finger, so small movements can reach the whole screen.
- Trackpad Sensitivity sets how far the pointer moves.
- 2.0 adds a choice of Natural Touch or Classic touch style in Direct Touch.
Keyboard
In 1.20.0, a hardware keyboard types on the Mac while MeowDisplay’s keyboard is open. In 2.0, a connected keyboard drives the Mac directly. Using MeowDisplay’s own menus and settings with Full Keyboard Access has not been tested.
Trays and shortcuts
The Control Tray and Function Tray put modifier keys, shortcuts and multi-step actions one tap away, instead of chords or multi-finger gestures. You can choose what is on them, keep them from hiding automatically, and pick which side they sit on. On iPad you can also choose a layout and make the controls larger with Control Size.
Make it comfortable
- Text size: Settings and the home screen use system text styles and follow your text size. The trays, hints and some labels inside a session are fixed-size.
- Zoom into your Mac: with Allow Local View Navigation on, pinch to zoom into the Mac picture, up to 3× in 1.20.0 and 8× in 2.0. Reset View returns to normal. This zooms the picture on your device and does not change your Mac.
- Zoom While Typing: the picture follows the text cursor on your Mac while you type.
- Appearance: MeowDisplay follows your Light or Dark setting. To make the Mac itself easier to see, use your Mac’s own display, cursor size and contrast settings, since the stream shows exactly what the Mac shows.
- Reduce Motion: respected in a few places in 1.20.0 and in most animations in 2.0.
- Reduce Transparency: not supported in 1.20.0. In 2.0 it applies to Stage Peek and the file browser, but not yet to the trays.
- Orientation: works in every orientation; the trays move to fit.
- Video Off turns the stream off so the device works as a remote control for the Mac.
Platform differences
iPhone and iPad
Accessibility support is the same on iPhone and iPad, except that iPad also has Control Layout and Control Size. All of the details above apply to both.
Mac
The Mac app uses standard macOS controls in its settings, and macOS accessibility features such as VoiceOver and Zoom keep working on the Mac itself. The Mac app’s own screens have not had a dedicated VoiceOver review. Pairing codes and requests to control the Mac are approved on the Mac.
Android
MeowDisplay for Android is in closed testing. It includes labels, headings, announcements and larger touch targets for TalkBack, but it has not been tested with TalkBack yet, and some controls are still smaller than recommended. We don’t yet describe it as TalkBack-ready.
How to turn things on
On iPhone and iPad
- VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, Larger Text, Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency: Settings › Accessibility.
- Light or Dark appearance: Settings › Display & Brightness.
In MeowDisplay
Open MeowDisplay’s Settings from the gear in the Control Tray or from the home screen. Settings can be searched.
- Input mode and pointer speed: Settings › Input › Input Mode and Trackpad Sensitivity.
- Zoom While Typing: Settings › Input › Zoom While Typing.
- Zoom into the Mac picture: Settings › Gestures › Allow Local View Navigation, then Reset View when you’re done.
- Keep the trays visible: turn off Settings › Controls › Auto-hide Control Trays.
- Choose what’s on the trays: Settings › Controls › Edit Current Profile and Edit Function Tray.
- Larger controls on iPad: Settings › Controls › Control Size.
- Turn the stream off: Settings › Display › Video.
- Haptics: Settings › General › Haptics.
Some names change in 2.0. For example, Invert Scrolling becomes Natural Scrolling, and Active Profile becomes Control Profile.
The Mac’s Accessibility permission
To let your iPhone, iPad or Android device click and type on your Mac, MeowDisplay for Mac needs permission in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility. In the Mac app, this is under Settings › System › Permissions.
This is a macOS privacy permission for remote input. It is not an accessibility feature for people with disabilities, even though macOS lists it under Accessibility. Without it, you can still view your Mac, but not control it. In 2.0, the same permission also lets Zoom While Typing find where the text cursor is, without reading what you type, and lets Window view arrange windows.
Known limitations
- VoiceOver cannot read the contents of your Mac’s screen in the stream. Use VoiceOver on the Mac itself for that.
- In 1.20.0, the Control Tray, keyboard bar and shortcut keys cannot be used with VoiceOver, Voice Control or Switch Control.
- The 2.0 accessibility work has not yet been tested with VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control or TalkBack on real devices.
- Tray keys, hints and some in-session labels do not grow with your text size, and there is no Large Content Viewer.
- Contrast has not been measured, and Increase Contrast is not supported. The translucent trays can be harder to see over busy content.
- Smart Invert also inverts the Mac picture.
- Voice Control commands for editing text, such as “Delete that”, do not edit text on the Mac.
- Full Keyboard Access for MeowDisplay’s own interface has not been tested.
Feedback
If something doesn’t work with the way you use your devices, we want to know. Please open an issue on GitHub and mention the device, the system version, MeowDisplay’s version and the accessibility feature you use. For other help, visit Support.