Accessibility in Education for Mac #1 - Light or Dark mode

Welcome to the first post in this series supporting educators to use the features built into Mac Operating System to support the personalised experience their students have on their Mac.

There are so many features built into your device, that I estimate that most people use around 10% of what is available to them. Plus, with the rate of change and the volume of incredibly useful tools, it's hard to keep up! In my work as an Apple Professional Learning Specialist, I've discovered that these selected tools have proven to be the most valuable in my interactions with the individuals I've collaborated with in the classroom.

This resource has been created to give you access to short videos that assist you to set up the Mac for success in the classroom. There are 30 top tips coming, little video snippets and some ideas about who might find each tool valuable.

The top tips are grouped into topics. In my mind, the first group are about the settings on the Mac. These are the more global type features. The second and third sets are the ones that assist students to get content into and out of Mac, and off the page or environment, and the fourth set is additional tools that facilitate organisation, and understanding. The last tool gives you customised suggestions of which features would be worth setting up based on the student’s personal needs. In these, the Mac version of my Accessibility features, I chose mainly a comparable Mac version of the tool.

At the end of the 30 posts there will be a combined resource and downloadable content for you with all the videos and resources in one location, so keep your eye out for that.

In this video, we explore selecting Light or Dark mode. You can select Light or Dark mode to improve how the screen is viewed. You could set this to change with the surrounding light conditions or to best accommodate your student's visual needs. I find Dark mode so much better when I am using my device in the evenings, or in a darkened room as it's so much less contrast to the other things I am looking at aorund me. I often find it easier to maintain concentration and learn when in light mode. Knowing how and when to switch is the key for me.