The New Features, Changes, Improvements, and Bugs in macOS 11 Big Sur for Blind and Low Vision Users

Good afternoon,
What about the bug that I found with notifications, as well as the other one, that I reported to the team? Has anyone else seen these?

If these bugs are not present for others, I may consider upgrading, however, if others experience them, I may hold off a while.

Is this a big OS revision, or isn't it?

The OS still runs on Intel-based Macs. The core OS hasn't changed - no mention of Darwin disappearing. Most changes seem like GUI-related window dressing, all fairly cosmetic. Lots of talk in the blog-o-sphere about transparency, new icons, and vertical space between menu items. Yawn.

Big Sur adds support for a new CPU while maintaining support for existing CPUs. That's it. And for this, they bump the major revision number?

Personally, I think Apple just wants to limit the number of older machines they have to test. Bumping the major revision number gives them an excuse to stop supporting the 2012 MacBook Pro, for example, even though it's Intal processor, in all likelihood, can run Big Sur just as well as the 2014 MacBook Pro, which Big Sur still supports.

Put me down as frustrated and inconvenienced. I do a lot with my computers, and upgrading the OS is no trivial matter. Yet I must suffer a few days of downtime and retraining for essentially no significant new features or performance.

has any one noticed when you are installing the newest Mac update it says a installation error has occured

Hey guys. Does anyone know when macOS big sir will be available for Australian customers?

Yeah, that happened to me. I believe I have to wait some time and try again. I remember that the same thing happened with one of the previous versions of macOS, but I don't remember how I fixed it.

I'm glad it's not just me. Now let's hope someone figures out what we should do to fix this.

I'm having the annoying error, and I tried to update three times, but no, it won't let me. Stupid as this update would have provided those voiceover fixes, and I want those. Please, someone please tell me how to fix this because my poor partner doesn't know or doesn't have the answers.

I read elsewhere that Apple is having a widespread outage which is preventing Big Sur from installing, so if you're getting errors, try again later.

The issue is apparently also causing some Mac apps to fail to launch, presumably because security checks aren't happening properly.

Subject says it all. I restarted, and the download picked up where it left off. It's now going with no problems as of yet.

According to Apple's What's new page for VoiceOver in Big Sur, it's now possible to independently select the input and output settings for a Braille display. It's also possible to automatically scroll the display. There's also a setting that supposedly alerts you when a system dialog is displayed. https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/whats-new-in-voiceover-vo15627/10/mac/11.0

This is good, but have they fixed all the irritating little bugs that have been around for years? Do the Nuance voices finally not lag when you select them?

I just updated to big sur earlier this evening. Everything went pretty smoothly after I restarted. No issues here whatsoever. I'm sure their are some, but whatever. THey're not a big deal.

This update seems much smoother on my iMac late 2015 so far, but after all these years, I can't believe we still can't increase fonts (I mean, accessibility fonts) like we can in iOS since the very first iPhone. We still have to low the entire system resolution to do that and even with that its not as big as I'd like too in some situations.

I'm actually a bit baffled that I haven't seen this bug mentioned anywhere else, and that now makes me scratch my head and wonder if this is only happening on my Mac.
Thing is, ever since first beta of Big Sur, and now still present in the final release, I have not been able to navigate to next or previous folder using right and left arrow keys in column view in Finder.
Once VO focus is set on e.g. my Dropbox folder when in column view, I have always been able to use right arrow to expand the folder and go in to the next subfolder. Or when inside my Dropbox folder, I should be able to hit left arrow to go back to my home folder again, but nothing happens when pressing either left or right arrow in Finder.
Well, my sighted wife can confirm that hitting the right arrow actually opens the next subfolder, but VO focus stays put on the same folder as before.
I have sometimes had luck using a method of first hitting right arrow, and then pressing Shift+VO+Space to simulate a mouse click, and this would be a workaround that sometimes has worked to move the VO focus to the correct subfolder that has been opened by pressing the right arrow key, but this has not been consistent for me.
And if right or left arrow haven't worked in the past for any good reason, I have always been able to use the global Finder shortcuts Cmd+Down arrow to expand into the next subfolder or Cmd+Up arrow for previous folder, but those shortcuts don't work either at this time. Actually, it could be that they work just fine for sighted users, but VO focus at the least stay put on the same folder as it was placed on before trying to go to next or previous folder using any known method.
So at this time, I'm really left with having to navigate Finder windows using list view, which I'm really not a huge fan of.
I've sent a couple of emails to accessibility@apple.com during the beta cycle period of Big Sur, and I've of course also reported this through the Feedback Assistant, but this bug has not been resolved this far for me at least.
Since there was no mention of this bug in this post either, I figured it might be some corrupted VO settings on my account that is the reason behind this non-working arrow navigation in column view. So I created a new, fresh test account to check how navigation in column view was working there, and sure enough, the same issue is true in a new account as well.
Has anyone else seen this, and if so, has anyone else found a fix for this, since no-one else has mentioned this frustrating Finder / VO focus bug?
I'm on a MacBook Pro 16 late 2019, running the latest build of Big Sur.

Hi all!
I just updated to big sur! One of the most awaited feature for me was the seamless switch between my devices using AirPods Pro. I cannot seem to manage the switch.
I was hoping while VO reads my mail on my Mac, (with AirPods Pro) I could pause my VO on Mac and pick up my I-Phone or read an upcoming notification on my I-Watch without going through bluetooth pairing of my AirPods Pro.
Have I got it wrong somehow or am I suppose to do anything?
Needless to say, all my devices are signed inn with a single Apple ID.
Any help will be highly appreciated.
Meanwhile, lets have a go at Big Sur, which by the by, seems much better than previous Mac OS updates.
Cheers!

Hi everyone. I just wanted to add for anyone who is low vision and is using zoom and voiceover that the zoom level keeps getting spoken when you change zoom with the option and trackpad combinations. I use this often depending on what I"m doing and while I see the idea behind reporting this information I find it intrusive since I doo it so often. I have not found a way to disable this so it may be worth noting if you are thinking to update and use both. Also the menu bar size mentioned in the article either doesn't change or doesn't change significantly. I kept thinking maybe it wasn't a change big enough for me to notice but I put the top edge of a window right up against the bar when it was standard and then changed it to see if it would come past the top edge of my window and it didn't. I feel like anyone who would have found this useful has already found a way to navigate it without this Big Sur only feature but if that's something you were looking forward to I have not found it to work. Lastly, the menu bar has dark icons on a light background if your overall background is light. The transparency effect never bothered me personally before but now even with dark mode the menu bar icons are dark on light if whatever's behind it is mostly light so I am seriously considering reduce transparency for the first time which does fix the problem.

I am still experiencing random ducking occasionally when it makes the iPhone or iPad selection or navigation noises. It's not as often as it used to be but it is still there.

As a service to my fellow screen reader users, Big Sur is spelled Big S, u, r—as in the location in California, not a large respected gentleman.

I just installed Big Sur with no issues. For those encountering the error, it does go away if you try later. By now, the Apple's CDN should have updated so the entire world has it.

I have a mid-2018 MBP with an SSD and 8 GB of RAM. Big Sur seems to have made VoiceOver a bit more snappy and responsive, in addition to the other apps on my system. Generally speaking, it's an improvement over 10.15.7. My one quibble with Messages is that you need to press on a conversation for it to gain focus and be the active conversation. Be careful that you don't accidentally text the wrong message to people. :)

During beta testing, I found a bug I'd deam serious.

When in regular recovery mode, if you press command f5, to turn on voiceover, it won't come up, and you'll see a flashing bar across the bottom of your screen.
Until this is fixed, you'll need to use internet recovery, if you need to reinstall for any reason.

Can anyone else confirm?

Anyone noticed that since loading up Bigsur that the familiar Chime is back? It is for me.

Can't see any difference in the 'large' menu bar either.

One thing I did notice is that the options in the 'accessibilty' dropdown bar that you can add to the menu extras area are no longer disabled.

Not sure if this is intentional, but if I enable VoiceOver (which took me a few goes) from here, voiceover starts reading out my browser, even though the accessibility option is still expanded. I also can't seem to use up/down arrows on this menu.

One really small thing I don't like is with the dock being ever so slightly raised above the bottom of the screen. As someone who has used Windows 10 a lot it now looks like every application is open. It makes the little dot under each app almost impossible for me to see. The rounder icons are also less distinguishable from each other.

I wonder any information about INFOBOX developer to update app for compatibility with voiceover on macOS11?
I purchased voice to use it on my Mac; but sadly it’s not work on Mac OS X 11!.

Ivox voices haven't worked for me in a long while. I had to get sighted assistance from my aunt to remove the iVox voices since I had no speech with VO no matter what I did, unfortunately. Once we removed the iVox crap, the mac came back with alex sounding slow and drunk lol!! Once I got my rate back to where I like it, I was perfectly fine, and it's wokring fine since then. iVox voices don't work on my end, and I will not be purchasing them again...

Hi I immediately followed up on your tip and enlarged my menu bars. So far so good. Also , I will say that my overall impression of Big Sur is very good and that the new look works very well for me
On the downside. I could not get VoiceOver to read the Big Sur tour page which was made available at start up. Is it just me?

Yes, the startup chime is back, and was turned off by default. I turned it on, but the volume is too soft. The same holds true for other sounds, such as sending and receiving of mail. I have attempted to solve this issue with no luck. Whenever I select Sounds under System Preferences and then select Output, whenever I increase the volume, it also increases the volume of the speech, which I don't want. I would like these sounds I mentioned above to be a little louder. Has anyone worked out how to solve this issue? Any help would be much appreciated.

VO navigation is very sluggish in Messages app and I can’t shift through messages list, only the last message can be read. Overall, I’m disappointed with Big Sur

Hi all,
I have noticed that Siri voices have become extremely slow on the Big Sur.
Is anyone having this issue? Can anyone suggest any workaround as I rely heavily on the British male Siri voice.
Thank you,
Cheers!

I am very disappointed with this Mac OS release, with Apple once again not putting as many efforts as are necessary to fix the sub-state of mac accessibility. Yet, they even make things worse. Arrow keys navigation in the finder while using column browser is completely broken. Keyboard shortcuts in Safari to move back and forth within web pages are broken, and their counterpart trackpad gestures do not work too. Spatial navigation in Safari has been reintroduced, yet it is the same sub-state it was in Mac OS Catalina before it was broken: no improvements there. Keyboard navigation in music and the messages app is sluggish to say the least. And I could go on mentioning new and old bugs that have to find a fix for multiple years now....

Sorry, but after all of these years of frustration little touches here and there are no longer enough, and regressions can no longer be tolerated. Mac accessibility needs some serious work to make blind people really efficient at accomplishing tasks, yet there seems not to b any awareness of this at Apple. Or perhaps they know, but are not willing to invest on this... If so, please fix and document accessibility APIs at the very least, make frameworks/products really respect them, and let others provide assistive technologies that *really* work. The number of frustrated mac users in our blind community keeps growing, and honestly I've stopped recommending a mac for a blind person who needs to be as efficient as possible in his/her everyday life since a while now, and will likely keep doing it.

But considering how superior iOS is in terms of accessibility, yet how much more expensive a macintosh is, the situation is really frustrating, and likely not to change anytime soon. Yet (too) enthusiastic interviews with people from Apple keep appearing in the AppleVis podcasts, without ever facing Apple accessibility engineers with the sad reality of the sub-state of mac accessibility...

I've noticed that after switching to Big Sur, the alerts I get in PyCharm are now bright white, with macos dark theme. I presume this is a standard macos alert and not a pycharm thing. This is horrible for me as I can't read text on a white background. Not sure if there is a way round it.

Hello,

I have noticed the setting to announce time in regular intervals, such as every hour, that was available in the Date and time preferences is gone in Big Sur. That's quite a shame.

If one, for example, tries to use first aid on any of their disks while in recovery mode, VoiceOver crashes as soon as they navigate to the sidebar to select a disk. Unfortunately, as of this writing, I could find no workarounds to circumvent this issue.