Boot menu and safe mode accessibility

By TheBllindGuy07, 7 April, 2024

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello Applevis,
I heard many times here that that macbook's bios and/or safe mode / boot menu have accessibility built-in, which is unheard of litterally any other consumer device we can think of. If this is true, then I will be very happy for having bought my mac. I am willing to try asahi linux, as well as a setup dualboot mac-mac / mac-mac-fedora. I would like to know to which extent, at most for a mac-mac setup, this is doable and what are the possible accessibility risks if I do a setup mac - other os. Like is the bios / ibood / whatever it's called accessible to the point I can choose my os to boot on independently no matter which os will be booted?
Thanks!

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Comments

By João Santos on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - 20:22

Yes, Apple's EFI is accessible on Apple silicon Macs. If you wish to access the boot menu with VoiceOver just shut down your Mac, turn it back on by pressing and holding TouchID for 10 seconds to make it display the boot menu, wait a while, and if you don't hear VoiceOver, press Command+F5 to enable it.

Alternatively, if you wish to enable VoiceOver from the command-line prior to rebooting, just type:

sudo nvram VoiceOverEnableEFI=1

However I do not recommend messing with the nvram as it can prevent your Mac from booting.

By Jason White on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - 20:22

I agree that Mac accessibility at the early boot stage is better than what is available from many other devices, except perhaps workstation or server systems with support for remote management at the firmware level.
However, I also think MacOS is a good operating system over-all. It has a BSD UNIX foundation, and a comprehensive graphical user interface that generally works as intended, with attention paid to privacy and security considerations. The range of available applications is very good too. VoiceOver and the accessibility infrastructure have issues, unfortunately, but that isn't unique to Apple - it's a problem across the field generally.

To be completely open and honest about it, I'm very disappointed by the culture of incessant complaint and Windows advocacy that one finds on AppleVis fora. I come here to make best use of my Apple devices, including the Mac, not to read complaints or to read the views of those who think I should choose Windows instead. I've used Windows. I know what I'm not choosing and why. I'll use Windows again if I decide that it's the right tool for a given purpose. I also come to help other people in using their Apple devices more effectively, which the complaints don't facilitate either.

I hope the moderators can do something to improve the culture here. As it stands, thread after thread turns into complaints about Apple's accessibility and encouraging users to move elsewhere. If you want to use a different OS, that's a perfectly reasonable decision, but you don't have to advertise it to the public or tell others (with different needs and capabilities) to do the same. Fair reporting of bugs is excellent, but the complaining really doesn't help to improve anything.

By Mathieu on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - 20:22

I totally agree, I love my Mac and I know why!

I find it very stable, VoiceOVer could be worse. Sound management is excellent, for podcasting, there is nothing better.

In short, I love my Mac and even more since the arrival of Apple chips!