checking the time on a mac

By Khafsa2015, 6 December, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi guys, finally took the leap and got a amax. Actually really enjoying using it :). Taking a little getting used to, but i'm muddling through :). I was wondering if any of you know how to check the time on a mac? or other status information such as battery level. A key combination would be good, but any method is good really. Thanks :).

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By KE7ZUM on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

1. hit control f8. 2. hit control option (usually called the vo keys or vo for short) right and left arrow until you get to the various things. the extras menu is a grate way to access time, battery and others. I have put together a set of basic training tutorials for purchase on this and other subjects. If you want more info contact me through apple vis or via my email address. Thanks.

By Ro on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

Hi there. I can't remember if I had to turn something on for this, but command T will announce the time. Command is the key right next to the space bar. For battery level and what not, do VO MM. So that's your control and option keys, and press M twice. Then arrow over. There's a lot of information there. I've taught myself how to use the Mac as my first ever screen reader and I've done this completely free using resources online. That was before I knew about AppleVis. :) We got you covered.

By Piotr Machacz on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

All status info, as well as background apps like Dropbox sit on the menu bar, on the right side. They're called menu extras, and you can get to them by either pressing VO-MM and ctrl-F8. The info like time, battery, bluetooth and wifi status can be found there. Another way to get the time is when you have your keyboard commander enabled, by default the T key is assigned to read the time.
Hi all, thanks for the tips, I got it. Just trying to figure how to locate google chrome in the mac app store, I cannot find it. Looking for it so that I can use Flash content to watch stuff on youtube and bbc iPlayer etc. Can you guys help with this in any way? or suggest a browser that works? Thanks. and sorry for all the questions. :O Do I have to install the Adobe Flash Player plug in? If so where do I get it from? Thanks :)

By jesse on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

In reply to by Khafsa2015

Hi, I don't think that is accessible

By Piotr Machacz on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

Chrome is accessible, no problem. Both with Voiceover itself, and google's chromevox extension which is a screen reader specifically designed for Chrome. It's not in the mac app store thanks to Apple's sandboxing and guidelines, so you need to get it from google's website directly. As far as flash content, Safari can also support it, the main problem is that flash is inaccessible to VO and it's not likely that's ever going to change as flash is thankfully slowly going away. For the iPlayer though I think the BBC put controls for it outside of the flash content, so you should be able to use it.

By Khafsa2015 on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

In reply to by Piotr Machacz

Hi there, thanks, so I got Google Chrome, do I need the google box add on that you mentioned too? I tried to access Flash Content but I couldn't. This was both on Safari and Chrome. Do I need Adobe Flash Player? If not, please can you tell me how I would go about playing videos on bbc iplayer or YouTube either on Chrome or Safari?

By Ekaj on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

These hot topics are actually proving to be helpful for me too. I am soon getting a Mac, and I have been checking out the various online training resources that I found. I've never used Voiceover.

By splyt on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 18:41

In reply to by jesse

Hello, First of all, youtube can be used with voiceover either in safari or chrome. When posting replies to folks we must research, not think. This said, I am a three weeks MAC uuser and do not know the vast majority of the voiceover and system resources things, but note that: 1- Adobe flash player does need to be installed in order to flash become available to the system. 2- In IOS mathers, every app must be downloaded from the app store unless you have a jail break. This is not true when we are talking about macs. If you cant find something on app store, google will be one of your coolest friends ever. Download the package. Soon after you click in the download link uninteract with html, interact with the toolbars, find the transferences button - the last from left * activate it, go to the table of transferences, interact, find the downloaded package, interact and press "open in finder" and there you are. 3- I wont go into further details on how to download and install packages, there are lots of good information in applevis, maccessibility and macfortheblind and in manyy other places in internet. 4- After flash is installed, my personal experience shows that if you do click in a link on youtube the video will play. I was successfully able to mute and control volume with the function keys, but not many other things. However, for clicking in a link and see the video it should be enough. 5- Like IOS devices, a great part of stuff that can not be natively made using the system can still be made through applications. A good part of these are acessible, and a good news about it is that there are accessible youtube apps for mac, listed on this site. So I advice you to research and find these apps and try them.

By Ekaj on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 18:41

Hi. I just got my Mac Book Air 2 days after Christmas last year, and have pretty much taken to learning it myself as there is nobody around here who is well-versed in Voiceover. A lot of my friends use Macs these days, as do some members of my family but they are all fully sighted. But anyway, I recently enabled the shortcut for checking date and time, and it works great. Regarding battery status, I just go into Menu Extras and check it from there. I just listened to the podcast about Battery Monitor, and it sounds like something I will be getting even though it is a commercial app. To answer your question about YouTube and Flash, my life-skills tutor recently helped me install Google Chrome on here and I only use that on YouTube. Safari doesn't seem to come with Flash installed by default, and I think I'll keep it that way since I like Chrome. I'm told that Chromevox doesn't currently work on the Mac, but don't quote me on that. I've never used Chromevox.

By Lynne on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 18:41

Hello. I received this answer from a Mac user: First, turn on Keyboard Commander with Control-Option-Shift-K. Once done, Option-T should announce the time. Hope this works for you.