Michel Coornaert
Strasbourg, France

VoiceOver 10.6

Using Dashboard with VoiceOver Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard


Dashboard is an application included in MacOS 10.6 Snow Leopard containing certain mini-applications called "widgets". Some widgets such as "Calculator", "Translation", "Unit Converter" and "Weather" are already pre-installed. Other widgets may be added. One encounters accessibility issues with some widgets.


  • Important: for the instructions below, it is assumed that VoiceOver is on and that Quick Nav is off.
    To toggle VoiceOver on or off, press Cmd + F5.
    When VoiceOver is on, press simultaneously the Right and Left arrows to toggle Quick Nav on or off.

  • To open or close Dashboard:
    Press F12 (on Macbook Fn + F12).

  • To open a widget:
    Press Ctrl + Opt + F2 (on Macbook Fn + Ctrl + Opt + F2) twice to access the Dashboard menu, then
    Select the widget by moving with the arrows, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.

  • To close a widget:
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + F2 (on Macbook Fn + Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + F2), then
    Press the Return key.

  • To add or remove a widget from the Dashboard menu:
    Press Ctrl + Opt + F2 (on Macbook Fn + Ctrl + Opt + F2) twice to access the Dashboard menu, then
    Select "Widgets" in the Widget Bar by moving with the arrows, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Move with Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow and enable or disable the widget by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar when arriving in the checkbox located just before the widget name.
    To download additional widgets (about 4,000 are available):
    Press a few times Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow until hearing "More Widgets…", then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.

  • VoiceOver Commands



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  • Last Update: October 21, 2014