---
title: "Accessibility"
description: "Use Codewhale with only a keyboard, with a screen reader, with less motion and more contrast, and in your own language."
works_on: [desktop, phone]
---

# Accessibility

Use Codewhale with only a keyboard, with a screen reader, with less motion
and more contrast, and in your own language.

**Works on:** the desktop app. The phone app is covered at the end. The web:
not available yet.

![The approval card with keyboard focus on Don't allow](images/accessibility-keyboard.png)

## Use only the keyboard

Everything you can click, you can reach with the keyboard.

- **Tab** and **Shift+Tab** move through the window in reading order: the
  sidebar, the conversation, the composer, then the side panel. A control
  with focus shows a blue ring.
- **⌘K** (Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) opens the command palette. Type what
  you want, such as "Open Customize" or "Settings", and press Return.
- **Shift+F10**, or the menu key, opens the menu for whatever has focus: a
  conversation in the sidebar, a message, a tool row, a file.
- **⇧⌘A** (Shift+Ctrl+A) jumps to what needs you. On an approval card, focus
  lands on **Don't allow**, so pressing Return by accident never runs
  anything.
- **Esc** closes the innermost thing first: a tooltip, then a menu, then a
  sheet or page such as Customize, Routines or your whale's profile. Focus
  goes back to where you were.
- **⌘/** (Ctrl+/) shows every shortcut. The full list is in
  [Keyboard shortcuts](shortcuts.md).

To resize the side panels from the keyboard, Tab to the edge between two
panels and use the arrow keys.

In a narrow window the sidebar folds away. Customize and Routines then show
the same sidebar button at the top left as a conversation does.

## Use a screen reader

Every button, tab, menu item and field has a name, including the ones that
show only an icon. A button's name starts with the words you see on it, so
voice control ("Click Customize") works as you'd expect.

Codewhale tells you when something changes without moving your focus:

- When your whale needs you, it says so once ("Needs you · approve a
  command"). You keep typing where you were.
- An answered approval and short confirmations ("Copied") are read as they
  appear.

Each message in a conversation is one stop in the Tab order, so you can move
through a long conversation one message at a time and open a message's menu
with Shift+F10.

## Reduce motion

Turn on **Reduce motion** in your system settings. Codewhale follows it; the
**Reduce motion** row in Settings only shows that, and changing it there: Not
available yet.

- The whale holds a still pose, with the same words beside it.
- The water is still, with no fish, jellyfish or bubbles.
- Menus and panels appear at once.

## More contrast

Text in the conversation and the command palette is checked to hold at
least 4.5:1 against what's behind it (3:1 for large text), in light and
dark.

Turn on **Increase contrast** in your system settings and panels become
**Solid**, with no water showing through, until you turn it off. See
[Appearance](appearance.md#how-much-water-shows-through).

State never relies on colour alone. A state always has a word and a mark:
**Needs you** with a lantern, **Running**, **Ready**, **Stopped**.

## Use your language

Codewhale speaks 15 languages. In **Settings › Appearance › Language** you
can pick **Same as system**, **English** or **简体中文**. For the other 13,
set your computer's language and leave **Same as system** on; see
[Appearance](appearance.md#choose-a-language).

Input methods for Chinese, Japanese and Korean work in the composer. While
you're still choosing characters, Return picks the candidate and never sends
the message.

Labels have room for longer words in other languages. Russian, Japanese and
Simplified Chinese are checked at narrow window widths so nothing is cut off.

## On your phone

- Every button has a name for VoiceOver and TalkBack.
- With **Reduce Motion** on, your whale holds still.
- The app follows the phone's language, read when the app starts, and the
  phone's light or dark setting.

## Not checked yet

These need a person on a real computer or phone, and haven't been done:

- VoiceOver on a Mac, NVDA on Windows and Orca on Linux, end to end.
- Typing with a real Chinese, Japanese or Korean input method (the check so
  far simulates one).
- The phone app with VoiceOver and TalkBack on real devices, and its contrast
  in light and dark.

## Related

- [Keyboard shortcuts](shortcuts.md)
- [Appearance](appearance.md)
- [Approvals and permissions](approvals-and-permissions.md)

Previous: [Appearance](appearance.md) · Next: [Commands and the palette](commands.md)