Accessibility

This page brings together what Nixt Mail does for people who use a screen reader, work without a mouse, need more contrast or larger text, or are sensitive to motion — and the settings that help.

Screen readers

Nixt Mail uses your operating system’s accessibility services, so it works with the screen reader built into your system.

• Every control has a name. Buttons, switches, choices and links are announced by what they do, not by their icon.
• A message in the list is read as one line: whether it is unread and flagged, then the sender, the subject and the time — for example “Unread. Flagged. Alex Morgan. Quarterly numbers. 9:05 AM”.
• Folders include their unread count, such as “Inbox, 2 unread”. If you turn off Settings › Message list › Unread counts in the sidebar, the counts are neither shown nor read.
• Earlier messages in a conversation are announced as, for example, “Earlier message from Alex Morgan, Tue. Expand to read it.”
• Attachments are announced with their name and size, and a program file adds “a program — Nixt Mail will save it without opening it”.
• Choices in Settings are announced with the setting they belong to, such as “Lock after Immediately”, and a choice that replaces the others is announced as a radio button. Switches announce their setting and “On” or “Off”.
• Settings sections include how many settings in them are changed, such as “Reading, 2 changed”. Search results are read with their section, such as “Theme, in Appearance”.
• Status lines such as the new-mail banner are announced with what they say, followed by “Dismiss”.
• Toggles say what they do: the Quote box in the reply is read as a checkbox, “Quote the original message”, ticked or not; the snoozed control as “3 asleep — show them” or “Back to the mailbox”. Every checkbox is named by the words beside it, and pressing those words ticks it.

Using the keyboard only

Everything in Nixt Mail can be reached without a mouse.

Moving around

When you move with the keyboard, a ring is drawn round the focused control. In the module rail and sidebar, the focused item is highlighted instead of ringed. The ring is not shown after a mouse click.

Reading and acting on mail

1. Press ⌘F (Ctrl+F on Windows and Linux) to reach the search box, or Tab to the message list.
2. Move through messages with ↓ and ↑. The open message follows, and the list scrolls to keep it in view.
3. Act with single keys: R reply, A reply all, F forward, E archive, Backspace trash, S flag, U mark unread.
4. Press C or ⌘N to write, and ⌘Return to send.
5. Press ⌘K for the command palette, and ⌘, for Settings.

Every command is also in the menu bar. The full list is on Keyboard shortcuts.

If single-letter shortcuts get in the way

If you control your computer by voice, or keys get pressed by accident, turn off Settings › Keyboard › Single-key shortcuts. Letters on their own then do nothing; every action keeps its ⌘ or Ctrl shortcut and its menu item, and Esc and the arrow keys keep working.

To avoid sending by accident, turn off Settings › Keyboard › ⌘Return sends, so that only the Send button sends.

Contrast and colour

Colour is never the only signal:

• Unread messages are bold as well as marked with a dot.
• Accent colour choices are named, not only shown as swatches.
• A setting that has a privacy cost says so in words under it.
• Program attachments say “program — saved, not opened” as well as having an amber border.

Text size

• Your system’s text size is honoured. When you raise it, rows, fields and bars grow with the text rather than cutting it off.
• Settings reflows at large sizes. At large text, Settings shows one section at a time, full screen, instead of a list beside a page.
• Toolbars adapt. If the reading pane’s toolbar no longer fits, its buttons move to their own line and then scroll sideways, so no button is dropped.

Within Nixt Mail:

Motion

Settings › Appearance › Animations chooses:

The Autopilot button’s glow also stops whenever the window is in the background or covered by the compose window or command palette.

Touch

On a touch screen, and on any window narrower than 700 pixels, controls grow to at least 48 pixels so they are comfortable to tap. Press and hold a message for every action on it, and use swipes (see Swipes) for the two you use most.

Notifications and interruptions

Reading comfort