System Settings/Accessibility

Settings to improve the desktop experience for disabled persons

KDE contains accessibility settings for you in order to make your experience easier when using the computer.

Information

If you have desktop effects activated, you will find some options that may also be of interest in the Desktop Effects module of System Settings.

Bell

In the Bell tab you can customize the system bell. The visible bell settings allows you to change their preferences to having a visual notification on the screen. For example, if a document is being edited, and a sticky key is pressed, you can choose between having the document's interface window being color-inverted, or having the entire window screen of the document change to a custom user-selected color.

The duration slider allows you to select how long the active window will change color in milliseconds. A smaller amount of time will mean there will be a shorter pause in between visible bells, while a larger amount of time means that the visible pause will be longer.

If you find these settings useful, you may also want to have a look at the Application and System Notifications module of System Settings.

If you find it difficult to use the keyboard, the Modifier Keys and Keyboard Filters tabs have options that you may find helpful; and the Activation Gestures has options to use mouse gestures to activate sticky keys or slow keys, if you do not want to use these features all the time.

Modifier Keys

There are two panels here, the Sticky Keys and the Locking Keys panel. Sticky keys is a setting to make it easier to enter multiple key shortcuts. For instance, when one wants to capitalize a letter, the Shift key is pressed at the same time as the letter. Sticky Keys allow you to first press Shift, Control, or Alt, and then release it and press another key. This system will interpret it as those keys being simultaneously pressed.

There are 3 Locking Keys on most keyboards. These keys are the Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock keys. In the Modifier Key area, you can choose to have a system bell played if these are activated or deactivated.

Keyboard filters

Slow Keys

Slow Keys allow confirmation that a key has been pressed and entered. The system bell is activated when the time allotted with the slider has passed. For a key to be accepted, it has to be held until the set amount of time. The system bell can be used to indicate when a key press has been made, accepted, rejected, or any combination of the three.

Bounce Keys

The bounce key setting is used to prevent multiple characters appearing in a document as a result of an immediate key press occurring after the first one. If you press a key again in less time that has been set with the slider, the second repeat character won't be made and a system bell might activate.

Even simple settings like slowing the rate of keyboard repeat can be a great help