Guides

Using a joystick as your Mac's mouse

InputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.

A joystick can be your Mac's mouse, and for a lot of people it is a better one: the hand, chin or mouth only has to push and let go, and the pointer stops as soon as the stick returns to center. Which setup you need depends on how the joystick introduces itself to the Mac. Some joysticks are built as mice and move the pointer the moment they are plugged in. Everything else, from a USB flight stick to the stick on a PlayStation Access Controller, needs an app to turn it into a pointer.

I built InputConfig for that second kind, because my hands do not work well with a mouse. It is free. This guide finds out which kind you have, sets up the pointer, and then adds the clicks and commands that make it a whole mouse. Allow twenty minutes.

On this page

1. Steps
2. Find out what kind of joystick you have
3. Turn a game-style joystick into the pointer
   1. Step 1: Connect it and allow Accessibility
   2. Step 2: Let it find every control
   3. Step 3: Give the rows their jobs
4. Tune it for control near the center
5. Add the clicks
6. Set it up for a chin, mouth or short-throw joystick
7. Use your wheelchair's own joystick
8. Add commands without more buttons
9. Drive in games with the same stick
10. What it does not do
11. The short version
12. Questions

Steps

1. Plug in or pair the joystick and push the stick. If the pointer moves, it is a joystick mouse and needs no app to point.
2. For any other joystick, install InputConfig and grant Accessibility when it asks.
3. Make a new preset, choose Automatically insert available inputs, and give the four stick directions Mouse Motion and one button Left click.
4. Press Activate, then set the Deadzone with Adjust live, the Smooth curve, and a low speed.
5. Give one button press, hold and double press for left, right and double click, or use Dwell.
6. Add screen regions, stick regions or stick gestures for commands that need no extra button.

Find out what kind of joystick you have

Plug it in or pair it, then push the stick:

• The pointer moves. It is a joystick mouse. Joystick mice sold for computer access, and a power wheelchair in Bluetooth mouse mode, present themselves to the Mac as an ordinary mouse, so macOS moves the pointer with no software. Pointer speed is in System Settings, Mouse. The sections on clicking and on commands are where an app still helps.
• Nothing moves. It is a game-style joystick: a USB joystick, flight stick or arcade stick, the stick on the PlayStation Access Controller, a joystick on the Xbox Adaptive Controller, or a gamepad. The Mac reads it but does nothing with it on the desktop. This is the kind InputConfig turns into a mouse.

If you are not sure, open InputConfig's Settings, Devices, and look under Connected devices.

If the pointer moves on its own, you only need help with clicks and commands.

Turn a game-style joystick into the pointer

This part takes a joystick the Mac ignores and makes it move the pointer in every app.

Step 1: Connect it and allow Accessibility

• You: Connect the joystick by USB, or pair it in System Settings, Bluetooth. Install InputConfig from the Mac App Store and grant it Accessibility when it asks.
• macOS: The Accessibility permission is what lets InputConfig move the pointer and click.
• Check: The joystick appears at the top of InputConfig's sidebar.

Step 2: Let it find every control

• You: Make a new preset. On the empty device, choose Automatically insert available inputs.
• InputConfig: Adds a row for every direction and button the joystick reports.
• Check: You see four stick direction rows and a row per button.

Step 3: Give the rows their jobs

• You: Give the four stick directions the output Mouse Motion: up, down, left and right. Give one button the output Mouse Button, Left click. Then press Activate.
• InputConfig: Moves the pointer as you push the stick, and clicks on the button.
• Check: Push each way and the pointer follows. If a row is on the wrong direction, press Scan on it and push the stick the way you mean.

Two shortcuts:

• A PlayStation Access Controller. Start from the built-in Access Controller preset. It has the pointer on the stick, click on the center button, right click on socket 5 and Spotlight on socket 7, and Scan puts any other socket on a row, because InputConfig reads each one by name.
• A gamepad. Easy Browse or Mouse + Scroll does the same.

Tune it for control near the center

A joystick sets how fast the pointer moves, not where it is, so the tuning is all about control near the center. Each setting is in Options on the stick's rows, and Stick settings on the device's menu sets the deadzone on every direction at once. Set them in this order:

1. Deadzone. How far the stick must move before anything happens. It stops the pointer creeping when the stick rests slightly off center, and stops a tremor from moving it. Start at 20 to 30 percent and press Adjust live to watch the stick while you set it. Every stick row shows its deadzone.
2. The Smooth curve. The first part of the travel is slow and precise. A full push is fast. This is the curve for pointing.
3. Speed. Each Mouse Motion row has its own top speed, and Pointer speed on the preset's page scales them all at once. Start low and raise it once the pointer goes where you mean.
4. Ramp-up. On a pointer row, each push starts slow and eases to full speed over the time you set, up to one and a half seconds, so a sudden push does not overshoot.
5. Full push at. Where the stick reaches full speed. Bring it in if the stick never gets to the edge of its travel, so a short, comfortable push still means full speed. It is set per row, so a direction that is harder to reach can have its own.
6. A slow lane. A second set of pointer rows at a lower fixed speed on the D-pad or on four buttons, for the last few pixels onto a small target. Mouse + Scroll does this on the D-pad.

The tremor and limited range guide has starting numbers for shaky hands and short reach, and the deadzone visualizer shows what each setting does before you touch the stick. The pointer stops the moment the stick returns to center, so a wide deadzone costs nothing but a little travel.

Add the clicks

A pointer is only half a mouse. InputConfig clicks wherever the pointer is, whatever moved it, so everything here works with a game-style joystick and with a joystick mouse alike:

• A button or a switch. Any button on the joystick, or a switch plugged into an Access Controller or Xbox Adaptive Controller port, can be Left click.
• Three clicks on one button. Press is left click, hold is right click, double press is double click. Lengthen the hold time and the double press window for a hand that moves slowly. See hold and double tap.
• Dragging without holding. Set a click to Toggle: one press holds the mouse button down, the next press lets go, and the stick drags in between.
• A click that waits for stillness. If pressing the button jolts the stick, put the click on a short hold instead of the press, so it fires once the hand has settled.
• No button at all. macOS has Dwell, which clicks when the pointer stops moving. Search for Dwell in System Settings. It works with a pointer moved by InputConfig, and a wide deadzone suits it, because letting go of the stick stops the pointer at once.
• A knock on the laptop. Tap the Mac turns a knock on a MacBook into an input, so it can be the click. It was tested on M4 MacBooks and did not work on an M1 Pro in our testing; the calibrator's status chip tells you whether yours listens. Desktop and Intel Macs have no sensor.

I would start with one button for all three clicks, and add Dwell only if pressing is hard.

Set it up for a chin, mouth or short-throw joystick

A joystick at the chin or the mouth usually moves through a smaller range than one under a hand. The settings are the same. The numbers change:

• Bring Full push at well in. The movement you have then reaches full speed.
• Set a hard direction on its own. If one direction is harder to reach, give that row its own Full push at.
• Keep it slow and smooth. Low speed, the Smooth curve on, and a wider Deadzone if talking or breathing nudges the stick.
• Put the clicks where they cost least. A switch by the cheek or hand, a sip-and-puff switch through an adaptive controller's port, or Dwell.

Mounting is the hardware side, and it matters more than any setting. An occupational therapist or seating clinic can position the stick. The guide for OTs and AT staff covers the software half of that visit.

Use your wheelchair's own joystick

Many power wheelchairs can move a computer's pointer from the chair's own joystick through a Bluetooth mouse mode. It is set up on the chair, not on the Mac, and to the Mac the chair is then just a mouse. The page on using a wheelchair joystick as a Mac mouse explains how it works and what InputConfig adds to it.

Add commands without more buttons

With one stick and few buttons, every extra command costs a movement. Three kinds of input need no button at all:

• Screen regions. An area of the screen fires a command when the pointer enters it, whatever moved the pointer: a corner for Mission Control, an edge for dictation. The built-in Cursor Regions preset is a working example.
• Stick regions. On a game-style joystick, the far corners of the stick's travel can each be a region with a command of its own, while the rest of the travel moves the pointer.
• Stick gestures. Flicks of the stick in order, such as straight back twice, fire a command of their own. With Quick flicks only on, a push that moves the pointer never counts as a flick.

Dictation, Spotlight, Mission Control, volume, Siri Shortcuts and any key combination are all outputs, so these commands can stand in for the keyboard. See screen regions, stick regions and gestures.

Drive in games with the same stick

One-stick driving makes a single stick work the way a power wheelchair drives: push forward to go, pull back to brake, left and right to steer, and two quick snaps back for reverse. It sends keys and mouse, so it works in driving games that can be played from a keyboard. It reads the stick's axes, so it needs a game-style joystick, not a joystick mouse. The one-stick driving guide has the setup.

What it does not do

• Track your head or eyes. macOS has a head pointer built in, and the page on clicking with head pointer shows how InputConfig adds the clicks. Eye gaze needs an eye tracker.
• Change how a joystick mouse moves. That device is already a mouse. Its speed is set in System Settings, Mouse, or on the device.
• Act as a game controller. It sends keys and mouse, so a game that only accepts a gamepad needs the real one.
• Run before login. At the login window after a restart, use the Mac's own accessibility options. At the lock screen of a logged-in Mac it keeps the pointer and clicks working and sends no keys. See getting into a locked Mac without a keyboard.

The short version

• Push the stick first. If the pointer moves, it is a joystick mouse. Add only clicks and commands.
• Otherwise, four rows and a button. Put Mouse Motion on the four directions and Left click on a button.
• Tune near the center. Set the Deadzone, the Smooth curve and a low speed first, then Ramp-up and Full push at.
• Make the clicks cheap. Press, hold and double press on one button, or Dwell.

A joystick that stops when you let go is a mouse that never runs away.

Questions

Related

• A mouse alternative for tremor and short reach on a Mac
• The PlayStation Access Controller on a Mac
• The Xbox Adaptive Controller on a Mac
• Deadzones and calibration
• Screen regions (custom hot corners), stick regions and gestures
• One-stick driving, set up properly
• How to use a joystick on a Mac
• How to use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro on a Mac

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Open source on GitHub.

Updated October 27, 2026