Can your power wheelchair's joystick control a Mac?
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.
Often, yes. Many power wheelchair control systems have a Bluetooth option that lets the chair's own joystick move a computer's pointer: you switch the chair into its mouse mode, and the joystick you already use every day becomes the mouse. The Mac sees the chair as an ordinary Bluetooth mouse, so the pointer needs no driver and no app. Whether your chair can do it depends on the joystick module and electronics fitted to it, not the brand of chair.
On this page
Steps
- Check the chair's manual or ask its dealer for a Bluetooth or mouse mode.
- Put the chair into that mode the way its manual describes.
- Connect the chair in System Settings, Bluetooth.
- Push the joystick and watch the pointer move.
- Set the pointer speed in System Settings, Mouse.
Find out whether your chair has it
Check the chair's manual, or ask the dealer or seating clinic that set it up. The feature goes by names like Bluetooth, mouse mode or mouse emulation, and it lives in the chair's electronics.
- Search by the electronics. People usually look it up by the name of the control system. R-net, for example, has a Bluetooth mouse module, and Permobil and other makers fit R-net on many of their chairs.
- Ask for it to be added. If your chair does not have it, ask the dealer, because it is programmed into the chair rather than installed on the computer.
Pair the chair with a Mac
- You: Put the chair into its Bluetooth or mouse mode the way its manual describes. On the Mac, open System Settings, Bluetooth, and connect the chair when it appears.
- macOS: Treats the chair as a Bluetooth mouse.
- Check: Push the joystick. The pointer should move. Set the pointer speed in System Settings, Mouse. Some chairs also have a speed setting of their own for mouse mode.
Mouse mode is a separate mode on the chair, and you switch back to driving the way you switched in. I have not tested every chair's electronics, so where your manual differs from this page, follow the manual.
Add the clicks
How a chair clicks varies from system to system, and some leave clicking to the computer. If yours is short of clicks, the Mac and InputConfig can add them:
- Dwell. macOS clicks when the pointer rests in one place for a moment. Search for Dwell in System Settings.
- A button or switch. InputConfig clicks wherever the pointer is, whatever moved it, so any button or switch within reach can be the click: a switch plugged into a PlayStation Access Controller or Xbox Adaptive Controller, a big button, or a game controller mounted by your hand.
- Three clicks from one switch. Press to click, hold to right click, double press to double click, with the timing set to suit you.
- Dragging. Make a click a toggle: one press holds the mouse button, the next lets go, and the chair's joystick drags in between.
Fire commands from the pointer alone
This is where InputConfig helps a chair user most. A screen region is an area of the screen that fires a command when the pointer enters it, so the chair's joystick alone can open Mission Control, start dictation, press Return or run a Siri Shortcut, just by moving into a corner or along an edge. Nothing needs to be pressed.
- Keep them small. Tight to the edges, so ordinary pointer travel does not cross them by accident.
- Give each one a voice. Spoken feedback tells you what fired.
- Start from a preset. The built-in Cursor Regions preset is ready to try, and InputConfig lets you draw a region straight from the Live Visualizer.
Screen regions explains the rest. The joystick you drive with can also open apps, start dictation and press Return, without a single button.
Type from the chair
- Dictation. Started from a screen region or a switch, it is the quickest way to write from a chair.
- The Accessibility Keyboard. macOS has an on-screen keyboard that works with any pointer, including one moved by a chair, and with Dwell it types when you rest on a key.
InputConfig has no on-screen keyboard of its own. It works alongside Apple's.
Get past the lock screen
The chair is an ordinary mouse to the Mac, so it moves the pointer at the lock screen with no app involved. Clicks from InputConfig, such as a switch bound to Left click, keep working there too, while every key from InputConfig is blocked, so nothing can type into the password field by itself. With the Accessibility Keyboard turned on in System Settings, Lock Screen, Accessibility Options, the chair and a switch can type the password. Unlocking a Mac without a keyboard has the steps.
If your chair cannot do it
A separate joystick can sit where your hand already rests.
- A joystick mouse made for computer access. Works with no software.
- A game-style joystick, or the PlayStation Access Controller's stick. Works through InputConfig, and can also drive in games with one-stick driving, which steers a car the way a power chair drives.
The joystick mouse guide covers both kinds.
What InputConfig cannot do with a chair
- Read the chair as a joystick. In mouse mode the chair sends pointer movement, not joystick axes, so one-stick driving cannot use it. InputConfig can still use the pointer it moves for screen regions, and any mouse buttons it sends as inputs for shortcuts.
- Speak for every chair. I have not tested every chair's electronics.
The short version
- The pointer. A chair in Bluetooth mouse mode needs no app on the Mac.
- The clicks. Use Dwell, or a switch through InputConfig.
- The commands. Screen regions fire them from the pointer alone.
Ask your dealer about mouse mode first: it may already be in your chair.
Questions
Do I need software to use my wheelchair as a Mac mouse?
Not for the pointer. A chair in Bluetooth mouse mode is an ordinary Bluetooth mouse to the Mac. An app such as InputConfig only adds clicks, commands and shortcuts on top.
Can InputConfig read my chair's joystick as a joystick?
No. In mouse mode the chair sends pointer movement, not joystick axes, so one-stick driving cannot use it. InputConfig can still use the pointer it moves for screen regions, and any mouse buttons it sends as inputs for shortcuts.
Can I stop everything quickly if something goes wrong?
Yes. InputConfig's emergency stop turns the preset off and releases every key and button it is holding. Put it on a switch you can always reach by binding the switch to App Action, Emergency Stop, or use Control Option Command and the period key, or Emergency Stop in the menu bar.
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