Questions

Can your power wheelchair's joystick control a Mac?

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.

Does your chair have 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. People usually search for it by the name of those electronics: R-net, for example, has a Bluetooth mouse module, and Permobil and other makers fit R-net on many of their chairs. If your chair does not have it, ask the dealer whether it can be added, because it is programmed into the chair rather than installed on the computer.

Pairing the chair with a Mac

1. Put the chair into its Bluetooth or mouse mode the way its manual describes.
2. On the Mac, open System Settings, Bluetooth, and connect the chair when it appears.
3. Push the joystick. The pointer should move.
4. 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.

Clicking

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.

InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.

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 the regions small and tight to the edges, so ordinary pointer travel does not cross them by accident, and give each one spoken feedback so you hear what fired. The built-in Cursor Regions preset is ready to try, and screen regions explains how to draw your own.

Typing

Dictation, started from a screen region or a switch, is the quickest way to write from a chair. For typing with the pointer, macOS has the Accessibility Keyboard, 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.

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.

Questions

Related

• Screen regions (custom hot corners) and stick zones
• Cursor Regions preset
• One-stick driving, set up properly
• One, two, or four switches
• The PlayStation Access Controller on a Mac
• Emergency stop

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.