Switch Control on a Mac: set up your switches, then write by voice

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Switch Control lets you run a Mac from one or more adaptive switches. It highlights items on the screen one after another, and you press a switch when the one you want is highlighted. Turn it on in System Settings, Accessibility, Switch Control. It can type, too, by scanning an onscreen keyboard, but that is slow for anything long, so the best setup gives one switch the job of starting a dictation.

I make YapToText, a free dictation app for the Mac, and InputConfig, a free app that turns any button, switch or controller into keys and clicks. I built both because my own hands do not work well. Apple's steps below are from its Switch Control guide, read October 9, 2026.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreThis app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

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On this page: 10 sections
  1. Steps
  2. Turn on Switch Control
  3. Add your switches
  4. Scan and select
  5. Typing by scanning, and why to stop
  6. Start a dictation from a dedicated switch
  7. Or reach the Start Dictation button by scanning
  8. One switch, three jobs
  9. The short version
  10. Questions

Steps

  1. Open System Settings, Accessibility, Switch Control, and turn on Switch Control.
  2. Under Switches, click the add button, press your switch, name it and choose an action such as Select Item.
  3. Press Select Item to scan, and press again when the item you want is highlighted.
  4. Give dictation its own switch: record it as YapToText's key, or have InputConfig send Right Command from it.
  5. Press the dictation switch, talk, and press it again to put the words at your cursor.

Turn on Switch Control

  1. Choose Apple menu, System Settings, then click Accessibility in the sidebar.
  2. Click Switch Control. You may need to scroll down.
  3. Turn on Switch Control. The Switch Control Home panel appears on the desktop.

The Home panel has white text on a dark background by default. If dark text on light is easier to read, choose a light appearance in the same settings.

Add your switches

In Switch Control settings, scroll down to Switches. Click the add button, press your adaptive switch, give it a name, and pick an action such as Select Item or Stop Scanning. A switch can also run a script or open an app through Custom. To change one, select it and edit its name or action, or click Reassign to move the action to another switch.

A switch needs something that tells the Mac it was pressed. The common routes are a USB switch interface that sends a key, or a switch plugged into a port on a PlayStation Access Controller or an Xbox Adaptive Controller. InputConfig's guide to one, two or four switches walks through each route and what each one sends.

Scan and select

  • Auto scanning. Press the Select Item switch to start. Switch Control highlights each item or group in turn. Press again when the one you want is highlighted.
  • Groups. Selecting a group scans the items inside it. Press when a group is highlighted, or when step out is announced, to leave it.
  • Without auto scanning. Use a Move To Next Item switch to step through items yourself.
  • The pointer. Choose Pointer, then Move or Move & Click. A vertical line glides across the screen, you press, then a horizontal line glides, and the pointer lands where they cross. Set Pointer precision to High for a slower, finer second pass.

The Home panel also holds a Keyboard, the Dock, the Menu bar (the menu bar group, then the menu extras group), System controls for volume and brightness, Custom panels you build in the Panel Editor, and Devices for controlling an iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi and Apple Account.

Typing by scanning, and why to stop

The Home panel's Keyboard types by scanning: open a group of keys, then select a key, and watch the bottom row for suggested words that save presses. It is the right tool for a password, a name, or a one-word fix. For a sentence, one switch press to start a dictation beats forty presses to scan it. The next two sections give you two ways to start one.

Start a dictation from a dedicated switch

Give dictation its own switch, one that Switch Control is not using, so a scan press never starts a recording by mistake. Then:

  • If your switch interface sends a key. YapToText can take that key directly. On the Dictation page, Keys card, click the key field and press the switch. If the field shows the switch's key, you are done: press to start, press to stop. If it goes back to the old key after ten seconds, the interface sent nothing YapToText could read.
  • If it does not send a key. A switch in an Access Controller or Xbox Adaptive Controller port arrives as a controller button, not a key. That is the case InputConfig covers, below.
YapToText's Dictation settings page on a Mac: the Keys, Recording, Microphone and Delivery cards.
Figure 1. The Keys card on YapToText's Dictation page. Click the key field and press the switch: whatever key it sends becomes the dictation key.

YapToText starts and stops from one key, Right Command by default, tapped once to start and once to stop. InputConfig can send that key from a control that is not a key at all: a switch, a controller button, a MIDI pedal, a knock on a MacBook, or the pointer entering a corner of the screen. Put the two together and that control becomes the dictation key.

  • You: In InputConfig, add a row, press Scan and press the control you want. Give the row a Keyboard Key output and choose Right Command.
  • InputConfig: Presses Right Command each time the control fires, on its own, with no other key held.
  • Check: Click into a text field and press the control. YapToText's panel should say Listening. Press it again and the words land at your cursor.

If you would rather keep Right Command for shortcuts, move YapToText to a key nothing else uses. On the Dictation page, Keys card, click the key field and press F18 (or any spare key), then give the InputConfig row a Keyboard Key output of F18 instead. F13 to F19 are the keys InputConfig's own guides suggest, because nothing on a Mac uses them. Tap to start and stop is the mode to pair with a switch: one press starts, the next press stops. Turn on Auto-stop after silence on the Dictation page, Recording card, and the second press is not needed either.

Two cautions. InputConfig's built-in Modifier Holds preset gives a held Right Command to Spotlight and a held Right Option to Apple's Dictation, and those are YapToText's dictation and Quick Edit keys, so do not run that preset alongside YapToText's defaults. And while the Mac is locked, InputConfig sends no keys, only the pointer, clicks and scrolling. This handoff is how both apps are built: InputConfig posts a lone modifier the way a real key does, and YapToText counts a press with no other key as a tap. I have not tested it end to end on every control, so try it once on yours before you rely on it, and if it does nothing, open an issue on GitHub.

Or reach the Start Dictation button by scanning

With no spare switch, scan to the button instead. Switch Control's Menu bar item scans the menu extras group, and YapToText's capybara sits there. Select it and its panel opens with Start Dictation at the top, which does the same job as the key. Turn on Auto-stop after silence, and the dictation ends by itself when you stop talking, so you only scan once.

YapToText's menu bar panel: Start Dictation, mode and microphone pickers, Transcribe file, Regenerate and Insert last.
Figure 2. Scan to the capybara in the menu bar, and Start Dictation is the first button in its panel. It does the same job as the dictation key.

Panel and menu bar controls in YapToText carry accessibility labels, which is what Switch Control and VoiceOver read. This is how the pieces fit, and I have not run a Switch Control test pass.

One switch, three jobs

If you only have one or two reliable movements, InputConfig can give each switch a press, a hold and a double press, each with its own output. A typical layout from its hold and double tap page: press is a left click, hold is a right click, double tap is Return. Hold times of 400 to 600 ms feel natural, and a double tap window of 250 to 350 ms suits most people, longer for a hand that moves slowly. Put Right Command on the double press of a switch and that switch also starts and stops YapToText. InputConfig works alongside Switch Control, not instead of it, and every row can speak a phrase when it fires, so each action can announce itself.

The short version

  • Turn it on. System Settings, Accessibility, Switch Control. Add switches under Switches.
  • Scan for pointing. Select Item to scan, groups to narrow down, Move & Click for the pointer.
  • Talk for writing. A dedicated switch as YapToText's key, or scan to Start Dictation in the menu bar.
  • Switches that are controller buttons. InputConfig turns the press into Right Command. Built to work, not yet tested end to end.

If your switch interface needs a step I have not covered, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreThis app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Sources

Questions

How do I turn on Switch Control on a Mac?

Apple menu, System Settings, Accessibility, Switch Control, then turn it on. Add switches under Switches with the add button.

Can I type with Switch Control on a Mac?

Yes, by scanning the Home panel's Keyboard and selecting keys or suggested words. For longer writing, a switch that starts a dictation is much faster.

Can a switch start dictation on a Mac?

Yes. A switch interface that sends a key can be YapToText's dictation key directly. A switch in an adaptive controller's port can press that key through InputConfig.

Does Switch Control work with a PlayStation Access Controller?

Switch Control reads switches the Mac sees. InputConfig reads the Access Controller's buttons and sockets and turns them into keys and clicks, alongside Switch Control.

Can one switch do more than one thing?

With InputConfig, yes: a press, a hold and a double press can each have a different output.