Accessibility in MATLAB

MATLAB^® provides several features to help make it accessible to users. You can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate MATLAB using just a keyboard. You can use a screen reader and a keyboard to interact with the different tools in MATLAB. To make the desktop more visible, you can zoom in, change its colors, or increase the clarity of plots. You can also use data sonification to explore and interpret data by sound.

MathWorks^® is committed to improving the accessibility of its software products. See our Accessibility Statement for MATLAB for the latest information on accessibility support.

Before R2025a: For our best accessibility support, use MATLAB Online™.

Navigate Using Keyboard

You can navigate MATLAB with just a keyboard by using keyboard shortcuts.

To move forward through the different areas of the MATLAB desktop, press Ctrl+F6. To move backward, press Ctrl+Shift+F6. On macOS systems, use the Command key instead of the Ctrl key. To move into a tool, for example, into the current toolstrip tab, press Tab. To display a list of navigational keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+/.

For more information, see Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Navigate MATLAB.

Work with Screen Reader

You can use a screen reader and a keyboard to interact with the Command Window, create and edit scripts, live scripts, and functions in the Editor and Live Editor, and navigate through the different areas of the MATLAB desktop.

For example, on a Windows^® system with the NVDA screen reader and MATLAB running, enter individual statements in the Command Window.

With the cursor in the Command Window, create a variable named x by entering this statement in the Command Window.
```
x = 1
```
MATLAB adds x to the workspace and displays the results in the Command Window. You hear:
```
X equals one
Ready prompt
One variable added to workspace
```
When you hear Ready prompt, the Command Window is ready for the next statement at the command-line prompt (>>).
Create another variable y by entering this statement in the Command Window.
```
y = cos(x)
```
You hear the results:
```
Y equals zero point five four zero three
Ready prompt
One variable added to workspace
```
Move the cursor to the Command Window scroll buffer region to hear the last output again by pressing Shift+Tab. You hear:
```
Scroll buffer region
Y equals zero point five four zero three
```
Move the cursor back to the command-line prompt by pressing Shift+Tab. You hear:
```
Ready prompt
```
Clear all text from the Command Window by entering this statement in the Command Window.
```
clc
```
You hear:
```
Ready prompt
```
The Command Window is ready for the next statement.

For more information, see Use Screen Reader with MATLAB.

Adjust Zoom Level

To adjust the zoom level of the Editor and Live Editor, use the Ctrl+Mouse Scroll keyboard shortcut or the Ctrl+Plus (+) and Ctrl+Minus (–) keyboard shortcuts. To reset the zoom level, use the Ctrl+Alt+0 keyboard shortcut. On macOS systems, use the Command key instead of the Ctrl key.

In MATLAB Online, you can zoom in and out of the entire desktop by adjusting the zoom settings for your web browser.

For more information, see Zoom and Change Desktop Fonts.

Maximize Focus Area

To maximize the space for your current area of focus, hide or minimize the panels that you are currently not using. To hide a panel, click its icon on the sidebar. For example, if the MATLAB desktop is in the default layout with the Files panel and Workspace panel open on the left side of the desktop, you can hide both panels by clicking the icon group for the two panels in the left sidebar. If two or more panels are grouped together, you can minimize each individual panel by clicking the Collapse button to the left of its title bar.

MATLAB desktop with the Files panel collapsed and the Workspace panel expanded. The Files panel and Workspace panel icons are grouped together on the sidebar. The title bar of each panel has an arrow button to collapse and expand the panel.

For more information about minimizing panels, see Configure the Desktop.

Change MATLAB Desktop Colors

You can use themes to change the colors of the MATLAB desktop. To select a theme, in the Command Window, enter preferences Appearance to open the Settings window with the MATLAB Appearance Settings page selected. Then, select a theme from the Desktop Theme list. (since R2025a)

For example, select Dark to select the dark theme. The MATLAB Appearance Settings page shows a preview of the selected theme.

MATLAB Appearance Settings page with the Desktop Theme drop-down list open and dark theme selected. A preview below the drop-down list shows a sample MATLAB desktop with a dark background.

After selecting a theme, you can further customize the colors of the MATLAB desktop by changing the text and background colors:

In the Command Window, enter preferences Colors to open the Settings window with the MATLAB Appearance Colors Settings page selected.
Use the Text and Background fields to change the colors. For example, select white for the text color and black for the background color.
Before R2025a: Select MATLAB > Colors and in the Desktop tool colors section, clear the Use system colors check box to enable the Text and Background fields.
The Syntax highlighting sample and Command Window sample areas show a preview of the selected colors.

To restore the default text and background colors for the selected theme, click the Restore Default Colors button at the bottom of the Settings window.

For more information about the different ways to change the desktop colors in MATLAB, see Change Desktop Theme and Colors.

Increase Clarity of Plots

You can increase the clarity of plots in MATLAB by changing the color and size of markers, lines, and text within the plots. To change the color and size of markers, lines, and text, modify the properties of the plot. The list of properties for a plot depends on its object type. For more information, see the documentation for the plot function you are using. You also can use the colororder function to change the color palette used for the markers and lines within the plots.

For example, create a plot with three lines.

p = plot([1 2 3; 4 5 6],LineWidth=22)
title("Three Colored Lines")
legend("Line 1","Line 2","Line 3")

Line plot with a blue line, a red line, and a yellow line

Enhance the distinction between the three lines using the LineWidth, Marker, MarkerEdgeColor, and MarkerSize properties. For more information, see Line Properties.

p(1).LineWidth = 2;
p(1).Marker = "*";
p(1).MarkerEdgeColor = "b";
p(1).MarkerSize = 8;

p(2).LineWidth = 3;
p(2).Marker = "diamond";

p(3).LineWidth = 4;

Line plot with a blue line with blue star-shaped markers at each data point, a slightly thicker red line with diamond-shaped markers at each data point, and an even thicker yellow line

To change the font size for objects in a plot, you can use the fontsize function. For example, increase the font size of the title, legend, and axes labels in the plot until they are more easily readable.

fontsize(gcf,"increase")
fontsize(gcf,"increase")
fontsize(gcf,"increase")

Line plot with larger title, legend, and axes label text

To improve the contrast of lines and markers within a plot, you can use the colororder function and specify the "dye" color palette. The colors of the "dye" palette meet international contrast ratio standards for enhanced accessibility against a white background. For example, specify the "dye" color palette for the plot.

colororder("dye")

Line plot with a dark red line, a medium green line, and a dark purple line

Convert Data to Sound Using Sonification

You can convert data to sound using the sonify function. For example, convert a vector of sine values to sound and return the sonified data s and sample rate Fs.

y = sin(1:10);
[s,Fs] = sonify(y);

You can use the sonified data with the audioplayer function to play, pause, resume, and stop the sound. You also can write the sonified data to a WAV file using the audiowrite function.