Skip to main content
  • Kontrol Accessibility
  • The Accessibility Helper

The Accessibility Helper

This is a small program that allows S-series Mk3 keyboards to announce what is happening as you interact with other software and hardware via your operating system’s speech synthesis features.

Setting up the Accessibility Helper

Once you have installed the Accessibility Helper via Native Access, you will need to perform the following steps:

Windows

  • Native Access will have created a shortcut for the Accessibility Helper on your Desktop. It will be called “NI Accessibility Helper”.

  • Locate the NI Accessibility Helper shortcut on your Desktop and press the Enter key to load the program and place it onto your System Tray.

macOS

  • Native Access will have copied the Accessibility Helper into the following path on your Mac: /applications/Native Instruments/NI Accessibility Helper

  • Navigate to this folder and load the NI Accessibility Helper application. This will activate the Accessibility Helper and add an NI Accessibility Helper menu to your Status menus.

macOS 15 Sequoia Speech Settings

The NI Accessibility Helper respects your macOS system settings for chosen voice, speech rate, and speech volume, with the exception of macOS 15 Sequoia, due to a known issue in the OS. A bug has been filed with Apple, and we hope it will be resolved in a future update.

On macOS 15 Sequoia, you can use the NI Accessibility Helper’s internal controls as a workaround:

  • Go to the NI Accessibility Helper Status Menu.

  • Open Settings.

  • Adjust Speech Rate and Speech Volume to your preference.

Enabling Accessibility Mode

Hold down the Shift button (the top left button) on your S-series Kontrol keyboard then press the DAW button (the top right button). The Accessibility Helper will announce something like “Accessibility Mode on”. Once Accessibility Mode is active you can find out more about your keyboard in a couple of ways.

Training Mode

You can turn Training Mode on and off at any time by double-tapping the Shift button on your Kontrol keyboard and you will hear a message indicating whether Training Mode is active or not.

When Training Mode is turned on you can press any button, or tap any knob on the Kontrol keyboard and hear its current function without actually performing that operation. This allows you to learn the layout of the controls and to check what a control is going to do before you do it for real. This is particularly useful with those controls, like the buttons and knobs above and below the screen display that can change their function.

The Accessibility Helper Window

When you first load the Accessibility Helper its window will be hidden on your System Tray (Windows), or as one of your Status menus (Mac-OS).

  • Navigate to your System Tray (Windows) or Status menus (Mac-OS, using VoiceOver+m twice) and activate the NI Accessibility Helper option.

  • In the menu that appears you will find four options:

  • Show window.

  • Autohide. (this should be checked by default).

  • Settings… (Mac-OS 15.5 Sequoia only).

  • Quit.

The Quit option will unload the Accessibility Helper and, if the Autoload option is checked, the Autoload option ensures that the Accessibility Helper will be loaded whenever you start your computer. The Settings option only affects you if you are a Mac-OS 12.5 Sequoia user and it opens a dialog that allows you to configure your desired speech settings.

Select the Show window option then press the Enter key to make the Accessibility Helper visible. The Accessibility Helper window’s title bar will contain the name of the device that is currently in Accessibility Mode.

When the Accessibility Helper window is visible and is in the foreground, you can use the following keys on your computer keyboard:

  • The Up and Down arrow keys move you from zone to zone of the controls on your Kontrol keyboard. Each zone is a block of controls dedicated to particular kinds of operations and the panel description at the start of this guide uses the zone names that you will encounter in the Accessibility Helper window.

  • The Left and Right Arrow keys will move you from control to control within the zone you are focused on. This is really useful when you want to find out what functions your buttons or knobs are currently assigned to. These keys will also announce the name of the available shifted functions for each control if you hold down the Shift button on the Kontrol keyboard as you move left and right.

  • The Helper will use the following words to describe the state of controls:

  • “On” or “Off” – This means that the named control is active, or not.

  • “Unassigned” means that the control does nothing.

If you have some vision and want to make things larger, just maximize the Helper window with the normal key combination for your operating system, then use the Minus and Equals keys on the number row of your keyboard to adjust the font size.

Pressing the t key on your computer keyboard toggles the Tour Mode. When Tour Mode is active you can get a little more descriptive information as you arrow around the Accessibility Helper window. Please note that Tour Mode does not stop any button presses, knob turns, etc. from getting through to any software or hardware that you are controlling from your Kontrol keyboard.

  • Pressing H announces a help message that describes the Accessibility Helper. Once the message has finished speaking, or if you press any key, you will be returned to normal Accessibility Helper operation.

  • Pressing the Space Bar toggles the announcement of any messages from a particular zone. This allows you to reduce the amount of speech output as your familiarity with your Kontrol keyboard grows.

  • Pressing the Enter key will announce the contents of the current zone.