Accessibility permissionAccessibility access
Accessibility permission is the macOS setting that lets one app read and control the interface of other apps. Dictation tools ask for it because it is how they type text at your cursor in whatever app you are using.
macOS exposes every window, text field, and button through an accessibility layer that was built for screen readers and assistive devices. The same layer is the only sanctioned way for a third-party app to insert text into another app, which is why every dictation tool that "works everywhere" asks for it. Without it, a tool can only put text on the clipboard and leave the pasting to you.
The permission is broad by design: an app that has it can, in principle, read what is on your screen. That is why the prompt is worth taking seriously and why the answer to "what does this tool actually read?" belongs in its privacy statement.
What a dictation tool does with it
Three things, in most tools. It inserts the finished text at the cursor, which is the whole point. It may read the focused text field, so replies can match the thread you are in and pick up the names already on screen. And it identifies the frontmost app, so a per-app style rule can apply. The second of those is the one to ask about: reading screen text is useful for tone, and it is also the feature where cloud tools have been caught sending screenshots to their servers.
How macOS asks
The first time a tool tries to type into another app, macOS shows a prompt and sends you to System Settings, Privacy and Security, Accessibility, where you flip a switch for that app. The permission survives updates but is revoked if the app’s code signature changes, which is why an unsigned or self-built tool keeps asking. You can withdraw it any time from the same switch.
Declining it
A tool built with care keeps working without it, in a reduced form: the transcript goes to the clipboard and you paste it. That is slower, but it is a legitimate choice for a locked-down machine or a first trial, and it should be a mode rather than an error.
In Flit
Flit asks for Accessibility to type at your cursor and to read the focused field for tone, locally and in memory only. Decline it and Flit runs in copy-only mode.
What Flit asks for, and why →Questions
Fair questions.
Why does a dictation app need Accessibility access?
Because Accessibility is the only sanctioned way on macOS for one app to type into another. Without it, a dictation tool can only copy the transcript to the clipboard for you to paste.
Is granting Accessibility permission safe?
It is broad: an app with it can read the interface of other apps. Grant it to tools you trust, and read the tool’s privacy statement to learn what it reads and whether any of it leaves the machine. A local-only tool with a published, verifiable statement is the safe case.
Can I use dictation without it?
With some tools, in a copy-only mode: the text goes to your clipboard and you paste it yourself. It is slower, but it works, and it is a fair way to trial a tool before trusting it.
Where this shows up on flit.fyi
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