# Granting permissions

> Why CogniPage asks for Accessibility and Screen Recording, and how to grant or withdraw each one.

Source: https://cognipage.io/docs/permissions

Reading along means seeing what is on your screen, so CogniPage needs your operating system's permission to do it. These are serious permissions, and you grant them yourself — the app cannot give them to itself, and you can withdraw any of them at any time without uninstalling.

**Where** Home → the permission cards at the top · each card has a button that opens the right system panel

## What each permission is for

| Permission | Needed for | Required? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Accessibility
(UI Automation on Windows) | The main way CogniPage reads text. Your OS exposes a structured tree of the text an app is displaying — the same interface screen readers use — and CogniPage reads paragraphs from it. | Yes |
| Screen Recording
(screen capture on Windows) | Two things: reading windows that publish no text at all (image-only PDFs, canvas-drawn readers, Firefox on macOS), and tapping the audio a video you approved is playing. Both processed on your device. | Strongly recommended |
| Automation (Apple Events)
macOS only | Identifying which app and document is in front, so a captured paragraph is filed against the right material. | Recommended |
| Camera | Only if you scan a [physical book](https://cognipage.io/docs/hardcopy). The page is read for text and the frame discarded. | Optional |
| Notifications | Review reminders and other [nudges](https://cognipage.io/docs/notifications). Asked for the first time you turn push notifications on. | Optional |

## Granting them on macOS

1. **Use the buttons on Home**
   Each permission card has a button that opens the exact panel in System Settings — quicker and less error-prone than finding it yourself.
2. **Switch CogniPage on in the list**
   In *System Settings → Privacy & Security*, find **Accessibility**, then **Screen & System Audio Recording**, and enable CogniPage in each. macOS may ask for your password or Touch ID.
3. **Restart CogniPage if macOS asks**
   macOS sometimes only hands a newly granted permission to a freshly launched app. If a card still says *Action needed* after you have switched it on, quit from the menu-bar icon and open CogniPage again.

## Granting them on Windows

Windows needs less setup: UI Automation requires no prompt and no administrator rights, so text capture works as soon as the app is installed. Screen capture and per-application audio capture are used only when a window publishes no readable text or when you start a [watch-along](https://cognipage.io/docs/watch-along), and the camera is requested the first time you open the book scanner.

## Withdrawing a permission

Turn any of them back off in the same place you granted it. CogniPage keeps working with less: without Screen Recording it simply cannot read image-only documents or watch along with video; without Accessibility it cannot capture reading at all.

> **Permission is not consent to read everything.**
>
> Granting Accessibility only makes capture *possible*. CogniPage still asks you about each website, document and video separately, and captures nothing until you answer — see [Tracking and approvals](https://cognipage.io/docs/tracking).