Q: What are Good Options to Install Linux on the Mac?

I have a 2013 Macbook Air with a 256 gb solid-state drive and 8 gb of memory. I have less than 80 gb free. I have hyperacusis and had trouble with a noisy computer some years back, so wanted to avoid noisy drives.

I would need to be able to access my files from either OS X/MacOS or Linux. This is the biggest problem. If I can't work on the same files in OS X/MacOS and Linux, I can't really do much with Linux.

I have trouble with certain accessibility problems in OS X:

1. I have sensory issues, and need to disable more of the animation and more of the blinking cursors. I've used a hack to disable the blinking cursors in some apps, but it doesn't work in LibreOffice, Pages, Mail, etc. It should work in Scrivener, and I'm considering switching to Scrivener. It also works in Bean and Textedit.

2. I have coordination/proprioception issues, and could use wider scrollbars. I currently use Scroll+ for scrolling software but it doesn't work everywhere. I could use an accessible version of Sticky Keys, but the current version isn't there yet. It shows active modifier keys on the screen, but I need t focus on the keyboard.

I will need to avoid some accessibility problems in Linux:

1. I have sensory issues, and will need to disable animation and blinking cursors. I will need to be able to start Linux with minimum screen brightness. I tried Kde which always opened in blinding brightness.

2. I have coordination/proprioception issues, and will need to disable touchpad gestures and tapping; this required a kernal patch in Ubuntu, which meant running a non-lts version, which meant not being able to use Ubuntu repositories after support ran out. I will need to be able to retain visible scrollbars and widen them. I will sometimes need to be able to use scrolling software.

One option is to use rEFInd and a full installation. It's intimidating. I ended up with a broken Xubuntu installation at one point because it crashed while it was installing. Another option is to use VMWare Fusion or Parallels or a Mac equivalent of Wubi.

Would any of these options allow me to access my files from Linux? Which ones would work with my lack of programming experience, limited processor power, and limited disk space?

Thanks.