Accessibility help: Mac OSX version

 

 


Speech output using Mac OSX

 

Introduction

Mac OS X version 10.4 also known as ' Tiger ' is the first version of the Mac OS to include a fully integrated screen reader. The screen reader is called VoiceOver and you can find more information about it on Apple Website's VoiceOver accessibility section.

 

Earlier versions of OS X, while not having inbuilt screen readers do offer some speech output options as explained below.

 

Note: Mac key convention: ' Ctrl ' is used for 'Control', ' Apple ' is used for 'Command' and ' Alt ' is used for the 'Option' key .

Note: For keyboard access make sure ' Full keyboard access ' is turned on - you can turn it on or off; by pressing ' Ctrl ' + ' F1 ' at any time.

  1. Make sure you are in ' Finder ' - press ' Apple ' + ' Tab ' if necessary to cycle through open applications until you return to ' Finder '.
  2. Click on the 'Apple ' menu or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F2 '.
  3. Click on ' System Preferences... ' as shown in Fig 1 or press the down arrow key to highlight it and then press ' Enter '.
  4. Click on the ' Speech ' icon or press ' Tab ' repeatedly (you might need to press ' Ctrl ' + ' F7 ' first) to cycle through the icons until the ' Speech ' icon is highlighted and then press the ' Spacebar '.
  5. Click on the ' Default Voice ' tab or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F7 ' (once or twice) to highlight one of the three tabs and then press the left or right arrow key to select the ' Default Voice ' tab (highlighted in blue).
  6. Under the ' Voice ' heading click on a voice to select or press 'Tab ' until the voice list is highlighted and use the up and down arrows to select a voice.
  7. Next click the 'On' radio button next to ' Apple Speakable Items is: ' (See Fig 3 ) or press ' Tab ' to highlight the ' Off ' button and then press the up arrow to turn 'On' ' Apple Speakable Items '.
  8. To hear the selected voice click on the ' Play ' button or press the ' Tab' key until the ' Play ' button is highlighted and press the ' Spacebar '.
  9. Click on the slider next to ' Rate ' to speed up or slow down the voice or press the ' Tab' key until the blue pointer is highlighted in the ' Rate ' gauge bar and use the left and right arrow keys to select your speed.
  10. Click on the ' Spoken User Interface ' tab or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F7 ' (once or twice) to highlight one of the three tabs and then press the left or right arrow key to select the ' Spoken User Interface '
  11. Click the checkbox next to ' Speak the alert text ' to have your Mac speak the text in dialogue boxes or press the ' Tab' key until the ' Speak the alert text' checkbox is highlighted and press the ' Spacebar ' to check it.
  12. Click on a delay time on the slider named ' Wait before speaking: ' or press the ' Tab' key until the blue pointer is highlighted in the ' Wait before speaking: ' gauge bar and use the left and right arrow keys to select your speed. To have the computer speak the dialogue immediately select a value of '0' for a 5 second delay select '5'.

You can also have the alert speech start with a phrase, to do this:

  1. Click the checkbox next to ' Speak the phrase: ' or press the ' Tab' key until the ' Speak the phrase:' checkbox is highlighted and press the ' Spacebar ' to check it.
  2. Click on the pop-up menu next to ' Speak the phrase: ' or press the ' Tab' key until it is highlighted and then press the ' Spacebar ' to see a list of available phrases and click on one to choose it or use the up and down arrows to select a phrase.

Note: You can edit the list of phrases and add your own, to do so choose ' Edit phrase list ' from the list in he pop-up menu next to ' Speak the phrase: ' .

  1. There are also additional options under ' Other spoken items that you might want to turn on such as ' Text under the mouse ' which will read any text under the mouse pointer to do so Click the checkbox next to ' Text under the mouse ' to activate it or press the ' Tab' key until the ' Text under the mouse' checkbox is highlighted and press the ' Spacebar ' to check it.
  2. When you have finished with your selections click the close icon in the top left of the speech options box or press ' Apple ' + ' W ' on the keyboard to close the window.

 

 



mac users

Making text larger using Mac OSX

 

 

 

Making text larger using Firefox 1.5 / 2 these instructions also apply using the Safari browser

Below are the step-by-step instructions on how to increase the font size in Firefox

 

Note: Mac key convention: ' Ctrl ' is used for 'Control', ' Apple ' is used for 'Command' and ' Alt ' is used for the 'Option' key .

 

Note: For keyboard access make sure ' Full keyboard access ' is turned on - you can turn it on or off; by pressing ' Ctrl ' + ' F1 ' at any time.

 

You can scale the whole site in proportion rather than text only by:

Going to 'View' menu scroll down to 'zoom' and unclick the 'zoom text only menu' this option will now let you increase the whole website page in proportion rather than just text only.

 

Or continue with text only option:

 

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text for the web page you are viewing:

  1. Click on the ' View ' menu with the mouse.
  2. Hover your mouse over ' Text Size ' and choose a different text size from the listed options.

Or to use keyboard shortcuts:

  1. Press ' Apple ' and ' + ' (plus) to increase the text size and ' Apple ' and ' - ' (minus) to decrease the text size.

Take the following steps to set a larger text size for all the pages you visit:

  1. Click the ' Firefox ' menu with the mouse or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F2 ' to highlight the menu bar and then press the right arrow to highlight the ' Firefox ' menu .
  2. Click on ' Preferences' or press the down arrow to highlight ' Preferences ' and then press ' Enter '.
  3. Make sure the ' Content ' tab is selected if not click on it (or use the left / right arrow keys to select it).
  4. Under ' Fonts and Colors ' click on ' Advanced ' or use the ' Tab ' key to highlight it and press the ' Spacebar ' to select.
  5. Click an the 'Size' drop down menu next to ' Proportional ' and select the font size you want or ' Tab ' to ' Size' and use the up/down arrow keys and the ' Enter ' key to select.
  6. Click the checkbox ' Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above ' to deselect it (turn it off) or ' Tab ' to the checkbox and press the ' Spacebar ' to deselect it
  7. Click ' OK ' button or press ' Enter '
  8. Press ' Apple ' + ' W ' to return to Firefox.