Voiceover - Day 1

Posted by jason

My father is visually handicapped, from retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease that began to take away his sight when he was a teenager. When I heard about Tiger’s support for the visually impaired through VoiceOver, I got pretty excited. Not only because it was another opportunity to get my dad on some pretty cool software, but also because he hadn’t been really able to take advantage of the Internet on the PC, other than email. The Net’s been a transformative technology for me, and he will easily soak up the tools out there.

We are using an iMac 1.8 Ghz G5 as the learning environment (Thanks, Mom!). There’s no perceptible system slowdown running Voiceover w/the other applications, to my surprise. Very nice.

To start, I pasted the VO help files into emails so my Dad could read them in his PC-based screen reader. This was NOT a huge help. There are so many commands, he’s going to have to spend some time learning all of them. Thankfully, he’s got an incredible memory.

To prep the Mac for a visually handicapped user, you should do a couple things. a. Create a user for them. This serves as a “sandbox” where they can have their own environment to use b. Install Quicksilver and any plug-ins you want (use menu interface, as it gets out of the way). Even if you’re not visually handicapped, install Quicksilver. It’s incredible.

We chose to start small today – learn how to switch users, so we don’t disturb my mom’s environment, and then launch and work with a couple of apps. Time’s limited, so we’ll get more in depth on apps on another day. The workflow is something like this: Command-Space to activate Quicksilver, (Spotlight is moved to option-space, as I use qs about 30x more than sl) dad enter. This switches to user dad, and he then types in the password. Command-F5’s to activate VoiceOver, and command-space Saf to run safari. Navigating web pages is going to take some training. It seems that a great number of sites aren’t Section 508 compliant. I’m not very fond of using command-option arrow to move around the different parts of the screen, but key-comboing is something he’s used to.

A few lessons in today’s session with Dad. a. Apple is in desperate need of a voice based tutorial. This should teach a user how to get around the basic OS X applications on OS X, including Mail, Safari, and (gasp!) Office. There’s no way anyone can get around this thing without substantial help. Even sighted, I’m not picking this up super-quickly. b. Office does not appear to be VoiceOver friendly, and neither is Pages. I’ll have to investigate this further c. Quicksilver makes Voiceover 10x more usable.

I was told that Apple had a blind person in QA, testing Voiceover for over a year. What’s more, he was using the 12” Powerbook, with the lcd removed, making it the lightest Apple laptop ever built.

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  1. N Strange – May 10, 2005 @ 11:52 AM
    Apple should offer free Voice Over training through the Apple Stores.
  2. Jake F – May 10, 2005 @ 01:25 PM
    I'll be interested in reading more about your experiences with Voiceover. I'm not blind, but I'm trying to convert the PDF's at my company's website into ADA-compliant tagged PDF's. How is the quality of the computer-generated voices in Tiger? I've been so disappointed by the awful synthesized voices in the Mac operating systems. Even the downloadable voices from Cepstral need work, and sadly, they're the best I've heard on a Mac thus far.
  3. Tim – May 10, 2005 @ 08:53 PM
    I did a fresh install of Tiger today and while the machine was sitting at the initial setup screen, it began reading directions on how to use VoiceOver if you are visually impaired. The recording instructed me to hit Escape if I wanted more info which I did. I'm not sure if it is the tutorial you are looking for but it sounded like a good overview of basic keystrokes for VoiceOver.
  4. Tony Broome – May 11, 2005 @ 09:03 PM
    I now use Windows XP and FreedomBox for my access program. It does everything one might want online and has built in System Access for basic Windows and office apps offline. However, having heard a comprehensive demonstration of voice over on ACB Radio's MainMenu, I am excited to see what Apple is doing in the accessibility world, and would love to beta test or help in some way if I could. The exciting thing about VoiceOver is that it is built right into the OS and appears to be mighty stable, too! Email me at: tb777@myfreedombox.com or, visit my website at: http://www.tonybroome.com to read and learn about the part of my ministry helping other blind and disabled people with their computer related issues. Thanks, for letting me post. Have a blessed day!
  5. Dennis – May 17, 2005 @ 05:13 PM
    Your dad is a lucky fellow rto have you jason. I think Apple is on right track. It needs a simple outline format tutorial spoken and written. It needs to work with Microsoft office and other apps oSafari apps. THE KEYBOARD MUST be speakable at all times for all apps. Please keep in touch. I too am learning this program alone and am VI. Any links or other great resources that work well with Mac are most welcome. I will stay tuned. We need to make the ADA work for us.
  6. Dennis – May 17, 2005 @ 05:15 PM
    Sorry I forgot to leave my email address it is dibona@mac.com. Please drop me a line anythime with any resources or hints. I have both mac and PC but love my mac. I am VI .
  7. Danny – May 17, 2005 @ 07:22 PM
    What is Quick Silver?
  8. Chuck – May 18, 2005 @ 12:49 PM
    Quicksilver is "An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data." You might be thinking that sounds vague, and it kind of has to be. Quicksilver does so much it's hard to explain. It's best just to go check it out: http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/ (It's only available for the mac now. Who knows if it will ever be made available for a pc.)
  9. dave – May 28, 2005 @ 01:46 AM
    I don't play in sandboxes but then I've been blind for over 53 years. If you check out: http://www.macvisionaries.com, I think you'll find it quite helpfull. Please keep us apprised of your progress.
  10. Bruce – July 10, 2005 @ 04:08 PM
    We are all hoping you follow-up on this evolving story soon. If you haven’t already heard, their is an interactive VO tutorial available now at URL: http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/license.html
  11. jtb4 – March 20, 2006 @ 07:32 AM
    Very helpful web page! If anybody has any experience operating VoiceOver with voice commands please send a message. I am trying to help a VI person who cannot type well. I am going to make a tutorial for how to do this but I know it is a tall order.