Voiceover is Apple’s built-in
screen reader that comes built into the operating system of any Mac. Using one simple keystroke, a blind or low
vision user has complete speech and braille access to the Mac operating system.
On a MacBook air or pro, the power
button is the top right key on the top row of keys. You will hear a chime and then one can enable
Voiceover.
Apple has built in laptop
keyboards, Bluetooth keyboards and a wired USB keyboard option.
The wired keyboard has a numeric
keypad.
Most users these days will use the
Bluetooth keyboard or the keyboard built into the Mac laptop itself.
Important Mac Keys To Note:
4 keys to the left of the Space
key from left to right are:
Function (FN) key: for accessing
an alternative state of the Function keys current setting on the top row of the
keyboard. Also used to change the state of the Arrow keys
Control: Control key
Option: Option key
Command key: Command key.
VO Keys Control and Option or caps
lock with arrow keys
main keys you use when interacting with Voiceover-caps lock and/or
control and option
Both are enabled by default.
That is personal preference.
Escape key: top row, first key
from left
Function keys 1 through to 12: top
row, starting second key in from the left: Function key 1, and then through to
Function key 12 going from left to right
Arrow keys: Inverted capital
letter t at the bottom right of the keyboard.
When held down with the Function
key: up arrow Page up, down arrow Page down, left arrow Home, and right arrow End.
You can utilize the track pad to use gestures similar to those used on an iPhone or iPad. There are built-in gestures, but you can also assign gestures to commands within the VoiceOver utility. To use gestures, you must turn on the track pad commander by holding down the VO keys and then performing the clockwise rotor gesture. Here are some common gestures:
To turn Voiceover on push
command-the key to the left of the space bar and function key f5. The first time you hit command f5, a dialogue
will come up with an audio prompt. If
you want to activate the Voiceover quick start tutorial, push space. If you already know how to use Voiceover,
push the V key. Note this dialogue only
appears only once when launching Voiceover for the first time. In the future, to launch the quick start
tutorial, push control option command and f8 all together. The tutorial will launch.
This is a great quick start
showing many basic Mac commands. Given
the speech is very human sounding, users should have
no trouble understanding the high-quality human sounding Alex voice.
Hold down VO+Command keys all
together, and at the same time, press Left or Right arrow keys to cycle between
the speech synthesizer options, when you get to the item you want (still
holding down VO+Command keys), use the Up or Down arrow keys to adjust that
item. For example, hold down VO+Command, Right arrow until you hear rate, and
then Up arrow to speed up the voice each time you press the Up arrow or Down
arrow to slow down the voice each time you press the Down arrow.
To access the VoiceOver Help menu at any time,
press VO+H.
This will give you access to:
online help (via the internet), Commands help menu (listing all VoiceOver
commands by category), Keyboard help (explore the keyboard by having VoiceOver
speak the keys), Sounds help (what the sounds are that VoiceOver uses), Quick
Start tutorial, and the Getting Started guide.
To Navigate the VoiceOver Help menu, press Down
or Up arrow to get to the choice you wish to use, and press the Enter key to
select. To exit the VoiceOver Help menu, just press the Escape key. For
example, VO+H to access the VoiceOver Help menu, Down arrow until you hear
Quick Start, and then press the Enter key to access the Quick Start tutorial.
Tip: Control Option K will launch
keyboard help. A user can hit keys to hear
what they do.
When you arrive at your Mac's
desktop screen, it will either be blank with no icons or contain icons for
files or drives which the Mac calls volumes (by default your hard drive volume
called Macintosh HD is hidden from the desktop). At the top of the screen will
be the Menu bar (Apple, Finder, File, Edit etc.), and at the bottom of the
screen will be the Dock (containing Finder, Mail, Safari etc.). You can always
move the focus to the desktop, menu bar or Dock at any time by using these 3
VoiceOver commands:
Some points about the Menu bar.
When you move to the menu bar with Vo+M, you will
always land on the Apple menu. If you then press the Right arrow key, you will
move across the menu options for Finder, File etc. To pull one of these menu
options down to use their options, just press Down arrow, keep using Down arrow
to get to the option you want to use, and then press the Enter key. Pressing
the Escape key will always back out of a sub-menu or the main menu bar.
There is also a second menu
(called Menu Extras) that you can access by pressing VO+M again which contains
such items as Bluetooth, wifi connection , Volume, Battery (if you are on a
laptop), Clock etc. To navigate these menu headings you will have to use the Voiceover
keys with the Left or Right arrow keys (you are now using VoiceOver commands to
go to the next or previous item), to select a menu, press VO+Space: you can now
use the Down or Up Arrow keys to navigate the menu, and press the Enter key to
choose an option. Like the main menu bar, Escape works the same way.
VO+M will always cycle you between
these two menus or if you are just sitting at the desktop, you could jump
straight to the Extras menu by holding down the VO keys and pressing M twice.
The main menu bar will always show
you what application is currently being used by changing the name of the 2nd
menu (the one after the Apple menu). So when you are in Finder, the 2nd menu
item will be Finder, if you are in Mail, the 2nd menu will be Mail, if you are
in Safari the 2nd menu item will be Safari etc.
The main menu bar is also where
you access the command to close down your Mac.
Press VO+M for main menu, Down Arrow on the Apple menu, keep pressing
Down Arrow until you hear shut down, and press the Enter key twice to close
down your Mac.
Move to the dock with VO+D. The
Dock contains applications that you can access any time without having to
access your Applications folder on your Mac. You have a number of preset
applications already on the Dock including Mail, Safari etc. If you do run an
application from your Applications folder, it will also appear in the Dock
while you are using it, and then disappear when you quit that application. Once
you are on the Dock, press Left or Right Arrow keys to move between the
applications on the Dock, and press the Enter key to select an application.
Spotlight is a way of searching for apps, files, contacts, mail messages, or other items on your Mac. It works a lot like the search box in the Windows start menu. To open spotlight, hit command + space. You can then start typing what you are looking for. It usually only takes a few letters for your item to appear in the list. You can hit the down arrow to look through results and hit enter when you find the one you want.
Move to the desktop with
VO+Shift+D. If you want to move between files or volumes on the desktop, press
Tab or Shift plus Tab key to move to the next or previous item on the desktop,
and then press the Command key plus O to open that item. If you press the enter
key on an application, document, volume etc., that
item will be highlighted to allow you to give it a new name: it does not open
that item.
If you stick a USB thumb drive in to your Mac,
it will appear on your desktop. Tab or Shift+Tab key to the volume (USB stick
name), and press Command+O to open. To eject a USB stick or other external
volume (drive), when you are on that item, press Command+E to eject the volume
safely.
When you are at the desktop, you
are also in what is called the Finder. The Finder allows you to get access to
all the applications, folders, and documents that are on your Mac. The Finder
itself is also considered to be an application in its own wright. So if you were using Mail on your Mac, you would
still be running two applications on your Mac; Mail, and Finder.
When you are at the desktop, you
can quickly jump to 5 main folders on your Mac:
Shift plus Command plus A: will take you to the Applications folder (all
applications installed on your Mac including Mail, Safari, TextEdit, etc.
Shift plus Command plus O - will
take you to the Documents folder (where the documents you create are saved)
Shift plus Command plus U will
take you to the Utilities folder (these are specific utility applications, and
is also where the VoiceOver utility for further configuring VoiceOver is
stored).
Option plus Command plus L - will
take you to the Downloads folder (files downloaded by Safari from the Internet
are stored here).
Shift plus Command plus H will
take you to your main Home folder which actually contains the Documents and
Downloads folder. The Applications folder contains the Utilities folder as
well, with the Applications folder being under your Macintosh hard drive
Volume. If you want to just close the current folder window that’s open, press
Command+W or to close all Windows that you may have open in Finder, press
Command+Option+W.
In any volume or folder that you
access on your Mac including the Applications, Document, Downloads, Utilities,
and Home folder, you can change the way that the folder is displayed on the
screen. On a new Mac or the first time you have accessed a new volume, the
starting view will be in image view. For VoiceOver users, it is recommended
that you use the List view. So rather than having a grid or table of icons on
the screen, you just have a list. To switch to List View, press Command key
plus 2. If at any time you want to go back to image view, press Command key
plus 1. Once you have changed a volume or folders view, the next time you go
back in to it, it will be in the last view you used. This command will not work
when you are just sitting at the desktop.
Reading Text
VO+C: read current character.
VO+W: read current word.
VO+L: read current line.
VO+P: read current paragraph.
VO+B: read from beginning.
Editing text is a bit different on
the Mac given how the cursor works. the cursor is never on a letter, it’s always to the left or
right of the letter. So if you want to
delete a character, you need to be to the right of the character to delete it.
Bring up the Voiceover verbosity
dialogue with VO+V. Left and right arrow
through the different settings One of the settings is
typing echo. Echoing characters and
words are the default. Up and down arrow to your other keyboard echo choices such as
characters words or no echo. Push enter once you have made the desired choice.
To highlight, press Shift plus
Arrow keys, to speak back what has been highlighted by VoiceOver press
Fn+VO+F6, and then Command+C to copy, Command+X to cut or Command+V to paste.
VO+keystroke =
Control+Option+keystroke or caps lock
Turn VoiceOver on or off: Command+F5
Stop speech: Ctrl
Repeat the last spoken phrase: VO+Z
VoiceOver Quick Start tutorial: VO+Command+F8
Open the VoiceOver Help menu: VO+H
VoiceOver Commands Help menu: VO+HH
Start keyboard help: VO+K (Esc to
exit keyboard help)
Typing Echo (verbosity): VO+V
Open VoiceOver Utility: VO+F8
Cycle through speech attributes: VO+Command+LeftArrow
(or Right Arrow)
Change current speech attribute: VO+Command+UpArrow
(or DownArrow)
Close a menu or rotor, stop an
action, or exit a mode: Escape
Lock and unlock the VO (Control
and Option) keys: VO+;
Hear the application summary: VO+F1
Hear the window summary VO+F2
Describe the item in the VoiceOver
cursor: VO+F3
Describe the item that has the
keyboard focus: VO+F4
Describe the selected item: VO+F6
Move VO cursor left, right, up or
down: VO+Arrow keys
Move to start of list or document:
VO+Shift+Home
Move to end of list or document: VO+Shift+End
Move to top/start of window, Dock,
etc:VO+Command+Home
Move to bottom/end of window,
Dock, etc:VO+Command+End
Move to the menu bar: VO+M
(Control-F2) (NB: VO+Shift+M opens context menu)
Move to the Dock: VO+D (or Control-F3)
Move to the desktop: VO+Shift+D
Open the Item Chooser (to go to
item on the screen or in a window): VO+I
Jump to a linked item (for
example, from a Mail message in the Inbox to its message text):VO+J
Set or remove a hot spot: VO+Shift+[number
key]
Open the Hot Spot Chooser (to
browse and jump to hot spots): VO+[number key]+[number key] (i.e. VO & same
number key twice)
Jump to a hot spot: VO+[number
key]
Hear a description of a hot spot: VO+Command+[number
key]
Toggle QuickNav on/off: LeftArrow+RightArrow
Move VoiceOver cursor: Cursor keys
(equals VO+Arrow keys)
Perform action: Up+Down (equals VO+Spacebar)
Interact with item: Right/Down
(equals VO+Shift+DownArrow)
Stop interacting with item: Left/Down
(equals VO+Shift+UpArrow)
Magnify item in VoiceOver cursor: VO+Shift+[
Shrink item in cursor: VO+Shift+]
Toggle VoiceOver focus rectangle
(& other visuals): VO+F11
Displays Caption panel (of where
VO cursor is): VO+Command+F10
Find text: VO+F
Find next (after using VO+F): VO+G
Find previous: VO+Shift+G
Find the next misspelled word: VO+Command+E
Before you can use most of these
commands, you must interact with text in a text area.
Read from VoiceOver cursor to end:
VO+A
Read from beginning to cursor: VO+B
Speak text attributes: VO+T
Speaks line number, word and
character in VoiceOver cursor:VO+F3
Read character in VoiceOver
cursor: VO+C
Read next character: VO+Shift+Right Arrow
Read previous character: VO+Shift+Left Arrow
Read word in VoiceOver cursor: VO+W
Spell word: VO+WW
Spell word phonetically: VO+WWW
Read next word: VO+Right Arrow
Read previous word: VO+Left Arrow
Read line in VoiceOver cursor: VO+L
Read next line: VO+Down Arrow
Read previous line: VO+Up Arrow
Read sentence in VoiceOver cursor:
VO+S
Read next sentence: VO+Command+Page Down
Read previous sentence: VO+Command+Page Up
Read paragraph in VoiceOver
cursor: VO+P
Read next paragraph: VO+Shift+Page Down
Read previous paragraph: VO+Shift+Page Up
Read a row in a table: VO+R
Read a column in a table: VO+C+C
Read the column header in a table:
VO+C
Interact with an item: VO+Shift+DownArrow
Stop interacting with an item: VO+Shift+Up Arrow
Perform the default action for the
item in the VoiceOver cursor (e.g. open active item): VO+Spacebar
Open application, documents or
download folders on Dock: VO+Spacebar, down arrow,
Enter
Move to next heading: VO+Command+H
Move to next heading of the same
level: VO+Command+M
Move to next plain text: VO+Command+P
Move to next link: VO+Command+L
Move to next visited link: VO+Command+V
Move to next control: VO+Command+J
Move to next table: VO+Command+T
Move to the next column: VO+Command+Y
Move to the next frame: VO+Command+F
Move to the next auto web spot: VO+Command+N
To move to a previous item, use
Shift with above commands.
e.g. VO+Command+Shift+H
to move to previous heading
Set a web spot: VO+Command+Shift+}
Remove a web spot: VO+Command+Shift+{
Set the sweet spot: VO+Command+Shift+}+}
Move to the next web spot: VO+Command+]
Move to the previous web spot: VO+Command+[Navigation
- General
Open the Web Item rotor: VO+U
Navigate lists: Left & right
arrow keys
Navigate items in selected list: Up
& down arrow keys
In Headers List, list only
headings of a particular level Type level number
Read a link address (URL): VO+Shift+U
Read webpage statistics: VO+Shift+I
Parts of the above information
were used curdecy of Applevis.
www.applevis.com
Mac Getting Started
http://www.applevis.com/guides/accessories/getting-started-your-mac-using-voiceover
VoiceOver Keyboard Shortcuts for
Mac OS X | AppleVis
http://www.applevis.com/guides/voiceover-keyboard-shortcuts-mac-os-x
The Mac's Mail app Explained | AppleVis
http://www.applevis.com/guides/mac-apps-mac-os-x-voiceover/macs-mail-app-explained
Getting Started with OS X Safari |
AppleVis
http://www.applevis.com/guides/mac-os-x/getting-started-os-x-safari