VoiceOver For Mac VoiceOver is an advanced, full-featured Quick Access: screen-access technology that makes it Turning VoiceOver On possible for those who are blind or have low vision to control their computer. It is Trackpad Gestures and Rotor preinstalled and ready to use in any OS X Enabling/Disabling Trackpad Gestures operating system, free of charge. VoiceOver uses speech to describe what is happening on Using Rotor your computer, and you can use it to control Why use Gestures and Rotor? the computer without seeing the screen. Using Gestures and Keyboard Note: VoiceOver works best on Safari. Commands
Turning VoiceOver On
To turn on VoiceOver, press Command and F5 on your keyboard. A voice will greet you, letting you know VoiceOver has been turned on, and a welcoming screen will appear.
Click the OK button or hit enter to leave the greeting screen. VoiceOver has been turned on and will begin to read your screen. You can follow along to what the screen-reader says by looking to the lower left hand corner. There will be a black and white speech bubble with written instructions as the screen-reader reads what is presented to it.
To turn off VoiceOver, press Command and F5 on your keyboard once again. You will hear "VoiceOver off".
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Trackpad Gestures and Rotor
VoiceOver lets you control your Mac by using VoiceOver gestures, like tap and flick, on your trackpad, even if you can't see your screen.
VoiceOver also features a virtual control called a rotor that mimics a physical dial. You can use the rotor to navigate webpages easily, through rotating between different options and commands.
Enabling/Disabling Trackpad Gestures
When you enable the trackpad on VoiceOver, you can use hand gestures to follow in addition to using your keyboard. 1. Press COMMAND and F5 on your keyboard to turn VoiceOver on.
2. Hold down the CONTROL and OPTION keys and rotate two fingers clockwise, as if you're turning an actual dial. The screen-reader will speak and let you know Voice Commander has been turned on.
3. To disable trackpad gestures, hold down the CONTROL and OPTION keys and rotate two fingers counter clockwise, as if you're turning an actual dial. The screen-reader will speak
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and let you know Voice Commander has been turned off.
Using Rotor
When trackpad gestures is turned on, you can use rotor in addition to gestures and the keyboard. The rotor comes with both web and other settings, such as, Headings, Links, Form Controls, Web Spots, Character, Word, Navigation and Tables.
To use rotor, rotate two fingers on the trackpad as if you were turning a dial. As you turn the rotor (dial), you’ll hear each of its settings.
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Why Use Gestures and Rotor?
The trackpad gives you greater flexibility for navigating webpages by allowing you to use your fingers to retrieve information. Through using gestures and the rotor, it gives you access to an array of commands. Just by turning the rotor to hear what’s available and then flicking up and down, you can navigate faster by using the rotor feature selected.
Using Gestures and Keyboard
You can navigate webpages using both the trackpad and the keyboard at the same time. Here are some examples of how to use both. 1. After turning on the gestures feature and rotor, select Headings and flick down. It will begin to read you the first heading it finds. If you also want to read the text below the heading, use your keyboard and press CONTROL+OPTION and P. This reads paragraphs. You can then move your finger on the trackpad to move around the paragraph.
2. After turning on the gestures feature on your trackpad, you can use your keyboard and press CONTROL+OPTION and D, this will bring you to the dock. You can then use your finger to move through the dock shortcuts, or you can use your keyboard and press CONTROL+OPTION and M to go to the Apple menu bar. It will read you the menu bar options (such as Apple, File, Edit etc) as you move your finger left and right.
Helpful Hints While you are moving about the page, dock and/or menu, make sure you are not lifting your finger (flicking) as you move it around the trackpad. Keep your index finger on the trackpad and move it around. If you lift your finger it will read you what the cursor landed on. For example, if you lift your finger while on File in the Apple menu bar, and then move your finger again, it will read you the contents under the File option.
Commands
The VoiceOver keyboard commands can be found within the VoiceOver application itself. Launch VoiceOver by typing it into the Spotlight and then click the Help button on the Apple menu bar. Select VoiceOver Commands. This will launch a new window with helpful VoiceOver commands. A few important commands are listed below.
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VoiceOver Keyboard Commands
Command Description
Tab
Skips through items on the page.
Escape Button
Cancel or exit areas
Control Button
Stops speech
Ctrl + Option + A
Read all content within a page
Ctrl + Option + D
Move to the dock
Ctrl + Option + R
Read a row on a table
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Command Description
Ctrl + Option + U
Pulls up a Links List
Ctrl + Option + I
Pulls up an Item List. This is useful when you're
not sure if something is a link
Ctrl + Option + M
Move to the Menu Bar
Ctrl + Option + Shift + D
Go to desktop
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Command Description
Ctrl + Option + Shift + Down Arrow
Start interacting with the screen
Ctrl + Option + Shift + Z
Save a VoiceOver audio file
Command + S
Save file
Command + W
Close window.
If you prefer to familiarize yourself through diagrams or visual aids, you can also view the following keyboard diagrams below, or see them at Apple's Accessiblity website.
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Under VoiceOver Commands Charts, click the links for First-Level VoiceOver Commands either in grayscale or colour. There are also second, third, fourth and numpad commands.
First Level VoiceOver Commands
Second Level VoiceOver Commands
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Third Level VoiceOver Commands
Fourth Level VoiceOver Commands For more information on VoiceOver gestures, rotor and commands please visit Apple's Accessibility website.
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