Quite often on Apple’s Universal Access forums there are questions from users who have found that their computer’s suddenly started talking to them, and putting a black box around whatever they’re working on.
Here’s what the black box looks like in the Finder when I have the “User Guides And Information” folder highlighted:
What’s happened here is that the user has accidentally triggered VoiceOver by pressing command-F5.
You can turn it off again by pressing command-F5, which works as a toggle.
- Ricky Buchanan
dear ricky,
thank you so much for the command-F5 tip. two of my cats walked across the keyboard and apparently triggered VoiceOver. I had no idea what to do.
the VoiceOver function seems incredibly useful, I am going to tell a friend with MS related vision loss and muscle tremors about it.
thanks again,
lisa
@Lisa: I’m glad the article helped you – my cat often “helps” in unfortunate ways too!
VoiceOver could be very helpful to your friend, it’s the type of program that Windows users pay over US$1,000 for! It may help her deal with the muscle tremors as well as vision loss as it lets you do all the navigation with the keyboard instead of needing a mouse.
Following up to the computer speaking suddenly–I have tried to turn it off by using the F5 command, and it won’t do it. In my apple menu, the restart and shut down items are shown twice. What can I do? Is there a utility I can run? Help!
@Julie: If you have a laptop, you may need to add the “fn” key to the command. But having the restart and shutdown items doubled up on your Apple menu is a sign of some pretty severe corruption I’d think. If your machine is still under AppleCare warranty then call Apple. If not, I’d suggest the best move is to do a complete backup and make sure your backups are working, then to reinstall OS X with the “Archive And Install” command (If you have Snow Leopard, I don’t think there’s any choice – this is the only method there is) from the original install DVDs. This should preserve all your data and programs but I can’t guarantee it if your system is corrupted (hence the backups may be needed!).
it worked for me command and f5 worked like a charm thanks!
Found this on another site. It worked for me.
You may have accidentally hit Command + F5, this will turn on the voice over utility in Universal Access. It is basically for the visually impaired. To turn it off, go to System Preferences=>Universal Access=> and under the seeing tab, check the OFF radio Button.
thank you sooooooooo much!!!!
wow, i couldn’t take it anymore, i was unsure who was going to have a seizure first, my macbook or me. so thank you for your command+F5 info!
Thank you very much. My Mac cannot stop to talk talk talk hahahaha.
Now. He sleep. Thank you for command+F5.
Thank u so Much !!!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!! thank you soo much you are the best i thought i screwed my computer but you helped out man thanks sooooo much!!!!
@Alex: It seems to be a common problem, I’m glad I could help!
Dear Ricky,
thanks a lot!! I think the VoiceOver thing is so annoying and your tips
El
and your tips are great
THANK YOU THANK YOU. This was driving me insane. I had no idea what happened.
THANK YOU.
@Mrs. Thang I used your method of: System Preferences =>Universal Access=> and under the seeing tab, check the OFF radio Button. Only with mine I checked off the “Voice Over” button. While that voice may be helpful to the visually impaired it can become annoying after while! Thanks for the tip!
Read more: http://atmac.org/my-computer-wont-stop-talking#comment-16430#ixzz10uLNxtM4
Thanks, I don’t know what my kids did, but you saved me from going crazy!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have been freaking out about the stuff my PC was doing. I appreciate the help.
Thanks. i was giving commands from Terminal and apple script but I could not make it to stop.
Command F5 worked like a charm.
Do you know how to set commands for speech in the open speech command
Thanks
Nilofer
Cat triggered the voiceover. Thank god for the commandF5. It saved my sanity!!