VoiceOver For Sighted Users

By Ricky Buchanan • December 15, 2008

VoiceOver is a screen reader primarily used by blind Mac OS X users, but sighted people also use it for a variety of reasons. Sighted people with dyslexia and other disabilities which impair reading may benefit from a screen reader. I’ve also heard of several users who have movement problems such as Parkinson’s disease and can’t manage any sort of pointing device using VoiceOver specifically for its screen navigation abilities. And of course teachers, parents, and other supporters of blind OS X users may wish to learn to use VoiceOver to better support the blind users. So, where would one start?

Woopid has a great tutorial focussing on the basics of VoiceOver in Leopard. This is a video tutorial aimed specifically at sighted users who wish to use VoiceOver and have zero experience. It only covers the barest beginning, but it’s a great start.

I suggest once you’ve been through the tutorial, start in with the VoiceOver Getting Started documentation from Apple’s website. The documentation is available in full in human-narrated audio form and PDF form with images. There’s also a printable “cheat sheet” for sighted users available in colour or black and white versions to help users memorise the function of different keys.

Website: VoiceOver in Leopard Video Tutorial from Woopid and VoiceOver Getting Started Documentation

- Ricky Buchanan

Categories: Educators, Information, Neurologically Impaired, OS X, Supporters, Users, VoiceOver
Tags: dyslexia, movement disorders, sighted voiceover users, voiceover training

About the Author

Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan is 34 years old and the founder and main writer for ATMac. She's bedridden with severe CFS/ME or perhaps a primary mitochondrial disorder - the doctors are not sure. When she's not working on ATMac or her other websites she composes music, listens to audio books, does other disability advocacy, watches TV with her flatmate, and enjoys her cat.

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