Hello,
I find VoiceOver feedback sounds generally too loud and would love more customization options. Here are my suggestions:
While most sound feedback is unnecessary for my use case, there are a few I still want to hear. Just like on iOS, please allow us to customize which sounds VoiceOver produces. For example, I like hearing the single-letter navigation and boundary-reached sounds while muting most of the others.
Additionally, VoiceOver’s sound feedback can be too loud, so we should be able to adjust its volume independently of the speech volume.
I’d also love for VoiceOver’s verbosity announcements to be more customizable. For instance, when turning single-letter navigation on or off, VoiceOver announces, “Single letter navigation on/off,” which feels too long. I’d prefer it to just say “on” or “off.” I tried modifying the pronunciation in VO Utility > Speech > Pronunciations, but it didn’t work.
Please consider these suggestions. Thanks!
Comments
your last suggestion is a very bad one
What is on or off? For a new user who accidentally turns it off, what did they turn off?
@ Dennis Long
No my suggestion is a great one. What I want is being able to customize. When a beginner uses voiceover and the verbosity level is set to high from the verbosity menu, of course they should hear the long and descriptive phrase. But I know when I do VO plus Q it'll toggle the single-letter navigation beforehand and I don't need to hear all that BS. So, what I want to have is the option to change it, I don't want default behavior to change.
Can voiceover sounds on…
Can voiceover sounds on macOS not be adjusted independently of the speech volume? Or am I getting that confused with iOS?
@brian
Unfortunately, nope. VoiceOver on iOS has many features that macOS’s VoiceOver doesn’t. The sad thing is that computer users probably need more customization when using their laptops compared to their phones. So if the same features existed in macOS, it would be even more game-changing than having them on iOS. But Apple doesn’t care, as there are fewer macOS users who, sadly, have to use this annoying screen reader.
Fair enough
Fair enough. It has been a minute since I turned on my MacBook, so I could not remember what features macOS had versus what features iOS has.
That's what I said, just…
That's what I said, just because of the ipadOS behind the scenes blind users on vision pro are probably still getting a better experience than macos ones.
Changing quick nav to play sounds instead of speak
In VoiceOver utility, you can decide whether voiceover speaks the state of quick NAV, orplay a sound for the changes. Sounds are distinctive between single letter, arrow key, or both.
@ Levi Gobin
Thanks for the suggestion. That’s actually what I’ve been doing since I started using my laptop. However, I discovered that VoiceOver’s sound feedback is too loud and often distracting. I’ve also muted the VO sounds. Now, I don’t get the sound feedback either, which is why I’d love to be able to adjust the VO sound feedback volume independently.
I understand that on ios we…
I understand that on ios we can almost adjust the sound per event, and this would be definitely game changer on macos.
Must Have Sounds
I worked out some time ago that it's just not possible to use VO without sound feedback, i.e. with all sounds turned off. I can't remember the specifics—would have to dig them up—but if you turn off sound then you're missing vital information. I was very glad when they moved from the older Leopard sounds to the current, newer set, but there were still cases where having sound was the only way to have change information without any interruption to speech.
So yes, we need even more customisation, particularly the choice of sounds and whether speech announcements are permitted to interrupt what is being said at that moment.
Probably the interaction?…
Probably the interaction? Like speech can give hints but if these are off we have no way aside the sounds to know that we can interact with an item. In any case definitely agreeing with you here.
@TheBlindGuy07
Man I just noticed how much quieter voiceover was for me when I muted the sounds and at this point we should be able to customize which sounds or how loud the sound feedback should be... A feature that was introduced with ios 13 in 2019 still isn't available in mac OS, ridiculous.
Would be nice.
I do like a lot of the vo sounds, but my biggest feature request is to be able to turn down the volume of individual sounds. At least give me a global volume control for sounds, like iOS.