About VisioVoice

VisioVoice^® is an application that enhances access to Mac OS X for blind and vision impaired users. It adds multilingual support to Apple's excellent VoiceOver screen reader technology for a number of languages, as well as providing several other speech and vision related features to enhance access to Mac OS X. VisioVoice comes bundled with Infovox iVox, which provides the best voices ever on the Mac in a wide range of languages. VisioVoice is a Universal Binary and can be used on PowerPC and Intel Macs.

VisioVoice makes using the computer easier, more efficient and more fun, because of the high quality voices, its easy to use text reader, the powerful zoom functionality, the large cursors and its ability to convert text to audio files and iTunes tracks.

Features

• Document Reader: VisioVoice includes an advanced document and selection reader with play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward functions. As it speaks, it can highlight the spoken words or sentences. Use it to listen to the selection in any application or to Text, Word, HTML, PDF and RTF documents.
  
  
• Creation of audio and iTunes files: VisioVoice can convert Text, Word, HTML, PDF and RTF documents to audio files or iPod-ready iTunes tracks. [Enhanced in version 1.1]
  
  
• Large cursors: VisioVoice includes large, customizable cross-hair and target cursors that make using the Mac much easier for vision impaired users.
  
  
• Screen enlargement - Image Zoom: VisioVoice includes an Image Enlarger that makes it easier to see what is on the screen. Unlike the built-in zoom functionality of Mac OS X, which zooms the entire screen, the Image Enlarger window just zooms the area around the cursor, so that you do not loose sight of the "big picture".
  
  
• Screen enlargement - Text Zoom: VisioVoice includes a Text Enlarger that shows the title of buttons, menus, text entry areas, and all other "accessible" text in large type in a separate window. Because the text itself is enlarged, rather than the image of the text, the enlarged text is crisp and easy to read. This feature works for all applications that support Apple's Accessibility API, including Safari, Mail, Finder, TextEdit, as well as many third-party applications. The text enlarger also show the text you are typing. [Enhanced in version 1.1]
  
  
• Talking interface: VisioVoice's Talking Interface speaks the contents of buttons, menu items, text entry areas, and all other "accessible" text, as the user navigates across the screen using the mouse or full keyboard access. This feature works for all applications that support Apple's Accessibility API, including Safari, Mail, Finder, TextEdit, as well as many third-party applications. [Enhanced in version 1.1]
  
  
• Typing echo: VisioVoice can speak as you type in virtually any application speaking each letter and/or word as it is typed. It can optionally also speak modifier keys (such as shift and control), punctuation and control and separator keys. Best results are obtained in applications that support Apple's Accessibility API, but it also works in other applications. [New in version 1.1]
  
  
• Translated version of VoiceOver: VisioVoice includes translations of VoiceOver and VoiceOver Utility for French, Japanese and Dutch so that now also non-English users can make use of the built-in Mac OS X screen reader on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. On Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard these are no longer needed.
  
  
• Infovox iVox naturally-sounding, multilingual voices: VisioVoice comes bundled with Infovox iVox, which provides the best voices ever on the Mac. Infovox iVox is available for multiple languages, including: American English, British English, American Spanish, Canadian French, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish.
  
  
• System-wide keyboard shortcuts: VisioVoice provides many user-configurable system-wide hot keys for easy access to it's core functionality by blind and vision impaired users.
  
  

Requirements for VisioVoice

VisioVoice requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, but Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later is recommended.

Minimum recommended hardware: G3/G4/G5 900 Mhz with 512 MB or any Intel Mac.

Reviews of VisioVoice

Bernard Le Du in the November 2006 issue (#20) of Vous et Votre Mac: "The voices are excellent and VisioVoice is definitely an effective solution for blind and vision impaired people."

4.5/5

Jean-Michel Joffre in the April 2007 issue of SVM Mac (#193): "With VisioVoice, the complete interface becomes speaking when the cursor moves over an item on the desktop : windows, icons, menus, files." (read the full article in French)