Change Spoken Content settings for accessibility on Mac
On your Mac, use Spoken Content settings to customize the system voice, be notified when an alert or app needs your attention, and set other options for content your Mac can speak aloud.
To change these settings, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Spoken Content on the right. (You may need to scroll down.)
Open Spoken Content settings for me
Option | Description |
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System voice | Choose a voice to speak text and alerts; click Play Sample to hear a sample. See Change the voice your Mac uses to speak text. |
Speaking rate | Set the speed at which text is spoken. |
Speaking volume | Set the volume at which text is spoken. Setting the volume here doesn’t affect the volume set for your Mac in Sound settings. |
Speak announcements | Have your Mac announce and speak dialogs and other announcements. See Have your Mac speak announcements. To customize, click the Info button , then select a voice, the phrase you want to hear (such as the app name or “Attention!”) before an announcement is spoken, and how long your Mac waits before it speaks. Click Play Sample to hear a sample. |
Speak selection | Have your Mac speak selected text when you press the specified keyboard shortcut. See Have your Mac speak text that’s on the screen. To customize, click the Info button :
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Speak item under the pointer | Have your Mac identify items under the pointer. To customize, click the Info button , then choose when your Mac speaks the item (all the time or only when you use zoom), the level of detail (called verbosity) (High, Medium, or Low), and how long to have your Mac wait before speaking. |
Speak typing feedback | Have your Mac speak what you type or press using the keyboard. To customize, click the Info button :
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If your Mac is speaking even though you didn’t set options for it to do so, you may have inadvertently turned on VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader that describes aloud what appears on your screen. To quickly turn off VoiceOver, press Option-Command-F5, deselect the VoiceOver checkbox, then click Done. If your Mac or Magic Keyboard has Touch ID, press and hold the Command key while you quickly press Touch ID three times.