Speech preferences
Use the Speech pane of Accessibility System Preferences to customize the system voice, be notified when an alert or app needs your attention, and set a shortcut to speak selected text.
To open this pane, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Accessibility, then click Speech.
System Voice | Choose a voice to speak text and alerts. For more information, see Change the voice your Mac uses to speak text. |
Speaking Rate | Set the speed at which text is spoken. Click the Play button to hear sample spoken text. |
Enable announcements | Have your Mac announce and speak alerts. To customize, click Options, then select a voice, the phrase you want to hear (such as the app name or “Attention!”) before an alert is spoken, and how long your Mac waits before it speaks the alert. For more information, see Have your Mac speak alert messages. |
Speak selected text when the key is pressed | Have your Mac speak text that you selected when you press the specified key. To customize, click Change Key, then press the key combination you want to use. (For example, press the Option and Tab keys together to change to Option+Tab.) For more information, see Have your Mac speak text that’s on the screen. |