The Curtain University Center for Accessible Technology, (CUCAT), has posted a Mac OS X installer package for ESpeak, an open source text-to-speech engine for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux. The CUCAT installer package will install the software for you, and direct you to documentation on the synthesizer. Unfortunately, ESpeak does not integrate with the Mac’s speech system, so it cannot be used with VoiceOver or other Mac OS X speech services. Some applications may include direct support for ESpeak however.

You can download the package from this page at CUCAT.org.

Mac-cessibility Quick Tips is a feature of Lioncourt.com to provide brief tips and tricks to assist blind and visually impaired Mac users improve their Apple experience. Not all tips will be specific to VoiceOver, and most will work on either Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Now for this week’s tip!

While reading long documents with VO-A in programs like TextEdit and many others, you likely already know that pressing the Control key by itself will stop VoiceOver’s narrative. This key also works as a pause key, however. If you don’t press any other keys in the interim, press Control again to have VoiceOver resume on the next line from whence it stopped. This proves to be extremely handy if the phone rings, you spill a Coke on yourself, or Johnny needs help with his homework.

Until next time!

On Tuesday, Apple released version 3.1 of Safari, its web browsing solution for Mac and Windows. Some VoiceOver users have reported better performance when navigating web sites with VoiceOver and Safari, although no specific mention of accessibility improvements have yet been reported by Apple or users. The update does provide many fixes and enhancements, and improved performance overall may account for the speedier navigation being reported.

You can download the latest version of Safari by choosing "Software Update" from the Apple menu.

Apple made its presence felt at the CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference 2008. On Wednesday, Apple gave two presentations to a full room equipped with dozens of 20- and 24-inch iMacs at the Los Angeles International Airport Marriott Hotel.

The sessions, presented by Mike Shebanek, Apple’s Senior Product Manager for Worldwide Product Marketing, in charge of Mac OS X and VoiceOver, focussed on general use of VoiceOver with the Macintosh operating system, and use of VoiceOver with the iTunes media management and playback software. Mary-Beth James, whose name will be familiar to many Voiceover users, was also present to assist during the sessions.

Both sessions were geared toward users who were unfamiliar with VoiceOver, and were very informative for many of those in attendance. Mr. Shebanek stressed Apple’s ongoing commitment to accessibility, noting particularly the extensive tools available to third-party developers to make their applications accessible with VoiceOver, and the positive results of their efforts.

During the afternoon session on iTunes, Mr. Shebanek also mentioned that Apple is aware of and working on the features of the iTunes store that are still inaccessible. These include the ability to purchase albums in their entirety, view one’s account, etc. He mentioned that accessibility for Apple’s line of iPod music players is also being worked out, and asked those in attendance whether APple should continue to release accessibility improvements as they become available, or waiting until they are fully realized in products. Overwhelmingly, it seemed, the attendees were in favor of Apple releasing incremental updates that improve accessibility over time.

We here at Lioncourt.com would like to point out that Apple has received criticism from some when they’ve taken the approach of incremental accessibility enhancements, and would like to encourage those of you who would like to see the improvements as they become available to contact Apple Accessibility and let them know. Specifically, Mr. Shebanek asked if partial access to iPod menus would be something users would like while problems with deeper menu levels were being ironed out.

Overall, the number of Mac users seems to have increased at the annual conference, and Apple’s presence was felt beyond the presentations put on by the company. For example, MacSpeech Dictate was being demonstrated, and developers for OpenOffice.org also discussed their efforts to provide accessibility in their open source office suite with VoiceOver on the Mac platform.

Apple has once again demonstrated a commitment to accessibility that extends far beyond that of rival companies, and we thank them for their efforts.