Mac-cessibility Quick Tip #20
19 July, 2008 @ 3:32 pm by LioncourtMac-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!
Over the years, Audible.com has made some changes to its site. SOmetimes these changes have improved accessibility. Sometimes, they have not. One of the changes in the last couple of years was to change the sample clips of their audio books to play in an Adobe Flash Player plugin. It is, sadly, not accessible.
Here’s a way to work around this problem with VoiceOver. It isn’t the most elegant solution, but it works.
- Search for the audio book you wish to sample at Audible.com
- Navigate with b>VoiceOver to the "Listen" text within the search result entry for the audio book of your choice.
- Press VO-Command-F5 to move the mouse to the VoiceOver cursor.
- Turn off cursor tracking with VO-Shift-F3. THis is not required, but will eliminate some potential problems.
- Turn on control-option lock with VO-Semicolon. This is not required, but will make the next step much easier.
- Using the physical mouse or the operating system’s Mouse Keys feature, slowly move the mouse to the left, checking your progress with the VO-F5 command. If control-option lock is on, you need only press F5.
- Repeat the previous step until VoiceOver announces "Scroll Area". This takes a little practice, but is easy once you have the hang of it. If using a MacBook trackpad, use the top edge of the mouse button to insure you are moving straight to the left and not wandering slightly up or down. You do not need to move far to reach the Scroll Area.
- Press and hold the Control key, and click the physical mouse, or press the center key of the numeric keypad if using Mouse Keys.
- A menu will appear with many options. Choose the "Play" option to start the playback. Remember if Control-Option Lock is on, you will need to press space to activate that menu option.
We hope this helps you use Audible.com more effectively with VoiceOver.
BlindGeek interjected:
I realize this is nitpicking, but what the hell … oughtn’t this be in the Tips ‘n’ Tricks section? Just sayin’…
Great trick, though. First Audible samples I’ve heard in at least a year.
Esther responded:
Here’s a quick way to fine tune this.
• If you use VO-F5 to check your progress as you move your mouse cursor to the left from “Listen”, first check the screen coordinates of the “Add to Cart” link for your selection. The “x” location of the “Add to Cart” link will give you a target for how far your will need to move your mouse cursor. You only need to measure this once and note the offset for future use. I measured an offset of 25 screen units in x on my MacBook, but this number will depend on your machine and screen resolution.
1. From the “Listen” text for your selection use VO-Up Arrow to navigate to your selection’s “Add to Cart” link
2. Press VO-Command-F5 to move the mouse cursor to the VoiceOver cursor.
3. Press VO-F5 twice to check the position of the mouse and note the x value
4. Navigate back to the “Listen” text for your selection with VO-Down Arrow and repeat items 2 and 3 to route the mouse to “Listen” and check its position.
When you move your mouse, aim for the “x” location of the “Add to Cart” link while trying to keep the “y” location of the “Listen” text. The “sweet spot” — meaning the center of the clickable region to start and stop playing — is slightly further to the left (by about 5 units on my MacBook), but you’ll get good results using the above location as a target. In this region you can simply click with trackpad, mouse, or with the center key of the numeric keypad (in Leopard) to start playing or stop playing the sample. You do not need to control-click, although that works as well.
• An extra tip for MacBook and MacBook Pro users who are using Leopard and who use Mouse Keys to move their cursor: you can “click” to start and stop playing the sample using the center position key (Fn+I). This works even on newer laptops that lack the numlock F6 key, provided that Mouse Keys are turned on. Press Fn+U at least 22 (and not more than 39) times to move to the edge of the “clickable” area. There is a small boundary area of about 3 screen units before that where you can only control-click and get the menu to start playing. In the “clickable” area (about 17 screen units in x and 10 units in y) you can click to start, pause, and resume playing the sample, and you can also get the control-click menu.