At the 19th annual Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference, which is taking place this week in Los Angeles, Apple announced “Spoken Interface,” an upcoming Mac OS X feature that allows those with visual and learning disabilities to use a Mac through speech, audible cues and keyboard navigation. “The spoken interface is a fully integrated, built-in enhancement of the Mac OS X Aqua user interface making it an additional and equal way of accessing the Macintosh,” explains Apple. “It reads aloud the contents of documents like Web pages, Mail messages, and word processing files; provides a comprehensive audible description of your workspace and all the activities taking place on your computer; and includes a rich set of keyboard commands that allow you to navigate the Mac OS X interface and interact with application and system controls.”
