Pairing with VoiceOver

VoiceOver testing as a pair is a good way to share knowledge and uncover issues that a single team member might miss. Here are some tips:

For the driver

• When you share your screen, make sure that the “Share sound” checkbox is checked.
• If you were previously sharing your screen without sharing sound, you can add it by:
  • Pressing the “New Share” button
  • Activating the “Share sound” checkbox
• Make sure that the speech speed is comfortable for everyone on the call. You can increase or decrease the speed by:
  1. Go to System Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Open VoiceOver Utility > Speech.
  2. Choose a new rate option. Christina and Jane find 40 to be a good rate for pairing.
  3. You can also change the rate on the fly with shift+ctrl+option+cmd + up/down arrow. You can change all types of speech options (Voice, Rate, Pitch, Volume, Braille table, Language) with shift+ctrl+option+cmd + left/right arrow.
• To avoid interruptions from zoom chats, you may choose to edit your Zoom screen reader settings. To do this:
  • Open the menu near the “Show Captions” button
  • Select “Caption Settings”
  • Scroll down to the “Screen Reader Alerts” section
  • Uncheck the “In-meeting Chat Received” options

For the navigator

• Avoid using the zoom chat. Depending on the driver’s zoom settings, a chat message can interrupt what VoiceOver was reading so that it can read the chat message instead.