Text to Speech is also very useful for reading long passages.
Select the text, go to the application name in the menu bar (for example, Safari next to the Apple mark at the top left), come down to Services and then go to Speech, Start Speaking Text.
If you want, you can easily make a keyboard short-cut that will start/stop reading text (or any other menu commands you need frequently). Just go to System Preferences, Keyboard & Mouse and choose Keyboard Shortcuts. Often in System Preferences there is a purple question mark in the bottom corner; clicking on it will bring up some helpful info.
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There are also many ways you can use a simple microphone to control your Mac using the System Preferences panel's Speech and a the built-in mic if you are on a notebook or iMac, or a simple mic if on a Mac mini or Mac Pro.
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There is a great speech to text application called MacSpeech Dictate that will allow you to type easily and accurately. I'm using it right now to type this message. It simply is fantastic, but does cost extra (it isn't form Apple) and you will need a microphone. They have some good ones on their site, but I have found that my Samson C01U works great, as does a cheap Elecom mic
Comments
You can start here about Universal Access:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/macosx/vision.html
VoiceOver is here:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/
There is a video here:
http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/...7?i=1997272225
Select the text, go to the application name in the menu bar (for example, Safari next to the Apple mark at the top left), come down to Services and then go to Speech, Start Speaking Text.
If you want, you can easily make a keyboard short-cut that will start/stop reading text (or any other menu commands you need frequently). Just go to System Preferences, Keyboard & Mouse and choose Keyboard Shortcuts. Often in System Preferences there is a purple question mark in the bottom corner; clicking on it will bring up some helpful info.
---
There are also many ways you can use a simple microphone to control your Mac using the System Preferences panel's Speech and a the built-in mic if you are on a notebook or iMac, or a simple mic if on a Mac mini or Mac Pro.
---
There is a great speech to text application called MacSpeech Dictate that will allow you to type easily and accurately. I'm using it right now to type this message. It simply is fantastic, but does cost extra (it isn't form Apple) and you will need a microphone. They have some good ones on their site, but I have found that my Samson C01U works great, as does a cheap Elecom mic
http://www.macspeech.com/