Universal Design SymbolUsing ZoomText Xtra! with shortcut keys


Using speech output to hear menus and dialog box controls spoken

The built-in screen reader in ZoomText Xtra! is used for reading menus, dialog box controls, window titles, and text in message boxes. The part of the screen reader which does this is called GUI Reading, and it is only available in Level 2. The GUI Reading option is selected in the Screen Reader dialog box.

There are two steps to speak menus, dialog box controls, and so on:

  1. Select and enable GUI Reading.
  2. Turn the speech output on.

To select and enable GUI Reading:

To select Level 2 for speech output takes three steps:

  1. With the ZoomText Xtra! user interface on and active, press Alt+X to open the Xtra menu.
  2. Press the Up or Down Arrows until Level 2 is highlighted.
  3. Press Enter to select Level 2. The Level 2 toolbar will appear.

Then you need to enable GUI Reading. If GUI Reading is already selected, its button will appear on the toolbar as a lighter gray with a checkerboard design. The GUI Reading button is the one in the top row with "OK" on it. If it is not already selected, there is one step to select it:

  1. press ALT+SHIFT+G.

The GUI Reading button on the toolbar will turn into the lighter gray/checkerboard design which indicates that it is selected.

Turning speech output on or off:

To enable or disable all speech output:

  1. With the level 2 toolbar selected, press ALT+SHIFT+S, the Speech Shortcut key.
  2. If the Speech button was already turned on, pressing the above Shortcut keys will disable speech output and the Speech button will be turned off.

Once speech output is enabled, there are three steps to speak text:

  1. Press ALT+SHIFT+I, the Speak-It Tool Shortcut key. The cursor changes to the Speak-It Tool - the white cursor arrow with three arcs to its right.
  2. Press the up, down, left, or right arrows to position the Speak-It Tool at the beginning of the word or phrase to be read.
  3. Press ENTER to have the word spoken.

Contact us at infotechaccess@server.rehab.uiuic.edu

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