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Introducing VoiceOver on a Mac: Student lessons

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Learning to navigate a Mac with VoiceOver can be a transformative experience for students with visual impairments. As an educator, it’s essential to provide a structured, engaging approach that builds on their existing skills while introducing them to the unique features of macOS. This post offers practical lessons and strategies to help young students confidently use VoiceOver on a Mac, empowering them to explore, create and thrive in a digital world.

In the first post, Introducing VoiceOver on a Mac: Teachers, connects iOS VoiceOver navigation gestures to their corresponding macOS keyboard commands, and provides an overview of the Mac symbols, basic commands and important terms. This second post provides an introduction to VoiceOver on a Mac lessons for young students.

Lesson plan

This step-by-step lesson plan is designed to introduce young students to using VoiceOver on macOS. It includes learning objectives, engaging activities and practical scenarios to help students get started with a Mac. The plan serves as a foundation that can be expanded to include advanced commands, empowering students to become tech-savvy power users. Feel free to adapt the lessons to meet your student’s unique needs, and remember that consistent practice is essential for mastering each skill. Refer back to the terms in the first post as needed for additional information.

Beginner level VoiceOver lessons for young students

Lesson 1: What is VoiceOver?

Objective: Help students understand VoiceOver basics through fun, interactive activities.

  1. Introduce VoiceOver in simple terms:
    • “VoiceOver is like a talking helper for your computer. It tells you what’s on the screen and helps you use the keyboard to do things like click buttons or read stories.”
  2. Turn VoiceOver on/off:
    • Teach the shortcut Command + F5 or Command + triple-click Touch ID.
    • Let students practice turning it on and listening to it talk, then turning it off.
  3. Activity: VoiceOver listening game
    • Ask students to press keys and listen to what VoiceOver says. For example, “What happens when you press the spacebar?”

Cheat sheet

Lesson 2: Moving around the desktop with VoiceOver and selecting an item

Objective: Learn about the desktop, how to navigate items using arrow keys and selecting an item.

  1. Explain the desktop in simple terms: “The desktop on a Mac is like the top of your desk at school. It’s the main space where you can find and organize your work. Just like you might have books, Perkins Brailler or folders on your desk, the Mac desktop has icons that represent files, folders and sometimes apps. These icons are like shortcuts to your stuff, making it easy to open and use them. Think of the desktop as your starting place whenever you’re working on the computer!”
  2. Teach arrow key navigation:
    • Explain that the arrow keys help move to different things on the screen.
    • Demonstrate VO + Right Arrow (Control + Option + Right Arrow) to move forward through items on the screen.
    • Use VO + Left Arrow to move backward.
  3. Teach how to open a folder:
    • Open a folder on the desktop with VO + Space.
  4. Activity: VoiceOver Treasure Hunt
    • Give students a task like “Find the folder on the desktop called ‘Jokes’ and open it.” (Before this activity, create the Jokes folder which contains one or more age-appropriate jokes in it.)

Cheat sheet

Intermediate level: Exploring and editing

Lesson 3: Groups and interaction

Objective: Teach students how to explore groups and make simple edits in a fun, manageable way.

  1. Explain Groups simply:
    • “Sometimes things on the screen are like boxes, and you need to ‘open’ the box to see what’s inside.”
    • Teach commands:
      • VO + Shift + Down Arrow: Enter the group.
      • VO + Shift + Up Arrow: Exit the group.
  2. Activity: VoiceOver Explorers
    • Ask students to find specific “boxes” and explore them.
      • Open an app like System Preferences or a simple game menu.
      • Use VO + Right Arrow to find a group, like a category panel.
      • Enter the group with VO + Shift + Down Arrow.
      • Explore inside the group using arrow keys.
      • Exit the group with VO + Shift + Up Arrow.

Cheat sheet

Lesson 4: Editing text

Objective: Practice typing and editing text.

  1. Disable Quick Navigation for editing:
    • Explain Quick Navigation:
      • “Quick Navigation On: Use this when you’re exploring and moving around, like browsing websites, looking through menus or reading documents. It helps you quickly jump between links, headings and other items.”
      • “Quick Navigation Off: Turn this off when you’re writing or fixing text, like working on a story or homework. This way, you can move carefully through your words, letter by letter or word by word, to make edits or add new ideas.
      • “Think of it like switching tools: Quick Navigation is great for exploring and navigating; turning it off is perfect for writing and editing!”
    • Show how to toggle Quick Navigation off/on with Left Arrow + Right Arrow.
  2. Practice writing and fixing sentences:
    • Open a blank document. 
    • Open the Text box by turning Quick Navigation off by pressing Left Arrow + Right Arrow together.
    • Type a sentence like “I love VoiceOver!”
    • Move the cursor to fix a mistake, like changing “love” to “like.”
      • Delete a word use Delete or Fn + Delete.
  3. Activity: Word Fix-It Game
    • Provide a pre-written document with intentional errors (e.g., missing letters or extra spaces).
    • Have students use VoiceOver to fix the mistakes.

Cheat sheet

Advanced level: Customization and fun with the web

Lesson 5: Surfing the web

Objective: Introduce basic web navigation through engaging activities.

  1. Explain web navigation in simple terms:
    • “A web page is like a big book with different sections, like a table of contents, pictures and links to other “chapters.”
    • “On websites, VoiceOver helps you jump to different places, like headings, links or buttons.”
  2. Basic commands:
    • Read page content:
      • Explain: “The VoiceOver command to read the whole page on a Mac is: VO + A (Control + Option + A). This command tells VoiceOver to start reading everything on the current page or screen from top to bottom. You can think of it like pressing “play” on a story. If you want VoiceOver to stop reading, just press Control to pause it!”
      • Demonstrate how to read the whole page starting from the top: VO + A.
      • Demonstrate how to read the page line by line using VO + Right Arrow.
      • Encourage them to stop VoiceOver by pressing Control and to start reading again when ready.
      • Demonstrate how to read the page line by line using VO + Right Arrow.
    • Navigate headers:
      • Explain: Headings are like titles or labels on a web page or document. They help organize the content and make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Think of headings as chapter titles in a book—they tell you what each section is about. For example, on a web page about animals, you might see headings like:
        • “Mammals”
        • “Birds”
        • “Reptiles”
      • “Headings let you quickly skip to the part of the page you’re interested in, without having to read everything else. You can use VoiceOver to jump from one heading to the next by pressing VO + Command + H. This is a great way to explore a page quickly!”
      • Show how to move through headers using VO + Command + H to find main sections of the page. VO + Command + Shift + H to jump to previous main section.
      • Ask them to identify a header they hear, such as “Games” or “Videos.”
    • Explore links:
      • Explain:” Links are like buttons or shortcuts that take you to a different place, such as another web page, a video or a document. You can find links on websites, emails and inside some documents. Imagine you’re on a treasure map, and the links are the paths to the treasure. When you click or activate a link, it takes you to something new! For example: On a toy store website, a link might take you to the page with all the dolls or action figures.”
      • Teach them to navigate links using VO + Command + L.
      • Let them pick a link that interests them and open it with VO + Spacebar.
  3. Practice and play:
    • Give them time to explore the page on their own, practicing these commands.
    • Encourage them to describe what they find, such as a favorite game or picture.
  4. Activity: Website Scavenger Hunt
    • Pick a kid-friendly website, like a school homepage, National Geographic Kids, PBS Kids or the Paths to Technology website.
    • Challenge students to find a heading, click a link or locate a picture.
    • Give students time to explore the page on their own, practicing these commands.
    • Encourage students to describe what they find, such as a favorite game or picture.

Cheat sheet

Lesson 6: Making VoiceOver yours

Objective: Introduce simple customizations. and teach basic web navigation through engaging activities.

  1. VoiceOver Utility:
    • Explain: “The VoiceOver Utility is like the “control center” for VoiceOver on a Mac. It lets you customize how VoiceOver works to make it easier and more comfortable to use. You can adjust settings to change how VoiceOver speaks, what information it gives you, and how it interacts with the Mac. Examples:
      • Change the Voice: Pick a different voice or adjust how fast it talks.
      • Customize Feedback: Decide how much detail VoiceOver tells you about what’s on the screen.
    • Open VoiceOver Utility with VO + F8.
    • Let students change the speaking rate: “Do you want VoiceOver to talk faster or slower?”
  2. Activity: VoiceOver Designers
    • Have students explore settings like changing the voice or enabling the Caption Panel.
    • Explore the options in the VoiceOver Utility!

Cheat sheet

Interactive activities for younger students

  1. VoiceOver Simon Says:
    • Call out commands like “VO + Right Arrow” or “VO + Space,” and students must perform them.
  2. VoiceOver Bingo:
    • Create bingo cards with tasks like “Turn on VoiceOver,” “Find a folder” or “Type a sentence.”

Tips for teaching younger students

Download this lesson plan: Beginner Level VoiceOver Lessons on a Mac

Resources

There are numerous Paths to Technology posts about using VoiceOver on a Mac. While on Paths to Technology, do a search for VoiceOver on a Mac, or search for specific tasks. Here are a couple examples to get you started:

There are numerous Paths to Technology posts which were created with instructions for other devices or screen readers, but the content can be used to practice additional Mac skills. Example: the Writing and editing with a braille display: Proofreading post has instructions specifically for an iPad paired with a braille display on how to edit nursery rhymes however, the content, in this case documents with the twisted nursery rhymes, can be downloaded and used for extra editing practice for VoiceOver on the Mac Lesson 4. Here are two more examples: One is on Headings (Lesson 5) and the “Ribbon” for documents.

By Diane Brauner

Back to Paths to Technology’s Home page

 

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