Filed under: iPod Family, iPod nano, iPod classic
iPod 101: Make your iPod speak menu items
To enable this feature, dock your iPod with your computer and open iTunes. Click your iPod under the Devices list, and select the General tab. If your iPod supports this feature, you should see an "Enable spoken menus for accessibility" checkbox under the "Options" section. Click this checkbox and sync your iPod. Depending on how much music you're syncing, generating the spoken menus could take a few minutes.
Once your iPod is finished syncing, you need to turn on spoken menus on the iPod. From the iPod menu, select Settings > General > Spoken Menus On/Off. When you roll over a song, menu item, or go into cover flow mode, the iPod will alert you with a spoken voice.
Additional Notes:
- You can change the voice that is used for the spoken menus by going into System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech > and selecting a new system voice on your Mac. You will need to resync your iPod after you change the voice.
- You should note that not all menu items will be spoken, and some titles of songs won't be spoken properly. This is inherit of the Mac OS X Text to Speech engine.
- This feature is not currently available on iPod touch or iPhone.
Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and TUAW Tips sections.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew said 4:09PM on 11-11-2008
As of this time (11-11-08), the spoken feature of the iPod is only available on the iPod nano, not the iPod classic. This according to the apple website: http://www.apple.com/accessibility/itunes/vision.html
Hopefully this will change, or apple will update their website if this is not correct, but there are some blind people with huge libraries who are a little frustrated with this.
Reply
Gijs said 9:05AM on 11-12-2008
spoken menu items do not work on an ipod classic.
Reply
vnotes said 12:11PM on 11-12-2008
I bought a Nano yesterday for a friend who has recently lost her sight as the result of a medical condition.
This has opened a whole new world for her.
There are PC software programs available for the Blind ,but they are very expensive.
The spoken menus offered by Apple are a fantastic tool for the Blind. I have contacted several agencies that service the Blind,and they are not aware.
Thank You Apple-Right On!
Reply
Eric said 1:21PM on 11-22-2008
That would be awesome if the Ipod classic has spoken menus, because I can put alot of mp3's and Audio books on the player with 120 gig's.
Reply