Fine control of speech rate in iOS9

By Brian Negus, 13 October, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I hadn't spotted this myself, but one of my trainees upgraded to iOS 9 a couple of days ago and had problems with adjusting the speech rate. She believes that in iOS 8, changing speech rate by the rotor allowed it to be changed in steps of 1. The rotor now changes speech rate in steps of 5. Strangely, the speaking rate setting in Settings/General/Accessibility/VoiceOver changes speaking rate in steps of 10 for swipes up or down. My trainee used to like to fine tune the speech rate and isn't happy that this is now lost. The only way I can find is to use magnification and set the speaking rate in Setting/General/Accessibility/VoiceOver using the slider with VoiceOver switched off. This doesn't give any numeric feedback so it's rather hit and miss and, anyway, it needs sight. You get to hear the speaking rate if you switch VoiceOver back on. I tried asking Siri to change the speaking rate without success. Does anyone know how to adjust speaking rate in steps of 1 using VoiceOver, please?

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Comments

By yorkshire-drew on Sunday, October 25, 2015 - 11:35

Although this method is frustrating as it behaves rather oddly, once you're on the speaking rate item in General > Accessibility > Voiceover you can double tap, hold, then slide your finger about. You'll hear different values. Lift your finger when you get to the value you want. Although be warned, it can still change by a percentage point or two as you lift up.

Hope this helps.

By Brian Negus on Sunday, October 25, 2015 - 11:35

In reply to by yorkshire-drew

Thanks, yorkshire-drew. Yes, that certainly helps. Now we can fine-tune whilst staying in VoiceOver.