Volume VolYooms

By PaulMartz, 25 August, 2018

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi all. I've noticed for some time that VoiceOver misreads the word spelled V-O-L-U-M-E-S. It reads it as "Volume VolYooms". I don't know why VoiceOver does this, nor why it has persisted for several releases. But I finally found a workaround.

I opened the VoiceOver utility with VO+F8, went to Speech, then Pronunciation. I added a new entry. I told it to change the pronunciation of the word V-O-L-U-M-E-S, and instead pronounce it as V-O-L-Y-O-O-M-S. This resolves the issue.

I imagine I can do the same thing on iOS, but really it's MacOS where I run into this most frequently.

I hope this helps.

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Comments

By tunmi13 on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Hey paul,
There's actually several words that seem to be pronounced strangely by VoiceOver.
I,'ve heard the word
emoji
is pronounced wrong by some VoiceOver voeaces, or the word
loops
is pronounced as
loops loop
So really strange. LOL

By Roxann Pollard on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Thanks or this post. I had tried to fix this issue, previously, but my changes didn't work.

I do have one suggestion. In your post, you indicated to place a hyphen between each letter. I don't know if this was meant for emphasis but it was a bit confusing. I placed the hyphens between each letter as you demonstrated but it didn't work. When I removed the hyphens it worked like a charm. Perhaps the entry needs to be changed just a bit?

Thanks again for this. The volumes volumes thing has been bothering me for a long time now.

By PaulMartz on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Thanks for trying this on iOS, I appreciate it. Glad it works.

I was torn on how to compose this forum topic. I wanted it to read correctly for anyone totally blind and dependent on screen readers. That meant I had to take some liberties with how I spelled things. The hyphens are not literal, only there to make the screen reader spell out the words. Sorry for the confusion.

By Joseph on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Interesting. I don't seem to have this problem with VO on iOS or mac. Maybe it's voice specific?

By J.P. on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Thanks,
This corrected the issue for me. I'm using Samantha on the latest iOS. Yes, this annoying bug has been around for around a year now. I did report to Apple months ago.

By PaulMartz on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

In reply to by J.P.

If others aren't seeing this, it must be voice-specific. I use Samantha on all my devices. I don't know enough about voices to understand why something like this could happen on a per-voice basis. I'm just glad I found a workaround. I've spent so much time becoming accustomed to Samantha that I wouldn't want to change.

By Roxann Pollard on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

I also use this voice exclusively. I am so glad the issue has been resolved by the work-around.

By Roxann Pollard on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - 23:36

Hello Paul. I understand why you chose the hyphens. There are iPhone users with different skill levels. Using the hyphen was a good choice, especially when considering someone who may not yet be familiar with the use of the rodor for navigation.