Apple has been ahead of the game in many areas of Accessibility and has long offered fair dictation and quite good text-to-speech support on its devices. These services are getting a significant improvement in macOS Catalina and iOS 13 coming this fall.

Text to Speech

In most applications where you can display or enter text, you can also have that text read to you. On a Mac, look in the Edit menu (and sometimes the Contextual menu) for Speech commands, usually near the bottom. On iOS, select the text and Speak should be a menu option.

Visit System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech to customize this on the Mac. You can choose from a range of voices, set the rate of speech, and set a couple other options.

On iOS, there are similar controls in Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech. You can also do fancy tricks like highlight content as it is spoken or speak content as you type it.

Speech to Text

Dictation is a form of creating text, so its controls are located in Keyboard settings on both macOS and iOS. These controls are currently pretty limited on both platforms. You can enable dictation and indicate languages to transcribe.

For now, only macOS also offers Enhanced Dictation for “offline use and continuous dictation with live feedback.”

In any application where you can type, you can dictate. On the Mac, usually you double-press the fn key to start dictating and Escape to stop. This may work better or worse depending on your Mac model. On iOS, tap the microphone on the keyboard.

Voice Control

Starting this fall, both macOS and iOS are getting significant advancements to dictation and speech. macOS Catalina and iOS 13 introduce Voice Control with capabilities yet unseen on Apple devices. Check out Apple’s intro video to get an idea of what’s on the horizon.

A Nose Knows (Not)

iSmell never succeeded in the marketplace. When DigiScents introduced it in 2001, the concept bookended a century-long uphill battle for validation. “Did anyone actually want it?” Read on for more history.

For now, I guess we’re left with the struggle of using our noses to touch our touchscreens when our fingers are wet or greasy.

Can’t wait a few months for Voice Control? Need better dictation access right now? Let me know. I can also help you get acquainted with current and future solutions when you’re ready.