The Insertion Point with VoiceOver
by Josh de Lioncourt
Editor’s Note – This guide assumes that the reader is familiar with the basic operation of VoiceOver and the Mac OS X operating system, including the launching of applications such as TextEdit, which is required to follow along with the example provided.
A question frequently poised by new VoiceOver users who are switching from Windows and their Windows screen reader regards the way in which VoiceOver handles the movement of the insertion point through text. Some reviews of the accessibility of the Mac platform have even falsely asserted that VoiceOver does not correctly report the movement of the insertion point. To clear up this notion once and for all, and to help newcomers to the Mac, we’re providing this guide.
It’s important to understand why the confusion arises, and we can do that via a little bit of history. Don’t worry. I’ll keep it brief.
Back in the early days of text-based terminal-style computing, a cursor flashed below the currently selected character on the screen. Pressing delete would then delete that character, and the cursor would be flashing under the next letter in the text.
With the arrival of the graphical user interface (GUI), things changed a bit. The concept of the "insertion point" was introduced. Though a user could still move the insertion point around with the arrow keys, it displayed between two characters, as opposed to underneath a single, specific character. This helped to clarify, in a visual sense, where new text would be inserted, and made text editing more intuitive. The insertion point works the same way, visually speaking, in both the Windows and Mac OS’s.
Presumably in an attempt to ease the transition from command line interfaces to the strange new world of a GUI, some Windows screen reader developers, though not all, decided to try to emulate the command line-style cursor for visually impaired users of their products, most of whom were moving on from DOS at the time. While many arguments have been made both for and against this decision, Apple’s philosophy has been to, whenever possible, provide a consistent experience for all users, whether they are visually impaired or not.
When editing text, VoiceOver will announce the character that the insertion point has just passed over to get to its current position, which will always be between two characters, or between a character and the start or end of the text. Let’s see this in action.
Launch TextEdit and follow along with the steps below.
- In the new and empty document that has been created, type "test" without the quotes.
- Press the Left Arrow key repeatedly until you hear the sound which indicates you have reached the beginning of the document.
- The insertion point is now currently between the start of the document, and the letter "t", which is immediately to it’s right. Press the Right Arrow key once. VoiceOver will announce "t", because the insertion point has just passed over the "t", and is now situated snugly between the "t" to its left and the "e" to its right.
- Let’s press the Right Arrow again. VOiceOver announces the "e", because it has now passed over that letter, and is located between the "e" and "s" of the word "test".
- Pressing the Left Arrow key now, VoiceOver will repeat the "e", because it is once again passing over that letter, and is now between the "t" and the "e".
- Press the Right Arrow one last time to pass back over to the right of the letter "e" again.
- Because you are located between the "e" and the "s" at this point, anything you type will be inserted between those two letters. Type "mpe".
- Explore with your arrow keys. You will find that you have transformed the word "test" into "tempest". Shakespeare would be proud!
That’s all there is to it. You now should have an understanding of how to confidently move the insertion point with VoiceOver. It may seem somewhat alien to long-time WIndows users at first, but most VoiceOver users, once they become acclimated to the change, tend to appreciate Apple’s implementation.