OS X VoiceOver Sounds Represent A Performance Penalty

Originator:listsebby
Number:rdar://20324836 Date Originated:27-Mar-2015 12:14 PM
Status:Open Resolved:Partial
Product:Accessibility Product Version:OS X
Classification:Performance Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
The sounds in VoiceOver have the potential to provide useful information, and arguably already provide information not otherwise available exclusively using speech or braille.  It is a pity that they represent a performance penalty, so that turning them off is often an attractive option.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Using VoiceOver Utility, ensure that sounds are not muted ("Sound" category).

2.  Ensure VoiceOver is on.

3.  Try using VoiceOver commands to review practically any window or dialog box.  In particular, move through the elements one by one, interrupting the previous announcement with the next.

4.  Use VoiceOver Utility to mute sounds.

5.  And repeat step 3.

Expected Results:
Sounds shouldn't change the latency of speech feedback, regardless of whether they are enabled or not.

Actual Results:
There is a performance penalty; sounds are played, and then the speech is spoken.

Notes:
Of course, this problem is partially solved by substituting some of the speech with the sound, sometimes with quite profound results.  But, owing to another unfortunate bug, you can't disable sound and still select to have certain sounds play explicitly, so you're stuck with a choice of poor latency in the majority of cases, but with iconic sounds at appropriate times, or no sounds at all, with the attendant loss of iconic information and much extended verbosity.

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