This week, I had the chance to see someone use voice control on a webpage.
I've been dragging my feet to learn how voice control works, software and tools and how to use them properly. And here was this person just making use of what the operating system already provided. They were on a mac and mac has Voice Control built-in.
I've started to work with it as well now, first trying it out on my own website to get a feel for it.
Here's how you can enable it if you're a mac user:
- Go to System Settings
- Under Accessibility, find Voice Control
- Enable it with the toggle
I went through the simple guided tour and that gave me enough to go on.
If you're on Windows 11, that now comes with Voice Access, replacing Windows Speech Recognition. Microsoft has an article on getting started with Voice Access.
If you're on Linux, you're going to depend on various community efforts. Some distributions include accessibility packages that handle voice input, but you usually need to do some setup work to get everything working properly.
Voice control on websites helps a surprisingly wide range of people, though the benefits show up in different ways.
For people with disabilities, it can be absolutely game-changing. If you have limited mobility or conditions like arthritis, cerebral palsy or spinal cord injuries, voice control lets you navigate websites without struggling with a mouse or keyboard. And for folks dealing with repetitive strain injuries from too much typing and clicking, voice control offers a real break for their hands and wrists.
People without disabilities get a lot out of it too. Think about when you're driving and need to quickly search for something (though safety first, obviously). Parents juggling a baby while trying to shop online, people eating lunch at their desk or anyone dealing with a temporary injury like a broken wrist. They all benefit from being able to just speak their commands.
The cool part is that when websites are designed with voice control in mind, they usually end up being more accessible across the board. Better voice support often means clearer site structure and navigation, which helps everyone.
It's one of those features where designing for accessibility ends up making things better for pretty much everyone.
I'm going to dig deeper into testing with Voice Control across the coming weeks.