Guides

Dictation on a Mac with VoiceOver, for blind and low vision users

By Ryleigh Newman · Published October 5, 2026

Yes, you can dictate on a Mac with VoiceOver on. Apple's built-in Dictation signals it is ready with a pulsing cursor or a tone, and YapToText, the free dictation app I built, speaks each step of a dictation to VoiceOver: Listening, Transcribing, Cleaning up, any error, and the moment your words land or the dictation is canceled, even when no app window is in front. You press one key to start and the same key to stop, and the words are typed at the cursor in whatever app you are in.

Before you plan around it, the plain truth: the full VoiceOver test pass has not been run. YapToText is built to work alongside VoiceOver, and that describes the code, not a test result, so I do not call it fully accessible. I built it because my hands make typing difficult, and I dictate every day. If you are blind or have low vision and something on this page does not match what VoiceOver tells you, I want that report more than any other. The untested parts are listed near the end.

Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

On this page: 11 sections

1. Steps
2. Read this first: what has and has not been tested
3. Use Apple Dictation with VoiceOver on
   1. Step 1: Turn on VoiceOver
   2. Step 2: Start Dictation where the words go
   3. Step 3: Stop it
4. Hear every step of a YapToText dictation
5. One key to start and stop, and controls with names
6. Hear the text before it lands
   1. Step 1: Turn on Review before inserting
   2. Step 2: Have VoiceOver read it
   3. Step 3: Insert it or throw it away
7. Hear it back after it lands, with Speak selection
   1. Step 1: Turn on Speak selection
   2. Step 2: Select and listen
8. Set it up with VoiceOver on
   1. Step 1: Install from the Mac App Store
   2. Step 2: Allow the microphone
   3. Step 3: Turn on Accessibility
   4. Step 4: Choose your key
   5. Step 5: Dictate one sentence into a note
9. What it cannot do, and what is untested
10. The short version
11. Questions

Steps

1. Install YapToText free from the Mac App Store on an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.
2. Allow the microphone, then switch YapToText on in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, asking someone to help with this one-time step if it gives you trouble.
3. On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, choose a dictation key that is not your VoiceOver modifier and keep Tap to start / stop.
4. Click into a note, tap the key, say a sentence, and tap it again; YapToText announces Listening, Transcribing and when the words land; its full VoiceOver test pass has not been run.
5. Optionally turn on Review before inserting in Settings, Advanced, Text output, select the held text and press VO-Fn-F6 to hear it, then press Command Return to insert.

Read this first: what has and has not been tested

Here is the line between what is in the app and what has been checked. Built to work alongside VoiceOver describes the code; the VoiceOver test pass has not been run.

• In the code. Every step of a dictation is announced to VoiceOver. The floating panel's pause, stop and insert, and cancel are accessibility actions, and the menu bar panel's buttons carry labels. When Require pressing Escape twice to cancel is on, the panel says Press Esc again to cancel, which VoiceOver reads out.
• Not yet tested. The full VoiceOver test pass has not been run, so none of the app's screens, from the welcome screens and Settings to the review editor and the menu bar panel, has been checked with VoiceOver. Each feature on this page is described from what the app does, and none of it is a promise about how a given screen reads aloud.
• How to tell me. Open an issue on GitHub and say what VoiceOver said, or did not say. Copy Diagnostics, in Settings, About, gathers your Mac model, versions and latency stats, never your words, if you want to paste that in too.

The accessibility hub has the same note, and the same invitation.

Use Apple Dictation with VoiceOver on

Apple's Dictation is free, already on your Mac, and a fine place to start. Everything about Apple's features here comes from Apple's own support pages. Listen for the tone, if your Mac plays one: it is Apple's signal that Dictation is ready.

Step 1: Turn on VoiceOver

• You: Press Command-F5, or ask Siri something like Turn on VoiceOver.
• macOS: Turns VoiceOver on, and the same keys turn it off.
• Check: VoiceOver starts speaking. Apple's VoiceOver commands use the VO modifier, which by default is Control and Option pressed together, or Caps Lock, so VO-Space bar means the modifier plus Space bar.

Step 2: Start Dictation where the words go

• You: Turn Dictation on once in System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation. Then put the insertion point where you want the text and press the Microphone key if your keyboard has one, press your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit, Start Dictation.
• macOS: Highlights the cursor and makes it pulse, or plays a tone, when it is ready.
• Check: Tap the Microphone key rather than holding it: a press and release starts Dictation, and a press and hold calls Siri.

Step 3: Stop it

• You: Press Esc, the Microphone key, or your Dictation shortcut.
• macOS: Stops listening, and your last words are in the text.
• Check: Have VoiceOver read the line back before you send it.

Apple's Dictation guide describes the tone and the pulsing cursor. If you also use Voice Control, Apple says it takes VoiceOver commands such as VoiceOver read all, suggests headphones so Voice Control hears only you, and notes that standard Dictation is not available while Voice Control is on. The guide to dictation on a Mac has every step of Apple's side, and Dictation vs Voice Control explains the one-at-a-time rule.

Hear every step of a YapToText dictation

The floating panel is visual, so the app also speaks. With VoiceOver on, these are announced as they happen, with or without the panel on screen:

• Listening. Recording has started, so talk.
• Transcribing. You stopped, and your Mac is turning the recording into text.
• Cleaning up. The cleanup model is working, if your mode uses one.
• Any error. Something went wrong with that dictation.
• Landed, or canceled. Your words were typed at the cursor, or the dictation was thrown away.

The announcements come even when no app window is in front. That matters because YapToText never types into its own window, so the app you are dictating into stays in front.

Two more sounds can help. Play start and stop sounds, in Settings, General, adds a sound at each end of a dictation, so you hear the start and the stop even between announcements. Sounds are off by default. And Pause music and video while dictating, in the Recording card of the Dictation page and on by default, pauses playback when a dictation starts and resumes it when the dictation ends. If a dictation was cut off by a crash, the recording survives, and on the next launch the app transcribes it, puts the text on your clipboard, files it in History, and announces that it recovered your last dictation.

One thing I would do: wear headphones. Apple suggests them when Voice Control and VoiceOver run together, so Voice Control hears only you, and I would apply the same reasoning to any dictation app while VoiceOver is speaking. I have not tested whether VoiceOver's voice ever reaches YapToText's microphone. The hearing aids page covers keeping a good microphone while the sound goes to your ears.

One key to start and stop, and controls with names

The dictation key is Right Command. Tap it, talk, and tap it again. Nothing in a dictation needs two keys at once. While a dictation runs, three more keys work, and they type normally the rest of the time:

• Space. Pauses and resumes. The space is never typed into your document.
• Esc. Cancels, and nothing is typed. The words are still saved to History, marked as canceled. Turn on Require pressing Escape twice to cancel, in the Keys card on the Dictation page, and the first press only arms the cancel: VoiceOver reads out Press Esc again to cancel, and a second press within 0.6 seconds cancels.
• 1 to 9. Pick a mode for this dictation. With Auto mode on, the default, 1 is Auto.

Two key choices deserve care with VoiceOver, and neither has been tested:

• Caps Lock. YapToText can use Caps Lock as the dictation key, and VoiceOver can use it as the VO modifier. If Caps Lock is your VO key, pick a different dictation key.
• The backup shortcut. YapToText's backup shortcut is Control Option Space, in Settings, General, Shortcuts. With Control Option as your VO modifier, that is also VO-Space bar, which Apple's VoiceOver commands use to click the item in the VoiceOver cursor. I do not know which one wins, so click the field and record a different combination, or set the backup shortcut aside and use the dictation key.

If you would rather not press anything to stop, turn on Auto-stop after silence, in the Recording card of the Dictation page: a dictation ends after 0.5 to 5 seconds of quiet. It is off by default, because a long pause to think ends the dictation too. The keys and shortcuts page lists every key, and dictation from one key covers switches and pedals.

There are also controls with names. The floating panel has cancel, pause, and stop and insert, and each is an accessibility action. Clicking the capybara in the menu bar opens a small panel whose top button reads Start Dictation and does the same job as the key; while you record it becomes cancel, pause or resume, and stop and insert, and every button there carries a label. Insert last types your most recent dictation into the app you were just using. The menu bar page covers the rest of that panel.

Hear the text before it lands

By default your words go straight to the cursor. If you want to hear them first, Review before inserting holds the finished text in a small floating editor until you decide. Review before inserting puts a pause between what you said and what gets typed.

Step 1: Turn on Review before inserting

• You: Open Settings, Advanced, Text output, and turn on Review before inserting. It is off by default.
• YapToText: From the next dictation, finished text opens in the floating editor instead of landing at the cursor.
• Check: Only for long dictations (200+ characters) is on while Review is on, so short ones still land directly. Switch it off if you want every dictation held.

Step 2: Have VoiceOver read it

• You: Select the text in the editor and press VO-Fn-F6.
• macOS: Apple's guide to hearing the current selection says VO-Fn-F6 reads it, and that VoiceOver says No Selection when nothing is selected.
• Check: You hear the words as they will be typed, not as you meant them.

Step 3: Insert it or throw it away

• You: Press Command Return to insert, or Esc to discard.
• YapToText: Types the text at your cursor, or drops it.
• Check: The words are at your cursor. Have VoiceOver read the line.

An honest note: I have not walked the review editor with VoiceOver, so I cannot promise where the VoiceOver cursor starts or how the editor reads. Nothing is lost if it misbehaves. History keeps your last 500 dictations for 30 days by default, each with what the speech model heard and what was delivered, and any entry can be copied or inserted again.

Hear it back after it lands, with Speak selection

Once the words are on the page, VoiceOver can read them like any other text. If you have low vision and do not run VoiceOver, the Mac has a lighter tool for this: Speak selection. YapToText does not read text aloud; the Mac does, and the two sit side by side. Dictate with YapToText, listen with the Mac.

Step 1: Turn on Speak selection

• You: Choose Apple menu, System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Read & Speak. On earlier versions of macOS, Apple's guide calls it Spoken Content. Turn on Speak selection.
• macOS: Speaks the text you select whenever you press its keyboard shortcut, Option-Esc by default.
• Check: The switch is on. Click the button next to Speak selection to change the shortcut.

Step 2: Select and listen

• You: Select the sentence you just dictated and press Option-Esc.
• macOS: Reads it aloud. Apple says that if no text is selected, the available text items in the current window are spoken.
• Check: You hear the words on the page.

Apple's Read & Speak settings can highlight words, sentences or both as they are spoken, each in a color you choose, and its guide to having your Mac speak text describes an onscreen controller for the speaking rate and for skipping forward or back. I have not tested Speak selection alongside YapToText's keys. If Option-Esc ever wakes Quick Edit, which sits on Right Option, change one of the two. The speech to text for dyslexia page covers this same say, check and hear routine in more detail.

For low vision, a few settings may help. In the Pop-up card on the Dictation page, the Expanded layout, the default, shows your words as they form. In the Pop-up colors card, Pop-up background color and Pop-up waveform color can each be set to a custom color with a Strength slider. And the capybara in the menu bar turns his speech bubble red while recording and flashes green when the text lands. There is no size control: the three layouts are the only sizes.

Set it up with VoiceOver on

Setup is five steps, and one of them is a switch in System Settings that an app cannot flip for itself. If any step fights you, ask someone to help with the one-time setup; after that, dictation is one key.

Step 1: Install from the Mac App Store

• You: Install YapToText from the Mac App Store. It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.
• YapToText: Arrives with both models inside, so it can dictate from the first launch with the network off.
• Check: It opens to its welcome screen.

Step 2: Allow the microphone

• You: Press Continue next to Microphone on the welcome screens. After setup, the same button sits in the Get set up card on the Home page.
• macOS: Asks once for the microphone.
• Check: Microphone shows as granted.

Step 3: Turn on Accessibility

• You: Press Continue next to Accessibility on the welcome screens, or Grant in the Get set up card on the Home page, then switch YapToText on in the list that opens.
• macOS: Sends you to System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility. An app cannot switch this on for itself.
• Check: Accessibility shows as Granted, and the Get set up card goes away once both permissions are on. Voice Control can click that switch by voice, but I have not walked this list with VoiceOver, so I will not promise it reads cleanly. If it gives you trouble, this is the step to ask someone to help with.

Step 4: Choose your key

• You: On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, click the key field. When it reads Tap a key, press the key you want, and keep Tap to start / stop beside it.
• YapToText: Makes that key the trigger. Left Command and Left Shift cannot be the trigger.
• Check: If Caps Lock is your VO key, choose something else. The default, Right Command, does not clash with either default VO modifier, though this has not been tested with VoiceOver.

Step 5: Dictate one sentence into a note

• You: Open a new note, tap the key, say a sentence, and tap the key again.
• YapToText: Announces Listening, then Transcribing, then that the words landed, and types them at the cursor.
• Check: Have VoiceOver read the line. If the sentence is not there, climb the ladder below.

Then turn on Launch YapToText at login, in Settings, General, System, so the key works after a restart. It is off by default. If you are the helper, setting it up for someone else covers doing it with a person rather than for them.

If the words do not land, climb this ladder, smallest step first:

1. Check which app is in front. YapToText never types into its own window, so a dictation started with YapToText in front goes to the clipboard. Move to the app you meant and press Command V, or use Insert last in the menu bar panel.
2. Check Accessibility. Without it, every dictation is still transcribed but lands on the clipboard instead of at the cursor. The Get set up card on the Home page stays until it is on.
3. Check the key menu. In the Keys card, the menu beside the key must say Tap to start / stop or Hold to talk, not Off.
4. Find it in History. Each dictation is kept with what was heard, what was delivered and which app it went to, and can be copied or inserted again.

What it cannot do, and what is untested

• Claim to be fully accessible. The full VoiceOver test pass has not been run, and neither has the Voice Control pass. Everything about VoiceOver on this page describes the code.
• Read text aloud. YapToText speaks status to VoiceOver, not your text. Reading back is VoiceOver's job, or Apple's Speak selection.
• Drive the Mac. It types. Moving around and clicking is VoiceOver's job, or Voice Control's; hands free typing on a Mac shows how Voice Control and YapToText split the work.
• Change the panel's size. Expanded, Compact and Mini are the only sizes.
• Speak its interface in other languages. The app's own words are in English. It hears 29 languages, plus auto-detect.
• Run on every Mac. It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later. On an Intel Mac, Apple's Dictation is the free fallback.

The short version

• Apple Dictation. Built in and free: start it, wait for the tone or the pulsing cursor, and stop with Esc.
• YapToText. One key to start and stop, with Listening, Transcribing, Cleaning up, errors and landed spoken to VoiceOver.
• Hear it first. Review before inserting holds the text, and VO-Fn-F6 or Speak selection reads it.
• Untested. The full VoiceOver test pass has not been run, so I do not call it fully accessible.

It is free, it runs on your Mac, and it tells VoiceOver what it is doing.

If you use VoiceOver and anything here does not match what you hear, that is the report I most want. Open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Related

• Free dictation software for disabled people on a Mac
• Hands free typing on a Mac: the setup I use every day
• The floating dictation panel: your voice as a wave, your words as they form
• The menu bar dictation icon: the capybara, and what he is telling you
• Speech to text for dyslexia on a Mac: say it, check it, hear it back

Sources

• https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/turn-voiceover-on-or-off-vo2682/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/control-your-mac-with-keyboard-commands-vo2681/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/interaction-commands-cpvokys07/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/explore-the-current-selection-vo2718/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-dictation-mh40584/mac (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-voice-control-commands-mh40719/mac (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-read-speak-settings-for-accessibility-spch638/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mh27448/mac (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yaptotext/id6786382289 (checked 2026-10-03)

Questions