How to click on link to hear it in mac voiceover?

Question

1. I am using voiceover on mac to test my website in chrome. Is there any way to click to hear a link without actually opening the link?

2. Is there a better way to test?

Answer 1

You can navigate to the link with the TAB key and not "click" on it but you have to change your Safari settings first (assuming you're using Safari and not Chrome). By default, when you TAB in Safari, it navigates only to form elements. If you want to TAB to links as well, bring up Safari settings (cmd+,) and go to the Advanced tab. In the "Accessibility" grouping, select "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage".

For other apps (non-Safari), you can go to System Preferences > Keyboard > and select the "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" checkbox. It doesn't matter which list item is selected on the left. The checkbox is at the bottom.

Anyway, once you change your Safari settings, turn on VoiceOver with Cmd+F5 and then you can TAB through the interface and listen to the link instead of clicking on it.

Two other useful options for VoiceOver.

1. Turn on the captions panel. I think it's on by default, but if not, bring up the VoiceOver Utility dialog, go to Visuals, the "Panels and Menus" tab and check the "Show caption panel" checkbox.
2. Turn on the Trackpad Commander so that you can swipe left/right similar to how you navigate on the iPhone. This is done in the same VoiceOver Utility dialog but in the Commanders section, the "Trackpad" tab. Check the "Enable Trackpad Commander" checkbox.