A little background: I'm helping a friend who had a stroke a few years ago and who has global aphasia; as a result it's very difficult for his brain to consistently derive meaning from written words and letters. (You can almost think of it as an extreme form of dyslexia.) He has no trouble with understanding pictures or anything spoken.
MacOS Ventura has a built-in accessibility tool for text-to-speech, a floating box with play/pause/speed buttons that can read aloud almost any selectable text on screen. Apple docs refer to this box as the 'controller': https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/have-your-mac-speak-text-thats-on-the-screen-mh27448/mac ) This is a lifesaver for my friend! But the option to make the window appear is buried in a system settings menu tree, to the point where it's impossible for him to open it again on his own if he accidentally closes it.
There is a keyboard command to re-open it that can be customized, but because of my friend's written language processing disorder and some motor issues, it's not viable for him to press the correct keys on the keyboard.
My best thought for the simplest solution was to use Automator to set up a desktop shortcut that would automatically re-open it if it gets closed. Has anyone had experience with this? I'm completely open to other solutions to make the TTS controller as easy as possible to summon, without using the keyboard.
The options box within System Settings / Accessibility that the TTS controller is triggered through. "Show Controller: Always" is currently selected, but this does nothing to prevent the controller from being accidentally closed. The TTS controller
I have very little experience with Automator, but from my explorations so far, I don't see a way to access very specific parts of the system settings. I've tried recording the cursor, but if the system settings window is in an unexpected place, it doesn't work.
Ventura has Shortcuts, but it seems like the same issues there.
