CSS Aural Reference

Aural style sheets use a combination of speech synthesis and sound effects to make the user listen to information, instead of reading information

Aural Style Sheets

Aural style sheets use a combination of speech synthesis and sound effects to make the user listen to information, instead of reading information.

Aural presentation can be used:

  • by blind people
  • to help users learning to read
  • to help users who have reading problems
  • for home entertainment
  • in the car
  • by print-impaired communities
  • The aural presentation converts the document to plain text and feed this to a screen reader (a program that reads all the characters on the screen).

    An example of an Aural style sheet:

    h1, h2, h3, h4 {
      voice-family: male;
      richness: 80;
      cue-before: url("beep.au")
    }

    The example above will make the speech synthesizer play a sound, then speak the headers in a very rich male voice.

    CSS Aural Reference

    The "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2).

    Property Description Values CSS
    azimuth Sets where the sound should come from angle
    left-side
    far-left
    left
    center-left
    center
    center-right
    right
    far-right
    right-side
    behind
    leftwards
    rightwards
    2
    cue Sets the cue properties in one declaration cue-before
    cue-after
    2
    cue-after Specifies a sound to be played after speaking an element's content none
    url
    2
    cue-before Specifies a sound to be played before speaking an element's content none
    url
    2
    elevation Sets where the sound should come from angle
    below
    level
    above
    higher
    lower
    2
    pause Sets the pause properties in one declaration pause-before
    pause-after
    2
    pause-after Specifies a pause after speaking an element's content time
    %
    2
    pause-before Specifies a pause before speaking an element's content time
    %
    2
    pitch Specifies the speaking voice frequency
    x-low
    low
    medium
    high
    x-high
    2
    pitch-range Specifies the variation in the speaking voice. (Monotone voice or animated voice?) number 2
    play-during Specifies a sound to be played while speaking an element's content auto
    none
    url
    mix
    repeat
    2
    richness Specifies the richness of the speaking voice. (Rich voice or thin voice?) number 2
    speak Specifies whether content will render aurally normal
    none
    spell-out
    2
    speak-header Specifies how to handle table headers. Should the headers be spoken before every cell, or only before a cell with a different header than the previous cell always
    once
    2
    speak-numeral Specifies how to speak numbers digits
    continuous
    2
    speak-punctuation Specifies how to speak punctuation characters none
    code
    2
    speech-rate Specifies the speed of the speaking number
    x-slow
    slow
    medium
    fast
    x-fast
    faster
    slower
    2
    stress Specifies the "stress" in the speaking voice number 2
    voice-family Specifies the voice family of the speaking specific-voice
    generic-voice
    2
    volume Specifies the volume of the speaking number
    %
    silent
    x-soft
    soft
    medium
    loud
    x-loud
    2