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Using Farrago with VoiceOver



We know that many users with vision impairments work (and play) with audio extensively. To help facilitate that, we strive to make Farrago fully accessible to those using VoiceOver on their Macs. While you should be able to pick up the app and get started with ease, the following article may help fill in any gaps.

In this article we run though some features built into Farrago 2 aimed at enhancing the experience for VoiceOver users. Just as with Farrago 1, nearly all interactions can be quickly performed via the main menu items like controlling playback, or master volume, and via standard VO navigation, but in some cases multiple views must be traversed to get certain task done. For Farrago 2 we have taken care to optimize how a user gets to and from the inspector for when interacting with Tiles and Sets, and with improved contextual menus a lot more of Farrago 2 is quickly accessible to VO users.

Modifying Tiles

To modify a tile’s settings, use VO navigation to access it through the audio board, or more directly by holding control while pressing the hot key assigned to the tile.

When a tile is selected, its settings can be modified in the Tile Inspector, found in the right-most section of any set window. Each tile also has a contextual menu which contains many options present in the inspector.

Tips on navigating and moving tiles

• To toggle focus between the selected tile and the Inspector, press Command-I ore select “Toggle Inspector” in the VO actions menu for the tile.

• To move a selected tile to a new position on the grid, hold option while pressing the arrow keys. Farrago will announce where a tile has moved to, and which tile it has swapped position with, if any.

Sound set basics

Farrago’s sound sets are the container for audio tiles. Sets are listed in the Sets panel, found in the left-most section of Farrago’s main window. Each set can operate in either Grid mode or List mode.

In Grid mode, audio tiles are presented on large grid of up to 200 tiles, with the first 80 tiles connected to individual keyboard shortcuts. Grid Mode is most commonly used for playing sounds in random order.




In List mode, audio tiles are positioned vertically as a playlist. Playback follows the vertical order of the tiles from top to bottom.

Sets can be toggled between Grid and List modes, via the Sound Set menu, as well as with the Grid/List mode toggle in the toolbar.

Tips on interacting with sound sets

• A new sound set can be created at any time by pressing Command-Shift-N.

• Focus can be toggled between tiles on the audio board and the Sets panel by pressing Command-S.

• Pressing Command-I will toggle between the VO-focused set and its Inspector.

• Any of the first nine sets can be quickly selected by holding Command and pressing the numeral 1-9 keys.

• The sets list can be re-sorted via the keyboard. The VO-focus set will be moved up or down in the list by holding Option and pressing the up or down arrow keys.

• Sets can be presented in a separate window by selecting “Open in Secondary Window” in the VO-actions menu or the Sound Set menu.

Searching Sounds

Another convenient method for quickly getting around Farrago is via sound search. To start a search, use keyboard shortcut Option+Shift+F. This will focus the search field, allowing you to search for any sounds contained in the other sets in Farrago, or even sounds available from GarageBand, or Freesound.org.

After typing in search query, use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate through the matches.

Tips on searching

• When a search result is highlighted, it can be previewed easily by pressing Space Bar.

• Add the highlighted search result to the current set by pressing Command-Return.

Wrapping up

We hope this article has provided helpful information for our VoiceOver users. If you have questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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