How to test Aural style sheets / CSS3 speech?

Question

I was snooping through a websites code and noticed their use of @media aural {} - which reminded me of its existence. So, I thought I would play around...but then realised that I don't know how to test them.

I don't want my website to sound like the Schwarzeneggers having Christmas dinner….

How could I test out aural or speech through a browser to make sure it sounds ok?

The specs for both aural and speech:

• http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/aural.html
• http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-speech/

*EDIT: thanks to BoltClock for pointing out that Media aural has been scrapped and replaced/upgraded with CSS3 Speech. So, I will be focussing on CSS3 now.

Answer 1

The CSS3 Speech module and CSS2 aural style sheets — or at least, parts of them — are experimentally supported in Presto Opera (possibly up to and including 12.10, but not including 15 and later, which are based on Blink, which doesn't implement them at all).

Note that aural style sheets were obsoleted in CSS2.1 and later resurrected as the CSS3 Speech module; the old spec is just there for historical reference. Considering that the Speech module is already a Candidate Recommendation (CR) as of 2012, it's unlikely any new browser will ever implement aural style sheets, so you can forget about testing those and just focus on code that is based on the new spec.

Answer 2

Certain speech styles are supported by VoiceOver in Safari. I am not sure which though, please experiment and let us know the results :)