Hmmm. I wonder if the volume changes your brother reports is caused by 
the feature known as audio ducking, where the Mac and now iOs devices 
raise the volume of the speech during the playback of other audio. I 
doubt this is the issue but, if it is, he can disable audio ducking. I 
can't remember where it is but it's somewhere in the VoiceOver utility, 
which you can get to from ctrl-option-f8.
Regarding pitch changes, I'm wondering what his inflection rate is set 
for. If you have Alex set for a high level of inflection or intonation 
as it's officially called, this can occur. Try lowering intonation to 
around 80 or less and see if that helps.

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    Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired
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On 11/10/2014 1:48 PM, Stan Berman wrote:
> Hello listers:
>
> I am posting the query below on behalf of my brother who has had issues with
> posting and receiving posts to this list.  Any comments would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
> Stan
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Berman, Joseph [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2014 9:07 PM
> To: Stan Berman
>
>
> 	Would you mind posting the following question to VICUGL for me..
> we're having all sorts of trouble with our new OS.
>
> Recently upgraded our OS to Maverick on an iMac. Using dual preferences, one
> for  me and one for my wife.
>
> 	I have had lots of difficulties with VoiceOver, including spikes in
> Alex's voice and volume changes in VO;
>
> 	Has anyone else experienced negative interactions with the
> accessibility features in Maverick?
>
>
>      VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> Archived on the World Wide Web at
>      http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
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>      Subscribe: [log in to unmask]
>


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