I have noticed, that the default reader voice has been changed/updated to a female voice on acrobat. I need the former androgynous / non-gender computer voice again to work with. Could you please change that or is there a plugin to install?
Yes, but I didn't see that this topic had several pages because it is badly indicated, it is only visible at the bottom of the page. Besides, I never understood the point of dividing a topic into pages, it's not paper. The web and HTML are all about scrolling!
I think I've answered all of your questions (and I speak for others who have tried to help you here).
All the guidance that is officially available from Apple has been shared with you throughout this discussion.
The steps that were offered to you need to be manually done through your OS. But I am on a Microsoft Windows computer and I can't see what you are struggling with.
In addition, when you are changing Accessibility settings through the operating system, all applications that use text-to-speech or Accessibility screen-reader assistant voice must be completely closed for the changes to take effect globally.
Moreover, it is worth noting that, changing the narrator assistant voice is a universal preference setting that is very similar accross all different operating systems; this shouldn't be rocket science. And this is due to industry accessibility technology standards, guidelines and specifications (mostly governed by the Web Accessibility Initiative ); not because of an Acrobat developer deciding to change something out of the blue.
To be precise, the genderless voice is a an entirely new feature that was introduced last month, and reading you creates an air of confusion because the genderless narrator assistant voice didn't exist before and it may still be on an experimental phase. So, what makes sense to me is that if you've upgraded your macOS box from Monterrey ( or BigSur) to Ventura, whatever tweaks you've made in your prior OS are now reverted back to its default narrator assistant voice settings.
With that said, I think you've been confusing all along how to install a new narrator language voice (which you yourself don't even remember or have cared to specify, making it very hard to help you), versus how to configure any narrator assistant voice (male or female gender) by manually changing the pitch level and the desired speech speed.
I have been using for the last 3 years with OS upgrades the same default out loud voice on acrobat. please go on my website : https://www.nealschaap.com/audio/ to hear the voice i have been using all the time and tell me if this voice is still available or not. i know how to install a new narrator language voice but this specific voice does not exist anymore on the operating system. i wasnt offendig adobe developer when i mentioned my problem. i just tought it may be that the developer know what voice i used before but it seems now that it is a change on the OS....
Thank you for your answer. At the moment i am on macOS Ventura 13.2.1. Do you think the change is with the operating system or did the developer change the default voice? In the dropdown for other voices, there are only female or male choices, so the former voice does not exist any more on acrobat but i really need this specific non-gender- robotic voice again. Are there any possibilities to get this back?
Yes the voice in Acrobat will change depending on what the user has configured as the default robo-voice in the operating system.
For macOS and iOS devices is Siri Voice (Micrososoft Windows devices is Cortana, Amazon is Alexa, Google is the Google Assistant):
To change Siri's voice to "Q" (the gender neutral voice assistant) try this:
Go to Apple menu => System Preferences => Siri => Language => Siri Voice
From the dropdown menu choose the desired gender type voice.
Now, I am not sure if in your specific case, with newer updates, Siri's voice has reverted back to only a male or female gender voice but it shouldn't.
You need to scroll through that dropdown menu and see an option that should say "Voice 5".
Select that option and it should give Siri a gender-neutral robo-voice.
Changing this setting in your operating system as the default Siri voice should be respected in the Adobe Acrobat's Reading preferences settings.
If you don't manually configure these voice settings in your operating system it may not be reflected in Acrobat because it is not the Adobe Acrobat preferences that controls the robo-voice options... those are made available to Acrobat by the OS (not the other way around).
To verify, go back to Adobe Acrobat Preferences settings as suggested by @jane-e and uncheck the "Default" tickbox to see all of the available voice options provided by your operating system.
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