My mac mini M2 running MacOS Sequoia 15.5 won't voice read text in Adobe Indesign

You could run the enclosed script, or take it as starting point.

To get a list of voices, I used the terminal command "say -v \?"
Unfortunately some of the entries caused errors, only Apple knows why.

Eventually replace the voices with others that work better for you.

When done, remove the top 4 say … tests.

Copy the script into AppleScript editor.

Compile and run to verify the syntax / ensure there are no copy-paste errors.

Save as "Speak.applescript"

Put the file either into the script folder that you reach via menu Utilities >> Scripts panel >> Show in Finder.

Alternatively I used the application scripts menu.

This menu is optional, you first have to enable it in the AppleScript editor preferences.

That should give you a script icon in the right part of the menu bar.

Switch to InDesign.

The menu below that icon has entries to open the application specific folder, thus first switch to InDesign.

Copy your script file into that folder.

I went thru some hoops for selected text frames and text columns (encountered with selections in the text editor window).

Simple text selection and table cell selections work better.

property nVoice : "Grandpa (Englisch (UK))"
property tVoice : "Eddy (Englisch (UK))"
property iVoice : "Reed (Englisch (UK))"
-- error voice, system language is German here
property eVoice : "Grandpa (Deutsch (Deutschland))"

say "Notice" using nVoice
say "Text" using tVoice
say "Information" using iVoice
say "Ein ganz böser Fehler" using eVoice

tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
	try
		if number of items of selection is 0 then
			say "Empty selection" using nVoice
			return
		end if
		
		repeat with sel in selection
			log class of sel
			log (exists text 1 of sel)
			
			if class of sel is text frame then
				set t to paragraph 1 of sel
				say "text frame starting with" using nVoice
				say t using tVoice
			else if class of sel is text column then
				set t to paragraph 1 of sel
				say "text column starting with" using nVoice
				say t using tVoice
			else if exists text of sel then
				repeat with tx in every text of sel
					set t to contents of tx
					say t using tVoice
				end repeat
			else
				set c to (class of sel)
				set t to "A " & c
				say t using nVoice
				try
					if exists image 1 of sel then
						set fp to file path of item link of image 1 of sel
						tell application "System Events"
							set fn to name of disk item fp
						end tell
						say ("with image file " & fn) using iVoice
					end if
				end try
			end if
		end repeat
	on error err number errno
		if err = "" then
			say "Error " & errno
		else
			say err using eVoice
		end if
	end try
end tell

I ordered the prerelease Adobe Indesign v 20.4 and installed it. But no change at all to text in an Indesign document created with v 20.4 being voice read by a Mac mini M2 running OS Sequoia 15.5.  What I hear when I press the play button to voice read highlighted text in an Adobe Indesign v 20.4 document is  "No Errors. Adobe 2025. Adobe Stock."   I don't know if this is a Mac OS problem or a Adobe Indesign problem. Does anyone have this same issue? And are their any known fixes for this problem?

Hi @Dimp88,

Thanks for sharing the details. I'm currently checking this with the product team and will keep you posted as soon as I hear back.

In the meantime, could you please confirm the version of InDesign you're using? You can find it by going to InDesign > About InDesign. This will help us look into the issue more accurately.

Looking forward to your update.
Abhishek

You'll probably need to address it with Apple.

But regardless, what specific menu are you using to read text in InDesign? I'm not closely familiar with this option.

You need to ask program questions in the forum for the program you are using
To ask in the forum for your program please start at https://community.adobe.com/
Moving from Using the Community (which is about the forums) to the Indesign forum