Aural Style Sheet Properties

Aural style sheets are provided for the blind and visually impaired communities. Page contents are read to the user. The aural style sheet "canvas" uses dimensional space to render sounds in specified sequences as page elements are displayed and selected.

azimuth

Usage	Enables you to position a sound. Designed for spatial audio, which requires binaural headphones or five-speaker home theater systems.
CSS2 Values	<angle> | [[left-side | far-left | left | center-left | center | center-right | right | far-right | right-side] || behind ]| leftwards | rightwards | inherit
Initial	center
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

cue

Usage	Shorthand property for cue-before and cue-after. Plays a sound before or after an element is rendered.
CSS2 Values	cue-before | cue-after | inherit
Initial	Not defined (shorthand property).
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	No.

cue-after, cue-before

Usage	Plays a sound after (cue-after) or before (cue-before) an element is rendered.
CSS2 Values	<uri> | none | inherit Initial none
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	No.

elevation

Usage	Enables you to position the angle of a sound. For use with spatial audio (binaural headphones or five-speaker home theater setups required).
CSS2 Values	<angle> | below | level | above | higher | lower | inherit
Initial	level
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

pause

Usage	A shorthand property for setting pause-before and pause-after in the same location in the style sheet.
CSS2 Values	<time> | <percentage> | inherit Initial Depends on browser.
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	No.

pause-after, pause-before

Usage	Specifies a pause to be observed before or after speaking an element's content.
CSS2 Values	<time> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial	Depends on browser.
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	No.

pitch

Usage	Specifies the average pitch (frequency) of the speaking voice.
CSS2 Values	<frequency> | x-low | low | medium | high | x-high | inherit
Initial	medium
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.
Notes	Average pitch for the standard male voice is around 120Hz; for the female voice, it is around 210Hz.

pitch-range

Usage	Specifies variation in average pitch. Used to vary inflection and add animation to the voice.
CSS2 Values	<number> | inherit
Initial	50
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

play-during

Usage	Specifies a sound to be played as a background while an element's content is spoken.
CSS2 Values	<uri> | mix? | repeat? | auto | none | inherit
Initial	auto
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	No.

richness

Usage	Specifies the richness, or brightness, of the speaking voice.
CSS2 Values	<number> | inherit
Initial	50
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

speak

Usage	Specifies whether text will be rendered aurally, and in what manner.
CSS2 Values	normal | none | spell-out | inherit
Initial	normal
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

speak-header

Usage	Specifies whether table headers are spoken before every cell, or only before a cell when it is associated with a different header than a previous cell.
CSS2 Values	once | always | inherit
Initial	once
Applies to	Elements that have header information.
Inherited	Yes.

speak-numeral

Usage	Speaks numbers as individual digits (100 is spoken as "one zero zero") or as a continuous full number (100 is spoken as "one hundred").
CSS2 Values	digits | continuous | inherit
Initial	continuous
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

speak-punctuation

Usage	Speaks punctuation literally (period, comma, and so on) or naturally as various pauses.
CSS2 Values	code | none | inherit Initial none
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

speech-rate

Usage	Specifies the speaking rate of the voice.
CSS2 Values	<number> | x-slow | slow | medium | fast | x-fast | faster | slower | inherit
Initial	medium
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

stress

Usage	Specifies the height of local peaks in the intonation of a voice. Controls the amount of inflection within stress markers.
CSS2 Values	<number> | inherit
Initial	50
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.
Notes	A companion to the pitch-range property.

voice-family

Usage	Specifies a comma-separated list of voice family names.
CSS2 Values	<specific-voice> | <generic-voice> | inherit
Initial	Depends on browser.
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.

volume

Usage	Specifies the median volume of a waveform. Ranges from 0 (minimum audible volume level) to 100 (maximum comfortable level).
CSS2 Values	<number> | <percentage> | silent | x-soft | soft | medium | loud | x-loud | inherit
Initial	medium
Applies to	All elements.
Inherited	Yes.
Notes	silent renders no sound at all. x-soft = 0, soft = 25, medium = 50, loud = 75, and x-loud = 100.