Whenever an event occurs on a computing system which will accept a response from a user of the system, the system automatically determines whether or not to enable speech interaction with the system for the event response. Whenever speech interaction is enabled with the system for the event response, the system provides a notification to the user which informs the user of the event and their options for responding thereto, where these options include responding verbally. Whenever the user responds within a prescribed period of time via a voice command (VC), the system attempts to recognize the VC. Whenever the VC is successfully recognized, the system responds appropriately to the VC.