"With glass cockpits the norm now (i.e. digital) could this basic information be provided audibly by the flight computer into the headsets using a control column mounted switch selectable by the pilot when his/her instruments are deemed unreadable?"
Now that is an interesting idea. Rather than trying to fix the sense that is broken (sight), switch to another sense (in this case, hearing).
I like the way you think.
I don't know if it would work because I could see an information overload issue with too much data coming from too many instruments. But I think it's an idea worth thinking about, and I don't say that lightly.