Windows 10 provides a bunch of great features to make working on the OS more effortless and comfortable. It offers several options for people who find it difficult to use regular functions because of some physical challenges. The Narrator is one of those great features.
Windows 10 Narrator is a specially designed option for people who find it difficult to read the screen because of visual defects. However, it is not just limited to them; even those without such difficulties can take advantage of the Narrator.
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In this post, we will discuss what Windows 10 Narrator is and how to enable and use it.
What is Windows 10 Narrator?
Windows 10 Narrator is a light-weighted screen reader that would speak out in details what is on your screen so that you can navigate your system using that information. The Narrator makes it easier for visually impaired people for interacting with links or buttons. It also provides a description of the images. Windows 10 Narrator is currently available in 35 international languages and can be controlled by keyboard, mouse, and touch.
How to enable Windows 10 Narrator?
To enable the Narrator, follow these steps:
To enable the Narrator, follow these steps:
Go to Settings
Choose the Ease of Access option.
From the left pane, select the Narrator.
Toggle the switch to turn on Narrator.
You can also enable the Narrator immediately through the keyboard using keys combination Windows + Ctrl + Enter. However, this keyboard shortcut would only work if it is already enabled from the Narrator settings.
How to use Windows 10 Narrator?
After enabling the Narrator, you will see a small window that would tell you about what new improvements have been introduced in the Narrator. Click on OK to skip this window. You can also check the Don’t show again box so that you won’t see this window next time you enable the narrator.
After you click the OK, the Narrator home window would be open. You can access QuickStart, Narrator settings and learn about new updates in the app from this window.
QuickStart
The QuickStart window would help you to learn the basics of Navigator. It would show you the commands and functions to get you started and comfortable with the Narrator.
Narrator Key
The Caps Lock and the Insert key both acts as the Narrator key by default. The Narrator key is the one you would use while applying the keyboard commands for functioning the Narrator. It is simply referred to as ‘Narrator’ in the commands.
Tab, Enter, and Arrow Keys
When the Navigator is enabled, you can use the tab and arrow keys to navigate throughout the apps or webpages. They can also be used to move around the checkboxes, options, and buttons. The enter key is used when you encountered something you want to use, like a link or an option.
Commands for Accessing Narrator Options
While the Narrator is enabled, you can use the combination of the following keys to access different features.
- Narrator + 1: This enables input learning. It would tell you what keys you are pressing on the keyboard and what does it do. To turn it off, hold the Narrator key and press 1 two times.
- Narrator + Spacebar: Enables the Scan Mode. The scan mode lets you move around different parts of the page using the tab and arrow keys. When you find something to click, you can press the enter key. The scan mode is by default enabled when you launch Windows 10 Narrator.
- Left or Right Arrow Key: Reads each character of a word.
- Ctrl + Left or Right Arrow Key: Reads word by word of a sentence or paragraph.
- Ctrl: pressing the Ctrl key would stop the Narrator at its current position.
- D and Shift + D: These would help you in navigating through landmarks. A landmark is a group of similar elements, for example, buttons or search box. Pressing D would move you to the next landmark, while Shift+D would drag you back to the previous landmark.
- Narrator + F1: Opens the list of all the available commands and their functions.
Customize the Windows 10 Narrator
When you navigate to the Narrator from settings, you will get a lot of customization options. Here is the list of that.
General Settings
The general settings would let you enable the Narrator, open the Narrator home window, and configure the startup options.
Voice Settings
These settings would let you personalize the voice of narration. You can change the narrator’s voice, the speed, pitch, and volume of the voice. Additionally, you can adjust whether your narrator pauses for punctuation, emphasizes formatted text, or reduces background apps’ volume when speaking.
Change What you Hear
If you find the narration overwhelming, you can reduce the things you hear from the settings. You can change things like whether you hear the characters or words, audio cues, interaction hints, context the Narrator provides, and various other settings. Further, you can also change how capitalized terms are read.
Windows 10 Narrator Keyboard Settings
This section lets you configure the keyboard settings while the Narrator is ON. You can select the keyboard layout as Standard or Legacy as per your preference. You can also set the Narrator key.
Narrator Cursor
The Narrator cursor indicates which part of the screen the Narrator is currently reading, covering it with a blue box. You can disable it, sync the cursor and system focus, read or interact with the screen using the mouse. You can also adjust the Windows 10 Narrator navigation mode.
Enable Braille
The visually impaired people can enable the Braille along with the Narrator. You have to download and install a third-party application from the settings itself.
Bottom Line
The Narrator can be of great help to anyone who wants to ease out a load of reading and understand the things on the screen. This post will guide you to get started with Windows 10 navigator with ease.
Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.
