Setting Up Narrator to Announce Events on the Screen

Narrator is a text–to–speech utility for people who are blind or have low vision. Narrator reads what is displayed on the screen—the contents of the active window, menu options, or text that has been typed. You can select from a number of Narrator options. This tutorial shows you how to set Narrator to announce when new windows are opened on screen.

Note: Narrator is designed to work with Notepad, WordPad, Control Panel programs, Internet Explorer, the Windows desktop, and some parts of Windows Setup. Narrator may not read words aloud correctly in other programs. Narrator has a number of options that allow you to customize the way screen elements are read.

Step

Mouse actions

Keyboard actions

On the Start menu:

Point to Programs.
Point to Accessories.
Point to Accessibility.
Select Narrator.

Note: A message box with a link to more information about Narrator may appear. To close the box, select OK.

Display the Start menu by pressing CTRL+ESC (or the Windows logo key).

Move to Programs by pressing P.
Move to Accessories by pressing the UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW key. Press ENTER.
Move to Accessibility, and then press ENTER.
Move to Narrator, and then press ENTER.

Note: A message box with a link to more information about Narrator may appear. To close the box, press ENTER.

In the Narrator window:

Ensure that the Announce events on screen check box is selected.

Note: To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, select the Minimize button. If you select Exit, Narrator turns off.

In the Narrator window:

Ensure that the Announce events on screen check box is selected. If it is not, press ALT+A.

Note: To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, press ALT+SPACEBAR, N. To turn off Narrator, press ALT+X, and then press Y.