Turn On and Use Narrator

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. This procedure tells you how to turn on and use Narrator.

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.

Mouse actions

Keyboard actions

On the Start menu:

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

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

To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, select the Minimize button.

To turn off Narrator, in the Narrator dialog box, select the Exit button.

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

Press R.
Type narrator.
Press ENTER.

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

To use Narrator but hide the Narrator dialog box, select Minimize by pressing ALT+SPACEBAR, N.

To turn off Narrator, in the Narrator dialog box, press ALT+X, Y.

To continue

To continue customizing Narrator, see one or more of the following accessibility tutorials:

Start: Run: Open: Narrator

Narrator: Settings