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 actionsKeyboard actions

1

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 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 step by step tutorials:

Set Narrator to Annouce Events on Screen 

Set Narrator to Read Typed Characters 

Set Narrator to Move Mouse Pointer to Active Item 

Start Narrator Minimized 

Set Narrator Voice Options 

Start: Run: Open: Narrator

Start: Run: Open: Narrator

Narrator: Settings

Narrator: Settings