In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we continue our “getting Started with Narrator” series. This series enables one to learn how to use Microsoft Narrator by following along with the “Get Started with Narrator,” located on the Microsoft Support Pages. This series is our companion series to our Monthly Narrator Talk, which occurs on the second Tuesday of the month at 1300 CST. To learn how to connect, click here. To follow along, you will need Windows 10 Fall Creators Edition or later, since earlier versions of Windows 10 do not have many of the same key combos or functions as newer versions of Windows. Anyone with Windows 8 or older will not be able to follow along on their computers, since Narrator was very limited in these versions.

Chapter 2 focuses on navigating around Windows 10 with Narrator by using some very basic keyboard commands and shortcuts. These includes pressing tab and using the arrow keys to maneuver around the Desktop. After this, one learns how to use the Narrator Key or Caps Lock key, with the arrow keys and other keys to quickly navigate around the screen to controlling different aspects about Narrator. This series would to be possible without Microsoft’s Get Started with Narrator Series, and strongly recommend everyone navigate to Chapter 2 of their guide to follow along with this episode.

Tab provides a degree of navigating around the screen to major items or various form fields

* Arrow Keys will enable one to navigate around the apps on your desktop and some menus within Windows 10

* Caps Lock and Up or Down arrows enables you to change Narrator’s view so you can easily navigate amongst elements on a page, characters, words, lines. Form fields, landmarks, headings, and much more

* Caps Lock and Left and Right arrows allows you to actually navigate by the selected Narrator View you set with Caps Lock and Up or Down arrows

* Caps Lock and Spacebar enables Scan mode

* Caps Lock and Minus or Plus decreases or increases Narrator’s rate of speech

* Caps Lock and T reads off the current application or window’s title

* Caps Lock and 1 enables Input Learning Mode so you can test out any key combination

If you enjoy the Blind Vet Tech Podcast series, we invite anyone interested in assistive technology for the blind to join us on our monthly tech teleconferences. Click here to see a list of our calls and how to connect via Zoom.

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