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 the basics of Narrator by bringing the Get Started with Narrator by Microsoft’s Accessibility team support guide alive in a podcast. Our Getting Started with Narrator series is a companion tool for our monthly Blind Vet Tech 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 your Windows 10 computer updated to at least the Falls Creator version or the new April 2018 update, 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. We feel very strongly that Narrator’s updates since Windows 10, and especially after Falls Creator update, there is little need for JAWS or NVDA if you require a screen reader to preform simple tasks like emailing, surfing the web, drafting Office documents, reading PDFs, or interacting with apps.

The most efficient method to read with Narrator requires one to leverage the features of Scan Mode with the commands for reading with Narrator. If you are not familiar with Scan Mode, review Chapter 3’s lesson on how to use Scan Mode with Edge, apps, and tables. When you feel comfortable navigating with Scan Mode, here are our favorite reading keyboard commands:

* Caps lock plus Y Moves Narrator’s focus and cursor to the beginning of a document or webpage

* Caps lock plus B Moves Narrator’s focus and cursor to the end of a document or webpage

* Caps lock plus H reads the entire document or webpage

* Caps lock plus R or Caps lock plus M starts the continuous reading of a document or webpage from Narrator’s current location

* Caps lock plus Right Bracket starts the continuous reading from the start of a document to Narrator’s current location. Useful for reading back what you wrote in an email.

* Caps lock plus A changes the verbosity level from 0 (least) to 5 (greatest)

* Caps lock plus F announces information about the font or object in Narrator’s focus

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.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability,