How to use a Screen Reader?

With the Narrator or Voiceover turned on you will notice there is now a thick bordered and coloured box around what the audio is reading. This is the item on the screen that has been selected by the narrator to describe. You will need to use the keyboard to navigate the computer and to assist there are a number of commands:

For Windows:

CapsLock+1: Enables input learning. This states what keys you’re pressing on the keyboard. To turn off this feature, press and hold the CapsLock and then press 1 twice.

CapsLock+Spacebar: Enables/disables scan mode. This allows navigation through a page by pressing the Up or Down arrow keys. When you have navigated to the item you wish to select press the enter button on the keyboard.

Left or Right Arrow: Being on a highlighted word allows the user to switch to have it read out letter by letter.

Ctrl+Left or Right Arrow: Being on a highlighted word allows the user to have the word read out to them.

D and Shift+D: Navigates through a grouping of similar elements, like buttons or blocks of text, or a single element like a search box.

Ctrl: This will stop the Narrator at its current position.

CapsLock+F1: Opens the command list. As this list is not definitive, only the most popular. For a full list see this command list.

For Mac:

Command + F5+A: Will start the voiceover reading the screen.

Control: Will stop the voiceover reading the screen.

Command + F5+> : Move to read the next item to the right of the currently selected item.

Command + F5+< : Move to read the previous item to the left of the currently selected item.

Command + F5+P : The voiceover will read the entire currently highlighted paragraph.

Command + F5+S : The voiceover will read the entire currently highlighted sentence.

Shift+Tab: Move the cursor to the next item

Command + F5+L : Move the cursor to the next link

Command + F5+H: Move the cursor to the next header