Checking accessibility with a screen reader
Screen readers have many keyboard commands for navigating, reading and interacting with content. It isn't necessary to know them all, but learning a few basic screen reader commands for the purposes of testing is a good idea.
Screen reader commands
This page covers Narrator for Windows 10 because it's available on official Scottish Government laptops. JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver are other screen readers. They all have different ways to use them.
Turning Narrator on and off
You turn on Narrator by pressing the Windows, Control, and Enter keys. You use the same keys to turn it off again. If you're using an older version of Windows 10, use Windows and Enter to turn Narrator on and off.
Narrator Home
Every time you turn on Narrator, Narrator Home is displayed. You can get to the Narrator user manual, QuickStart, and the Narrator settings from there.
Quick start
If you haven't used Narrator before, choose Quick Start from Narrator Home. It's a tutorial that will teach you the basics of using Narrator. It includes a web page where you can practice things like navigating and reading content.
Narrator key
Narrator uses either the Caps Lock or Insert key to modify the behaviour of other keys. This is known as the Narrator key.
Stop Narrator talking
You stop Narrator from talking by pressing the Control key.
Browsers
Narrator works with Edge and Chrome. Edge is the recommended browser to use with Narrator.
Web page summary
You can get a summary of a web page by pressing Narrator and S. Narrator will tell you how many links, landmarks, and headings there are on the page. These are the most common ways a screen reader user will navigate through content.
You can get a more detailed summary by pressing Narrator and S twice quickly.
Scan Mode
Scan Mode is turned on automatically. You can toggle it on or off by pressing Narrator + Space. If you turn Scan Mode off, Narrator will remember that next time you open Edge.
When Scan Mode is on, use the up or down keys to navigate content. Press the Enter or Space keys to activate things like links, buttons, or a text box.
Scan Mode commands
Narrator has lots of commands. You can use the commands in this table for testing web pages.
Press these keys: | To do this action: | And check for the following: |
---|---|---|
H |
Move to the next heading |
|
D |
Move to the next landmark |
|
F |
Move to the next form field |
|
B |
Moves to the next button |
|
K (or tab) |
Moves to the next link |
|
T |
Moves to the next table |
|
Control and alt and left or right |
Moves left or right across a table row |
|
Control and alt and up ordown |
Moves up or down through the table column |
|
Complete Narrator guide
Microsoft has a complete Narrator guide, with lots more information about Narrator and how to use it.
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