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Making Your Computer Talk with Window's Narrator

This page gives you step-by-step instructions on how to launch Narrator.

Introduction
Many people who have a significant vision or literacy difficulty would benefit from having their computer speak back what they are typing and other text on the screen.

Windows Narrator is a basic screen-reading program. It offers speech feedback for all menus and dialog boxes, Windows Explorer and Notepad but will not speak out a whole Word documents or web page.

Please note: Window's Narrator is only available for Windows 2000 and XP.

Instructions
To start Narrator:

1. Open the 'Start' menu by clicking on the 'Start' button or by pressing the Windows logo key (located between the 'Ctrl' and 'Alt' keys on most keyboards), alternatively press 'Ctrl' + 'Esc'.
2. Click on 'All Programs' or alternatively press 'P' on the keyboard until All Programs is highlighted and then press 'Enter'.
3. Click on 'Accessories' or press 'A' on the keyboard until 'Accessories' is highlighted and then press 'Enter'.
4. Click on 'Accessibility' or if you are using the keyboard, it will already be highlighted so just press 'Enter'.
5. Click on 'Narrator' or press 'N' until 'Narrator' is highlighted and then press 'Enter'.
6. The 'Microsoft Narrator' window will then appear and 'Narrator' immediately starts talking and reads out the instructions on how to use this feature. (see Fig 1).
   
   
   Fig 1
   
7. After clicking on the 'OK' button or pressing 'Enter' , another window appears which has various options which you can select by clicking on the checkbox or tabbing to the checkbox and pressing the 'Spacebar'. You can also adjust the voice settings from here by clicking on the 'Voice' button or pressing 'V' on the keyboard. (see Fig 2)
   
   
   Fig 2

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help.

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