Mastering Screen Reader Shortcuts: A Comprehensive Guide Across Platforms

Speaker 1:
Shaun of the Shed.

Speaker 2:
An AMI original podcast.

Shaun:
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Shaun of the Shed. I am Shaun Preece. I am sat in a garden shed. And this is the show where I talk about the technology that can be so useful to us as blind or visually impaired people. What am I going to talk about today? Well, I'm talking to you, you, beautiful screen reader users, because today I want to show you how you can quickly change your screen reader settings.

Yes, yes, I know what you're saying. "Shut up, Shaun. I know how to do that. You go to settings, accessibility, and then voiceover or talk back or whatever it may be." But no, stop. There are quick settings that you can change on the fly. You want to change the rate of your speech, change the voice, well you can do that and I'm going to show you how. So whether you are a screen reader wizard or a screen reader novice, this one's for you.

Okay. Let's kick things off with voiceover on the iPhone. As I said in the intro, of course, you can always just go to settings, accessibility and double tap on voiceover to see a plethora, that's right I'm using posh words, a plethora of options for voiceover, and you can play around with those all you like. But did you know there's a quick way to get to voiceover settings? All you need to do is do a two-finger quadruple tap on the screen. When you do this, you'll get the voiceover quick settings menu, and in here you'll find all the major voiceover options. And not only just to change your voice's volume or speech rate or things like that, but also to change media descriptions, punctuation, audio ducking, and also you can change how braille is handled as well. Do you want braille alerts? Do you want grade one or grade two? Eight dot? Various braille settings as well, all in the voiceover quick settings menu.

Next, Android. If you are using TalkBack on an Android phone. Then there's also a quick settings menu, the TalkBack menu. As ever with Android there are a couple of different ways you may need to get there. If you're using the latest version of Android OS, then it's really easy. Simply tap on the screen with three fingers. That's right, a single three-finger tap. This will bring up the TalkBack menu. In here there are various settings such as read from next item, copy the last thing TalkBack said to the clipboard, describe an image, turn off the screen, but there's also TalkBack settings. Double tap on this and it will take you directly to the TalkBack settings in the settings menu. Also, you'll find in this menu the text-to-speech setting, so if you want to change what voice you are using, you can do that there as well. Anyway, that is talk back settings on Android. Try it out.

Back to voiceover now, but this time on the Mac. Voiceover on the Mac has so many options, it's just so customizable, but there is an easy way to change those settings. It's called a Voiceover Utility. To get there, simply hold down the VO keys, which are Ctrl and option, and then press F8 at the same time. This will bring up the Voiceover Utility menu, and in here you can only just change the voice options such as rate, pitch, volume, et cetera, and even choose your voice, but also everything you can think of. The way that voiceover behaves in certain apps, the way it interacts in webpages for example, and even set up commanders such as Trackpad Commander or Numpad Commander. Now, if you don't know what any of that is, don't worry. That's kind of the point. This Voiceover Utility menu is a nice easy way to have a play around, have an explorer, see what options are available to you.

And finally, Windows. I love Windows. Now of course, there's various options when it comes to what screen reader you use in Windows, but if you just want to quickly jump to the accessibility settings that are built into Windows, simply press Windows and the letter U. This will take you directly to the accessibility settings. In here is not just screen reader settings, but also options to change things like audio, high contrast color schemes, color filters, various accessibility sends.
Now NVDA users, hello, my favorite screen reader. Just like the Mac voiceover hidden menu, there is a Ring Voice menu, I believe it's called something like that, in NVDA.

To get there, hold down the NVDA modifier key. In my case, that would be caps lock, but it could be insert depending on how you've got it set up. So hold down NVDA modifier key plus the control key, and then hit the left or right arrow keys to go through the various voice options. In here you can change the actual voice that you are using, volume, the pitch, rate boost and the rate. As you go through, you will simply cycle through all of these options and then just use the up and down arrow keys along with the NVDA modifier and the control key to change those options.

Now, JAWS. You, JAWS users, you professionals, you. There isn't something like that menu, as far as I know. There's so many different options in JAWS. It's so customizable. Again, it's fantastic. But there is a quick settings dialogue box that you could use. To get there simply press the JAWS modifier key. Again, it could be caps lock, could be insert, and press the letter V. This will bring up a dialogue box, and in here you'll find various voice settings, again, like pitch and rate and things, but also there's some startup options as well to play around with. So that was the JAWS modifier key, caps lock or insert plus the letter V.
Finally, Narrator. Now in Narrator, there's lots of keyboard shortcuts for adjusting the separate aspects such as the caps lock key and plus and minus to change the speaking rate. But if you want to jump directly to Narrator settings, then to do this, simply press control, the Windows key and the letter N all at the same time. This will open up the settings app and take you directly to Narrator settings.

There you go, you screen reader warriors, you. That's how you can quickly access your screen reader settings. I hope you find that useful. It can be incredibly helpful to be able to change your synth, your screen reader, your speech rate, your pitch, whatever it may be, your voiceover settings on the fly, especially when you're trying to get things done. So there you go. Hope that was useful to you. And as ever, if you liked this video, please, please, please someone like this video. If you want to see more, then hit that subscribe button. Guys, thank you so much. Thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. Take care, and I'll see you next time.
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