SafePC · Screen reader
Move with Tab and Shift + Tab
Go from button to button in a window and come back, by listening.
Step by step
- Turn on the screen reader. Press Ctrl + Alt + Enter: hold down Ctrl and Alt, then press Enter. You hear "Screen reader on". (On a real PC the shortcut is Ctrl + the Windows logo key + Enter.)
- Click the Start button! Look at the bottom of this practice computer: the dark strip there is its taskbar. In the middle of it, click the Start button (four blue squares). The main menu opens just above it. If you see two taskbars, use the one inside this page.
- Click "Settings". In the menu that opened, click the "Settings" tile (a square with a small picture and its name under it): the app opens in its own window.
- Press Tab three times. Press Tab three times, slowly: listen to each name. The reader also says what each thing is: "edit" for a box to type in, "button", "link"…
- Go back: Shift + Tab. Hold down Shift and press Tab: the keyboard goes back one step and the reader reads it again.
- Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Settings" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.
- Turn the screen reader off. Press Ctrl + Alt + Enter again. You hear "Screen reader off".
These steps are written for SafePC, a pretend Windows-style computer in your web browser. On your own computer, the buttons and menus may look a little different, but the idea is the same.
Practice it where nothing can break
SafePC works like a real computer, but nothing you do goes anywhere. Try every button, make mistakes and start again.
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