Troubleshooting Guide
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Chapter 5:
Ease of Access
Ease of Access tools are a set of accessibility features that make certain parts of the system more accessible and easier to use. They are particularly useful for the elderly, people with physical disabilities, people who are visually impaired, or those with hearing impairment. This guide covers instructions on how to use tools such as the narrator, magnifier speech recognition, visual cues, and the on-screen keyboard.
The Narrator is an accessibility 
program that reads text on the screen aloud and provides audio feedback about events such as error messages. Technically, the Narrator makes it possible to use many of the PC’s functions without the display. This tool is meant to help those with eyesight problems or disability and it is usually paired along with the speech recognition tool to provide an excellent “hands-free” workflow in Windows.
Opening the Narrator
The Narrator can be started in a variety of ways. If you have a keyboard, the easiest method is to use the default keyboard shortcut which includes pressing the Windows key + the Enter key. There is also an easy shortcut for tablet devices where you can press the Windows logo button and the Volume Up button together to open the Narrator.
Another way to open the Narrator (if you cannot use the shortcut keys) is to do the following:
Open the Charms Bar and click or tap on Settings. Select the option Change PC settings.
Click or tap on Ease of Access and then select the Narrator.
You’ll see an on or off slider under the text “Narrator”. Switch it to turn on the Narrator.
Additionally, the Narrator is available in the sign-in screen along with other accessibility features. Just click on the Ease of Access button in the lower-left corner of the sign-in screen and select the accessibility tool that fits your needs.
To exit the Narrator you can use the same shortcut keys or follow the steps mentioned above to enter the Ease of Access center and switch the slider to turn off the Narrator.
Customizing the Narrator Settings
When you enter the Ease of Access center and select Narrator you will also see a lot of options that are available for you to customize.
Here’s a rundown of what these Narrator-specific options mean:
Voice. In this category you will be able to customize three settings that are related to the Narrator’s voice:
- Choose a voice. This drop-down menu allows you to select the voice for your Narrator (if more than one is available). You can review how they sound and choose the one that best suits you.
- Speed. This slider allows you to change the speed of the voice. You can make the narrator read words faster or slower depending on your preferences.
- Pitch. This slider allows you to change the pitch of the Narrator’s voice.
General (Sounds you hear). In this category you can customize how the Narrator should communicate with you when it comes to your interactions with various applications:
- Characters you type. Enabling this option will make the Narrator read each key that you enter.
- Words you type. Enabling this option will make the Narrator read completed word that you type.
- Lower the volume of other apps when Narrator is running. Enabling this option will make other apps quieter which makes it a lot easier to hear the Narrator.
- Read hints for controls and buttons. Enabling this option will make Narrator will read contextual hints that are associated with common elements such as buttons, links and list items.
- Play audio cues. Enabling this option will make the Narrator inform you of special events, warnings or actions.
Speech recognition is an accessibility feature in Windows 8.1 
that makes it possible to use Windows without a keyboard or mouse. This has made Windows more accessible to a lot of people with disabilities, but also opened up another “hands-free” work methodology that a lot of people have included in their daily workflow. Currently speech recognition is only available in these languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish.
In this guide we’ll show you how to set up and use speech recognition. You’ll learn just how easy it is to control your whole PC with your voice, as well as input commands and text via direct dictation.
How to Set up Speech Recognition in Windows 8.1
Before speech recognition can work on your PC you will need to prepare your microphone and get the PC to recognize your voice. The process is easy and we’ll guide you every step of the way. Let’s start with setting up the microphone (if you already have a working microphone then skip ahead):
Open the Charms Bar and click or tap on Search.
Search for Set up a microphone in the input box and select that app.
Follow the automatic installer instructions on the screen to set up your microphone.
Ideally you’d want to use a headset microphone in order to block-out as much background noise as possible.
The next step is to “train” your PC to recognize your speech. Thanks to “machine learning” the program works better over time the more your use speech recognition. Eventually your voice profile will become very clear and the program will have no trouble understanding you and distinguishing your speech from other sounds.
Now that your microphone is ready you can perform the following steps:
Open the Charms Bar and click or tap on Search.
Search for Speech Recognition in the input box and select that app.
Click or tap on the option Train your computer to better understand you.
Follow the instructions provided by the automatic Voice Training utility. The tutorial is interactive and you’ll learn how to use the application. Once you’re done, the program will have your basic sound profile memorized.
Using Speech Recognition and Correcting Mistakes
Now that your microphone and voice profile are set, you can begin using speech recognition to perform tasks, issue commands to the operating system and even dictate text. To begin, run the program:
Open the Charms Bar and click or tap on Search.
Search for Speech Recognition in the input box and select from the list (as seen on the screenshot below).
Click or tap on the microphone button to start the listening mode, or just say “start listening” to immediately activate the process.
To check if everything is running smoothly, open a text editor (Word or Notepad for example) and begin dictating.
Now just dictate a few simple sentences to get started and see how the speech recognition program reacts to your input.
At first, it is very likely that speech recognition will make mistakes when you dictate text. It is important to correct the application in order to help it learn and improve future results. In order to correct the last thing you said (a single word or an entire sentence) use the command “correct that”.
Commands for Easier Dictation with Speech Recognition
At first glance, dictation seems very easy to master, but eventually you will may run into a couple of problems. For example, how can you use voice recognition to distinguish between a “comma” as a literal word and the punctuation mark? Here are some great tips to help you avoid some common problems such as these:
- To insert a new line just say “New line”. The same goes for a new paragraph, a new tab or a comma (the punctuation mark).
- However, if you want to insert these as actual words, then first say “Literal”. For example “Literal comma” will place the actual word instead of the punctuation mark.
- As for numbers, saying “Five” will enter the number five in the form of text. However, giving the command “Numeral five” will enter the number as a numeral character (5).
As for navigation across the document, there are a lot of intuitive commands that don’t require any explaining:
- Go to start of sentence
- Got to start of paragraph
- Go to start of document
And the inverse applies:
- Go to end of sentence
- Go to end of paragraph
- Go to end of document
The commands for deleting are also very simple:
- Delete that (deletes the last thing you said)
- Delete the previous paragraph
- Delete the previous sentence
- Delete the next paragraph
- Delete the next sentence
The Magnifier tool is simple accessibility 
program that allows you to enlarge a part or the entirety of your screen. This enables you to see text and images better and it makes it easier for you to navigate your mouse curser on the screen. The tool has been available since Windows XP, but it has kept improving over the years. The Windows 8 version of this utility program is especially interesting as it features support for touch devices.
In this guide you’ll learn how to turn on the Magnifier and customize it to fit your needs.
Opening and Using the Magnifier
Since the magnifier is an associability program there are a couple of ways to open it. The quickest one is by using the predefined keyboard shortcut:
Press the Windows logo key and the plus (“+”) sign at the same time.
The Magnifier tool will open in full-screen view, unless you’ve already made changes to your default settings.
If you like using keyboard shortcuts like this one, then you might be interested in our Windows 8.1 keyboard shortcuts guide. It covers all of the essentials, as well as the advanced shortcuts that can make your Windows experience better and more productive.
The second way to open the Magnifier tool is via mouse or touch input:
Open the Charms bar and tap or click on Settings. Now tap or click on Change PC settings.
In the next screen you should tap or click on Ease of Access and then tap or click on Magnifier. This will open a window such as the one on the screenshot below. Move the slider so that the Magnifier is turned on.
Magnifier will now launch in full-screen view, unless you’ve changed this default setting previously.
Closing the Magnifier tool once you’re done using it is easy (although a bit unintuitive):
The quickest way is to simply use the keyboard shortcut (Windows key + Escape key).
You can also locate the Magnifier icon on the toolbar (a small magnifying glass icon), click or tap on it and select the Close option.
Understanding the Magnifier Views
If you’re using a mouse, then you can quickly change between the three different magnifier views. Here’s a quick explanation of how these views enable you to have a better experience:
The full-screen view does exactly what the name implies and your entire screen is magnified. While this is a great option to have, it comes with a big setback. Namely, since the whole screen will now be zoomed-in, you won’t be able to see the entire screen at the same time.
The lens view moves the magnifying screen around as you move your mouse around the screen.
The docked view allows the Magnifier to take a fixed portion of your screen and “dock” itself at that position. As you move around the screen, the items that you are currently looking at will be magnified and displayed on the docked Magnifier tool.
You can choose whichever view suits your needs the best, but it is probably best to try them all out.
Sadly, the lens view and the docked view are tied with the mouse pointer and as such, it is not possible to get these accessibility options if you’re using touch input.
Using the Magnifier with Touch Input
Touch input has limited support with the Magnifier tool. The main problem is that some of the tool’s features are designed to follow the mouse cursor. However, opening the Magnifier in full-screen view allows you to enjoy the main benefits of the tool.
Here are a few tricks to make the experience even better: - Tap on the corners in order to zoom in and out.
- You can move around the screen by dragging along the borders.
- To see where you are currently on the screen, tap with two fingers on opposite borders.
- Exiting the magnifier can be done quickly by tapping the “X” symbol.
Customizing the Magnifier Settings
Some of the Magnifier tool’s settings can be changed while the program is running. For example, you will notice that you can use the zoom buttons to change the level of zoom that the Magnifier is using to enlarge your screen. The shortcut keys for this are:
- The Windows key and the plus sign (“+”) for zooming in
- The Windows key and the minus sign (“-“) for zooming out
However, for more advanced settings you can open the Magnifier options:
You can set the pace at which the zoom changes when you zoom in or out.
You can turn on color inversions, which will reverse the colors on the screen. This might seem like a strange option, but the inverted colors can make the text a lot easier to read.
You can also customize the Magnifier focus point. By default, the Magnifier usually follows your mouse, but you can also select the data insertion point or the keyboard instead.
The On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) is an Ease of Access feature that provides a digital keyboard that can mimic the actions of a physical one. The OSK displays a visual keyboard, which features all the standard keys and allows you to easily use standard keyboard shortcuts.
However, this accessibility feature should not be confused with the touch keyboard. On touch-enabled devices, the touch keyboard is automatically activated whenever you tap on an input field. On the other hand, the On-Screen keyboard will remain active as long as the program is open and it can accept input from both touch taps and mouse clicks. Unfortunately, the OSK has only one layout and you cannot customize it as much as the touch keyboard.
In this guide you’ll learn how to use the On-Screen Keyboard, how to customize it and improve your workflow when using it.
How to Open and Use the On-Screen Keyboard
To open the On-Screen keyboard you can perform the following steps:
Open the Charms Bar and then click or tap on Search. Type in On-Screen Keyboard into the search field.
The application will show up at the top of the list. Click or tap on the item to open the On-Scree Keyboard program.
You might also find the On-Screen Keyboard to be a handy tool if you are in the sign-in screen and need to type-in your password. In order to open the OSK on this screen you can click on the Ease of Access button that is located in the lower-left corner of the sign-in screen.
Now that you’ve opened the On-Screen Keyboard, you can click or tap on the keys in order to use it like a virtual version of your physical keyboard. Feel free to open any text-editing program such as Word or Notepad in order to try it out.
Customizing the On-Screen Keyboard and Improving Your Workflow
The On-Screen Keyboard provides a rich options menu that allows you to customize the keyboard as well as improve your workflow. Once you’ve opened the On-Screen Keyboard you should click or tap on the Options key in order to bring up the OSK options menu.
It will have the following options:
- Use click sound. Select this option if you want to hear a custom Windows sound when you press a key. This is a good feature to have in case you need audio feedback for your actions.
- Turn on numeric keys. Turn on this option in order to expand the On-Screen Keyboard so that the numeric keypad is enabled.
- Click on keys. Selecting this mode will set the OSK as the preferred input method for text.
- Show keys to make it easier to move around the screen. If this option is selected then the virtual keyboard keys will be highlighted as you type.
- Hover over keys. Enabling this feature can provide you with a very productive workflow if you are using a mouse or joystick device. The characters that you point to are entered automatically if you point (hover) over them for a specified amount of time. This makes it possible to write fast even with a mouse.
- Scan through keys. This accessibility feature makes it easier to use keyboard shortcuts across highlighted areas.
- Use Text Prediction. Once this option is selected, the On-Screen Keyboard will suggest words for you as you type. Note that this option is currently available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, but you can install specific language packs to enable the feature for another language.
Next Steps
If you were searching for information about the native touch keyboard for touch-enabled devices then you can visit our guide to using the touch keyboard in Windows 8.1. As for other accessibility features you can look at the full list of our Ease of Access guides.
Microsoft works hard to make their operating system 
accessible to everyone and over the years, a lot of accessibility features have been developed. As the concept of notifications and sound cues grows more popular in software design, it is important to provide alternative solutions. Microsoft Windows 8.1 allows you to use textual and visual cues instead of system sounds. These alternative cues are great options for those who are hard of hearing or if you cannot always have sound on.
Enabling these settings will apply to the operating system messages and prompts as well as those that are generated by third-party applications.
Replace Sounds with Visual Cues
To replace sounds with visual cues via the Ease of Access Center do the following:
Open the Charms Bar and then tap on Search.
Type “Replace sounds with visual cues” into the search box and click on the utility tool of the same name.
Alternatively, you can open the Control Panel and type the same query into the search box there.
The settings page will have a couple of options. The options that you wish to set are:
Turn on visual notifications for sounds. This option will completely replace your system sounds with Microsoft’s custom visual cues. This visual cue is a screen flash and you can further customize it by selecting the following options:
- None – this will disable the visual notifications.
- Flash active bar– this will cause only the top-bar of the active window to flash instead of a sound prompt.
- Flash active window – this will cause the entire active window to flash instead of a sound prompt.
- Flash desktop – this will cause the entire desktop screen to flash instead of a sound prompt. While this is the easiest way to make sure that you’ll notice the visual cue, it is also very intrusive.
Turn on text captions for spoken dialogue. This option will cause Windows to display text captions to indicate PC activities instead of using sound cues. These activates are usually status and warning messages, for example, if a device is disconnected or if a printer finishes printing documents.
Pairing with Other Accessibility Features
If you suffer from poor eyesight, but would like to switch to visual cues then you can start using the Magnifier tool. This accessibility tool will allow you to enlarge parts of your screen (or the entire screen for that matter) and it works great with visual cues. To get started read our guide on how to use the Magnifier tool in Windows 8.1.
For more advice on accessibility in Window 8.1, consult the index of our Ease of Access guide.
