Narrator is a

screen reader A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or hav ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

. Developed by Professor Paul Blenkhorn in 2000, the utility made the Windows operating system more accessible for blind and

visually impaired Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

users.

Overview

Narrator is included with every copy of

, providing a measure of access to Windows without the need to install additional software as long as the computer in use includes a sound card and speakers or headphones.

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officially ...

was the first Microsoft

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

released with some degree of accessibility for the blind built in, permitting a blind person to walk up to any such computer and make some use of it immediately. The

version of Narrator uses SAPI 4 and allows the use of other SAPI 4 voices. The

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

version uses the newer SAPI 5. However, it only allows the use of the default voice, Microsoft Sam, even if other voices have been installed. In

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

, Narrator has been updated to use SAPI 5.3 and the Microsoft Anna voice for English. In Windows Ultimate and Windows editions for China, the Microsoft Lili voice for Mandarin Chinese is included. In

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

, Narrator is available in English (United States, United Kingdom, and India), French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional), Cantonese (Chinese Traditional), Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Polish, Russian, and Portuguese (Brazil). A version of Narrator is also included in all Windows Phones, though with far fewer settings than the Narrator for the desktop. Narrator for Windows Phones previously only worked if the phone's language is set to "English (United States)". There are numerous voices included in the narrator pack, such as Microsoft David, Microsoft Zira, Microsoft Mark, and in earlier editions, Microsoft Hazel. In Windows 11, the Narrator app was redesigned and new natural voices were added. The app introduced a new icon and is available in both Light and Dark Theme.

References

External links

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Microsoft Windows 10 Hear text read aloud with Narrator

Microsoft Windows 10 Complete guide to Narrator - Microsoft Support
{{Speech synthesis Screen readers

Narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

1999 software