How to Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading in Windows 10


Narrator is a screen-reading app built into Windows 10.

Narrator lets you use your PC without a display or mouse to complete common tasks if you’re blind or have low vision. It reads and interacts with things on the screen, like text and buttons. Use Narrator to read and write email, browse the internet, and work with documents.

Specific commands let you navigate Windows, the web, and apps, as well as get info about the area of the PC you're in. Navigation is available using headings, links, landmarks, and more. You can read text (including punctuation) by page, paragraph, line, word, and character as well as determine characteristics like font and text color. Efficiently review tables with row and column navigation.

Narrator also has a navigation and reading mode called Scan Mode. Use it to get around Windows 10 using just the up and down arrows on your keyboard. You can also use a braille display to navigate your PC and read text.

Narrator supports reading characters phonetically as you read by character. That is, reading out “a Alfa, b Bravo, c Charlie” while navigating “abc” by character.

Starting with Windows 10 build 18282, Narrator will no longer announce the phonetic information automatically.

If you need to hear phonetics for a string of characters in a sustained fashion, the phonetics can be read out continuously as you move forward or backward through a range of characters with the Read Next Character command (Narrator key + Period) or Read Previous Character command (Narrator key + M). However, in this mode, you will only hear the phonetics announced and not the characters themselves (e.g., “Alfa Bravo Charlie”). To stop hearing the phonetics, press any other command (e.g., Left arrow, Right Arrow, Tab, etc.) or re-issue the Read Current Character command (Narrator key + Comma). Subsequent reading of next and previous characters via Narrator key + Period or Narrator key + M will return to reading just the characters, without phonetic information.

If you prefer the original character phonetic reading behavior, a setting has been added for you to toggle on the automatic reading of phonetics.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Narrator automatic character phonetic reading optimization for your account in Windows 10.


 CONTENTS:

  • Option One: Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading in Settings
  • Option Two: Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading using a REG file





OPTION ONE

Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading in Settings


1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Ease of Access icon.

You can also press the Win+Ctrl+N keys to directly open Narrator settings.

2. Click/tap on Narrator on the left side, and turn on or off (default) Hear phonetics as you read by character for what you want on the right side under Change what you hear when reading and interacting. (see screenshot below)

3. You can now close Settings if you like.

Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading in Windows 10-narrator_hear_phonetics_as_you_read_by_character.jpg






OPTION TWO

Turn On or Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading using a REG file


The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam

ReadCharactersPhonetically DWORD

0 = Off
1 = On


1. Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.


 2. To Turn On Narrator Character Phonetic Reading

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_ON_Hear_phonetics_as_you_read_by_character_with_Narrator.reg

Download


 3. To Turn Off Narrator Character Phonetic Reading

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_OFF_Hear_phonetics_as_you_read_by_character_with_Narrator.reg

Download

4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials



  • Windows 11 Tutorials