11 Favourite Shortcuts That Use the NVDA key

Hello, this 10 minute video has the screen reader NVDA as its focus.

In the video, I demonstrate 11 shortcut keys that use the NVDA key.

The NVDA key is a special "turbo charged" shortcut key.

The video includes a full set of subtitles but if you would prefer to read a full transcript, then please find it below.

Start of Video Transcript

Hello everyone. It is James from the Visual Impairment Team in Devon.

In this video, I will quickly show you some of the most powerful shortcut keys that you can use with the NVDA modifier key or if you want to keep it simple, the NVDA key.

The NVDA key is a specific key that when pressed in combination with other keys performs various functions within the screen reader NVDA.

It’s like a shortcut key that is turbo charged.

In a previous video I demonstrated how to change your NVDA key.

In this video, I am using NVDA version 2016.3 and the Firefox browser on a Windows 10 laptop. My NVDA key is the extended insert key.

The first shortcut that I want to demonstrate is NVDA + a. This is the say all command that reads out all the text in a document from the current position onwards.

The second shortcut is “keyboard help”. You can turn this on and off by pressing the NVDA key and the number 1 key.

When it is turned on, NVDA is put into a help or assistant mode and every time you press a shortcut key, NVDA explains its function.

Whilst in the help mode, if I pressed the NVDA key and the A  key together, NVDA would tell me that pressing those two keys would read all command.

Because it is in the assistant mode, NVDA won’t actually read everything. It is just instructing you what to do!

After you have finished hearing about what different shortcut keys do, press the NVDA key and the number 1 key and you should hear “keyboard help off”.

The third shortcut is “speech mode”. This is the NVDA key and the S key. By pressing and releasing these keys, you toggle between “speech mode talk”, “speech mode beeps” and “speech mode off .”

The fourth shortcut that I want to explain is allows you to open up the NVDA menu. This is the NVDA + N key. This contains the preferences, tools and the help menu as the main elements.

The fifth shortcut key that I want to demonstrate enables you to decrease the voice rate. NVDA will speak at a slower pace. This is the Ctrl + NVDA + down arrow key.

The sixth shortcut key that I want to demonstrate enables you to increase the voice rate. NVDA will speak at a faster pace. This is the Ctrl + NVDA + up arrow key.

The seventh shortcut key that I want to demonstrate is NVDA + Space. The screen reader can toggle between two modes of interaction with a page- focus and browse.

Browse mode is best used when you are just reading from a document or a web page whereas focus mode is best used you need to input text into a document or spreadsheet.

Each mode has a distinct sound effect. The focus mode has the sound of a keyboard key being pressed and the browse mode has a beeping sound.

The eighth shortcut key that I want to demonstrate is NVDA + F7. This shortcut key can only be used on a webpage. It shows you all the elements (links, headers and landmarks) that a webpage has.

The ninth shortcut key that I want to demonstrate is NVDA + F12.

If you press these keys down once then the time will be read out and if you press them down twice the date will be read out.  

The tenth shortcut is NVDA + Shift + B. This will tell you the status of your battery. How much charge does it have and is it plugged in.

And my eleventh and final shortcut key is NVDA key and Q- this closes NVDA.

That’s it. Those are eleven of my favourite shortcuts using the NVDA key.

Thanks for watching my video.

If this video has helped you, please share it with your friends, colleagues  and family.

I have created lots of other videos relating to NVDA- a link to the playlist can be found in the description.

If you have any comments or questions or anything to add to the discussion, please leave them below.

End of Video Transcript.