Use a screen reader to identify your admin role in the Exchange admin center

This article is for people with visual or cognitive impairments who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Microsoft 365 screen reader support content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.

Use your keyboard and a screen reader to identify your admin role to complete administrative tasks in the Exchange admin center (EAC). You need the appropriate administrative permissions, which are grouped and assigned by role, to do particular tasks.

We have tested it with Narrator in Microsoft Edge and with JAWS in Chrome, but it might work with other screen readers and web browsers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.

1. On the EAC dashboard, press the Tab key until you hear “Left navigation hamburger, expanded,” and then press the Tab key once. You hear the item currently selected in the left navigation pane.

2. In the navigation pane, press the Down or Up arrow key until you hear “Roles, not expanded,” and press Spacebar. You hear: "Suggestions available."

3. Press the Down arrow key once. You hear: “Admin roles, expanded.” Press Enter to select. The list of available admin roles opens to the right of the navigation pane.

4. To move the focus to the Admin roles list, press the Tab key until you hear: "Role group list." You also hear the total number of role groups and the position of the current selection in that list.

5. To browse the admin role groups in the list, use the Down and Up arrow keys. As the focus moves to each group, the group is selected, and you hear its name and description.

   Tip: To search for a role group, press the Tab key until you hear "Command bar," press the Right arrow key until you hear "Search role group by name," and then type your search words. You can search by words used in the group name or description. To browse the search results, press the Tab key until you hear "Role group list" and then press the Down arrow key to listen to the group names and descriptions.

6. To check the details of an admin role group, move the focus to the admin role group you want, and then press Enter. The details pane opens to the right of the screen. You hear “Close button," followed by the name of the admin role group. Do one or more of the following:

   1. To check if you have been assigned to the group, press Shift+Tab until you hear the currently selected tab, for example, "General." Press the Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Assigned," and then press Enter. Press the Tab key until you hear "Assigned members list," and then press the Down arrow key to move down in the list of members. If you don't hear your name among the members, you haven't been assigned the appropriate role to complete your task. Contact your Microsoft 365 administrator.

   2. To check which permissions the admin role group controls, press the Tab key until you hear the currently selected tab, for example, "General." Press the Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Permissions," and press Enter. Press the Tab key until you hear "Management roles list," and then use the Down arrow key to move down in the permissions list. If you don't hear the permission you need, close the details pane, move to the next admin role group, and repeat the step 6.

7. To close the details pane and return the focus to the admin role group list, press the Tab key until you hear "Close button," and press Enter.