This article is for people with visual impairments who use a screen reader program with the Office products and is part of the Office Accessibility content set. For more general help, see Office Support home.
Use Mail for Windows 10 with your keyboard and a screen reader to automatically check for potential spelling and grammatical errors as you type and to go through the errors and fix them. We have tested it with Narrator, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
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New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft Office.
In this topic
Check the spelling in an email
Check your email for spelling mistakes and then decide if you agree with the spellchecker.
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In the email you want to check for spelling mistakes, press F7. You hear: "Proofing," followed by the first suggested correction. The focus is on the suggested correction in the context menu.
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To browse the list of correction suggestions, press the Right arrow key. To select a suggestion, press Enter.
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To ignore the suggestions, press the Right arrow key until you hear "Ignore all," and then press Enter.
Hide and unhide proofing marks
You can hide the proofing marks so that your screen reader won't announce spelling errors as you work on your email. When you're done, you can unhide the marks, and check the spelling with a screen reader.
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Press F6 to move the focus to the ribbon tabs row. You hear the currently selected ribbon tab.
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Press the Left arrow key until you hear: "Selected, Options tab item."
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To move to the ribbon, press the Down arrow key once. You hear the first option on the ribbon, for example, "Off, High importance."
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Press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear "Proofing and language, button collapsed," and then press Alt+Down arrow key to expand the menu.
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To hide the proofing marks, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Unchecked, hide all proofing marks," and then press Spacebar.
Tip: To hide the proofing marks for a particular part of the text, first select the text in the email and then navigate to the Proofing and Language menu as instructed above. In the menu, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Unchecked, hide proofing marks in selected text," and then press Spacebar.
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To unhide the proofing marks, navigate to the Proofing and Language menu as instructed above. In the menu, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Checked, hide all proofing marks," and then press Spacebar.
See also
Basic tasks using a screen reader with Mail
Use a screen reader to format your email text in Mail
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Technical support for customers with disabilities
Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.
If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
