Top 10 tips on using Windows 10’s accessibility options

 (1) Personalise your contrast colours

Contrast on Windows has always been traditionally black and yellow, but now with Windows 10 you can change the colours to suit you better.

To turn Contrast on your computer, click on the left ALT + Shift + Print Screen all at the same time. To personalise your colours, press the Windows Key, type in ‘High Contrast’ and press ‘Enter’.

(2) Share content you like straight onto Social Media apps or by Email

When you’re in your photos or videos, you can click the Windows Key + H, which can share the content onto a number of social media apps, such as Facebook or Twitter.

(3) Use Narrator for documents

Narrator is useful for reading documents, and the voice of Window’s 10 Narrator is much more human than in previous Windows versions. You can open Narrator by pressing the Windows Key, typing in “Narrator” and then pressing ‘Enter.’

(4) Using Magnifier

Magnifier is useful for zooming in on the screen – press the Windows Key + the Plus button to open Magnifier. Pressing it again will zoom in by 100%, and just press the Windows Key + the Minus button to zoom out.

(5) Control your apps with voice commands

You may have heard of ‘Siri’, the robotic personal assistant on Apple technology. Windows 10 has its own version – Cortana – built into Windows 10. If you have a microphone plugged in or built-into your computer, you can press the Windows Key + C to search with Cortana, who will start listening for instructions. We thought this was really handy for using apps, with voice commands such as ‘Turn on WiFi’ or ‘Open Camera’. Try a few different things out!

 (6) Find out the name of that song you like

Use Cortana’s Music Commands to find out that song you’re enjoying by asking ‘What song is playing?’

(7) Quell those hunger pains

‘Show me pizza restaurants nearby’, ‘Get me directions to the nearest Starbucks’, and ‘What restaurants are open at 10am nearby’ are just some of the questions you could experiment with as part of Cortana’s Maps and Directions commands.

 (8) Organise your schedule

Cortana has a number of useful commands to help organise your schedule, including ‘Create a meeting with Jenny at 2pm tomorrow’ or ‘What am I doing this weekend?’

Narrator can also help with this, by letting you know what the time is. If you are on Narrator, select Caps Lock and C to find out the current time and date.

(9) Become the pub quiz royalty you’ve been dreaming about

Cortana has a few general knowledge questions up its sleeve. Try ‘Who is Kanye West?’ or ‘What’s the population of India?’ and boost up your trivia.

 (10) Solve maths problems quickly

Use Cortana’s maths commands to get those tricky sums answered quickly. Particularly useful is Cortana’s conversion ability – ask her to ‘Convert 2 cups to grams’, for example. Very handy when baking!

If you have any other ideas or tips for Windows 10, why don’t you join our Tech Talk group? Tech Talk meets on the last Friday of every month to discuss all the new advancements in assistive technologies. People of all abilities are more than welcome, and you can even participate remotely! For more information, please email manchester@henshaws.org.uk or ring 0300 222 5555.

Read more about Windows 10 on Tom’s blog ‘I.T Tech and Tips’. You can also follow him on Facebook, or on Twitter @ITTechandTips.