Accessibility and Usability Improvements in the new Outlook for Windows

The new Outlook for Windows brings the latest features, intelligent assistance, and a new, modern, streamlined design to the Outlook app. Adapt it to your style and get more done with the new Outlook for Windows. With accessibility and usability improvements, Microsoft is committed to delivering the efficiency, productivity, and familiarity that everyone expects from Outlook to achieve their everyday workflows.

To provide context, New Outlook for Windows The future of Mail, Calendar, and People on Windows. New Windows 11 devices come with the new Outlook for Windows, the default mailbox application, with free access for personal accounts and subscriptions for personal, work, and school accounts.

1. Microsoft is End of support for Mail and Calendar apps at the end of 2024We’re bringing you the new Outlook as the default email and calendar service provided by Windows.
2. While you have the new Outlook Generally available for both personal and commercial useClassic Outlook is still available. Learn more about Outlook over the years. Migration Timeline.

As new Outlook features expand, we’ve integrated Immersive Reader, which lets users listen to their emails and adjust text settings to improve readability. We’ve provided a dictation feature that enables voice-to-text email drafts. Users can also zoom in on email content and adjust themes to suit their viewing preferences. Along with these features, we’ve provided Accessibility Checker, which helps users identify accessibility issues in drafted emails and helps them create content that is accessible to others.

We continue to listen to feedback from the community and make improvements based on that feedback. We are especially prioritizing requests for the best usability and accessibility features to support what users expect from their Mail and Calendar apps.

Recently added keyboard shortcuts

The new Outlook for Windows offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts, including the ones you’ve come to expect from the classic Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. Users can use the F6 key to quickly move between app areas, the Esc key to close windows, and more. A full list of keyboard shortcuts available in the new Outlook can be found here: Outlook Shortcuts from Microsoft SupportGo to Settings > General > Accessibility, or press the ‘?’ key within an application.

The Outlook team has implemented many keyboard shortcuts to help users perform common tasks in email, such as reviewing message lists, reading mail, composing mail, and switching folders, more easily and efficiently.

Add Ctrl+Y shortcut

Now users are familiar with Use the shortcut ‘Ctrl+Y’ to navigate to a folder.This keyboard combination allows the user to easily switch folders by typing one or more alphanumeric keys, focusing on the folder name according to the order in which the keys are pressed.

Add tab efficiency

Navigating messages in the Reading Pane is now much faster. Previously, whenever a user pressed the ‘Tab’ key, focus would move to all buttons and links within the Reading Pane. Now, users can navigate grouped elements by pressing the arrow keys, and use the ‘Tab’ key to move focus to different parts of the message.

Add Alt shortcut

Users can now use: ‘Alt’ shortcut to invoke ribbon key tipsThis functionality was originally available via the ‘Alt + Windows’ key combination, but we heard feedback that the keyboard combination wasn’t easily discoverable, so we added a shortcut with just the ‘Alt’ key.

Here’s an image of the main tips that appear on the ribbon.

A more improved screen reader experience

In addition to implementing keyboard shortcuts to help screen reader users navigate the new Outlook for Windows efficiently, we’re working with assistive technology vendors like Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA to create a more seamless reading experience.

When you open an email to read, JAWS and NVDA automatically read the entire message body out loud. In addition to the ability to focus on the message body after opening an email, focus states for other commands have also been improved. For example, after starting a new Outlook or completing a search, the default focus is directly on the first item in the message list instead of the entire message list area. Also, when using keyboard navigation, after invoking the ‘Skip’ link at the beginning of the window, the focus moves directly to the message or message list item. These improvements minimize keyboard navigation, allowing screen reader users to focus on the most valuable information.

To optimize your screen reader experience in the new Outlook, we recommend turning off the Reading Pane and setting Conversation View to “Show each message separately.” For more tips, visit: Basic tasks for using email with a screen reader in Outlook from Microsoft Support.

Image of the keyboard focus appearing on the first message list item.

Upcoming keyboard and screen reader improvements

We’ve already added keyboard and screen reader capabilities to the new Outlook to meet the everyday workflow needs of Windows Mail and Calendar, but we’re continuing to work on more features that will be released in the coming months.

The Calendar module provides the following features: Use the arrow keys to navigate through the timeslots within the calendar grid. Coming in October 2024. Work is in progress to enable and add support for keyboard arrows between ribbon tabs and their content. Use the Narrator screen reader tool to automatically read the body of the message.Like JAWS and NVDA. We strive to maintain parity across screen reader partners so that users can have a similar experience regardless of their preferred platform.

We will continue to improve the usability of the new Outlook with keyboards, screen readers, zoom, and other assistive technologies. Please continue to share your feedback. Help tab After selecting Feedback on the Outlook ribbon, please include “Accessibility in the new Outlook” along with your comment in the comment box.

If you have any questions or feedback about accessibility at Microsoft, please let us know. Disabled Persons Answer Desk Or try the new Bing AI-powered Contact Microsoft Accessibility Tools.