Use a screen reader to explore following and recent sites list in sharepoint online

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 Microsoft Support home.

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Use SharePoint in Microsoft 365 with your keyboard and a screen reader to explore the sites you are following and sites you have recently visited. The sites are listed in the Navigation pane, which makes it easy to get to them. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques. You'll learn how to use a screen reader to add a Frequent or Suggested site to your Following list.

Notes: 

• 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.

• To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft Office.

• When you use SharePoint in Microsoft 365, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser. Because SharePoint in Microsoft 365 runs in your web browser, the keyboard shortcuts are different from those in the desktop program. For example, you'll use Ctrl+F6 instead of F6 for jumping in and out of the commands. Also, common shortcuts like F1 (Help) and Ctrl+O (Open) apply to the web browser – not SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

In this topic

• Explore the Following list

• Explore the Recent list

• Add a site to or remove a site from the Following list

Explore the Following list

1. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 account, and start the SharePoint app.

2. To move to the Following sites list:

   • With JAWS, press the Tab key until you hear "Create news post button," and then press the Tab key until you hear the name of the first Following site and "Link" or "Visited link."

   • With Narrator, press the Tab key until you hear: "The sites you are following are below."

3. To hear the name of each site and move to the next one, press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the site.

4. To move to the Follow site check box for a site:

   • With JAWS, when you hear the name of the site, press the Down arrow key. You hear "Follow site," followed by the name of the site.

   • With Narrator, when you hear the name of the site, press the Right arrow key. You hear "Checked Follow site," followed by the name of the site. To remove the site from your Following list, press Spacebar.

   Notes: The list may not display the names of all the sites you are following. To hear the entire list:

   1. Press the Tab key until you hear "See all links, See all Following sites," and press Enter. With Narrator, you hear: "Link, See all."

   2. Press Enter. The Following pane opens, which displays a tile view of the sites you are following.

   3. To enter the grid, press the Tab key until you hear: "Following table."

   4. To move through the sites:

      • With JAWS, press the Down arrow key. You hear the name of the site. To move to the Follow site check box for the site, press the Down arrow key again. You hear "Follow site," followed by the name of the site. To move to the next site, press the Down Arrow key.

      • With Narrator, press the Right arrow key. You hear: "No item in view." To hear the name of a site, press the Down arrow key. You hear "Checked follow site," followed by the name of the site. To move to the next site, press the Right arrow key.

   5. To return to your SharePoint home page, press Shift+Tab until you hear "Out of table," and then press Enter.

Explore the Recent list

1. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 account, and start the SharePoint app.

2. To move to the Recent sites list:

   • With JAWS, press the Tab key until you hear "Create news post button," and then press the Tab key until you hear the name of the first Recent site and "Link" or "Visited link." When moving from the Following list to the Recent list, JAWS does not read the name of the Recent list, but proceeds directly to its items.

   • With Narrator, press the Tab key until you hear: "The sites you've recently visited are below."

     Tip: If the See all link is available in the Following list, at the end of the Following list, you hear: "See all link, See all following sites." When you hear this, to move to the Recent list, press the Tab key once.

3. To hear the name of each site and move to the next one, press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the site.

4. To move to the Follow site check box for a site:

   • With JAWS, when you hear the name of the site and "Link," press the Down Arrow key. You hear "Follow site," followed by the name of the site, and either "check box checked" or "check box unchecked.

   • With Narrator, when you hear the name of the site and "Link," press the Right arrow key. You hear "Checked, Follow site," followed by the name of the site, or "Unchecked, Follow site" followed by the name of the site.

   To add the site to or remove it from your Following list, press Spacebar.

5. To go to a site, press Enter.

Add a site to or remove a site from the Following list

You can quickly add or remove sites from your Following sites list using the Frequent and Suggested grids on your home page.

1. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 account, and start the SharePoint app.

2. To move to the Frequent or Suggested grid of tiles, press the Tab key until you hear "Frequent table," or "Suggested." With Narrator, for both the Frequent grid and the Suggested grid, you hear: "No item in view." The focus is on the first site's tile.

3. To move to the site you want to add or remove, press the Up arrow key until you hear either "Checked, Follow site," or "Unchecked, Follow site," followed by the name of the site. With JAWS, you hear either "Check box checked, Follow," or "Check box not checked, Stop following."

4. To select or clear the check box, press Spacebar. The site is added to or removed from your Following list in the Navigation pane.

   Tip: With JAWS, you cannot use the Right arrow key to move from the first site to the others unless you first clear or select the Follow site check box by pressing Spacebar. To move to the next site without changing the value of the Follow site check box (Following or Stop following) for the first site, press Spacebar twice. After you have moved past the first site, to move to other sites without changing the value of a site's Follow site check box, use the Right arrow key.

5. To move to the next list item, press the Right arrow key.

6. For each site you want to add or remove, repeat steps 3 and 4.

See also

Use a screen reader to search for sites in SharePoint Online

Keyboard shortcuts in SharePoint Online

Use a screen reader to explore and navigate SharePoint Online

Use SharePoint in Microsoft 365 with your keyboard and a screen reader to explore the Sites section on the SharePoint home page, which contains the Frequent, Following, Recent, and Suggested tabs listing sites you might be interested in. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques. You'll learn how to use a screen reader to add sites to the your Following tab.

Notes: 

• 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.

• To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft Office.

• When you use SharePoint in Microsoft 365, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser. Because SharePoint in Microsoft 365 runs in your web browser, the keyboard shortcuts are different from those in the desktop program. For example, you'll use Ctrl+F6 instead of F6 for jumping in and out of the commands. Also, common shortcuts like F1 (Help) and Ctrl+O (Open) apply to the web browser – not SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

In this topic

• Explore the Sites section

• Add a site to or remove a site from the Following tab

Explore the Sites section

The Sites section on the SharePoint home page contains the Frequent, Following, Recent, and Suggested tabs. Each tab contains a rotating selection of tiles for SharePoint sites.

1. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 account, and start the SharePoint app.

2. To move to the Sites section, press the Tab key until you hear: "Sites, frequent tab."

3. To navigate between the tabs in the Sites section, press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear the name of the tab you want.

4. To navigate inside the tab, press the Tab key once. You hear the name of the tab, followed by "Press Enter to navigate inside carousel menu." Press Enter once and use the Left and Right arrow keys to navigate between tiles in the tab.

5. To go to a site, press Enter.

Add a site to or remove a site from the Following tab

You can quickly add or remove sites from the Following sites tab.

1. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 account, and start the SharePoint app.

2. To move to the Sites section, press the Tab key until you hear: "Sites, frequent tab."

3. Press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear the name of the tab that contains the site you want to add or remove from the Following tab.

4. To navigate inside the tab, press the Tab key once. You hear the name of the tab, followed by "Press Enter to navigate inside carousel menu." Press Enter once and use the Left and Right arrow keys to navigate between tiles in the tab.

5. To move to the Follow site check box, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Follow site," followed by the name of the site. To select or clear the check box, press Spacebar. The site is added to or removed from your Following tab.

6. To move to the next item in the tab, press the Right arrow key.

7. For each site you want to add or remove, repeat step 5.

See also

Use a screen reader to search for sites in SharePoint Online

Keyboard shortcuts in SharePoint Online

Basic tasks using a screen reader with SharePoint Online

Use a screen reader to explore and navigate SharePoint Online

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.