Use a screen reader to add a new mail contact in the Exchange admin center

This article is for people 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 the Exchange admin center (EAC) with your keyboard and a screen reader to set up a new mail contact. A mail contact is a mail-enabled directory service object containing information about a person or entity that exists outside of your EAC organization. Each mail contact has an external email address.

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.” If you hear "collapsed" instead of "expanded," press Spacebar to expand the menu before continuing.

2. With Narrator, press the SR key+Right arrow key until you hear: "Recipients, expanded." With JAWS, press the Down arrow key instead. If you hear "collapsed" instead of "expanded," press Spacebar to expand the menu before continuing.

3. With Narrator, press the SR key+Right arrow key until you hear: "Contacts." With JAWS, press the Down arrow key instead. Then press Enter. The Contacts list view opens, listing all mail contacts in a table, and the focus moves to the Add a contact menu item.

4. Press Enter. The Add contact pane opens.

5. Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab to move the focus between the following boxes and fill in the contact information.

   Note: Required boxes are designated with an asterisk. In screen readers, you might hear "star" or "asterisk" after the label. For example, in the required Display name box, you might hear "Display name star" or "Display name asterisk." Some screen readers can also say "Required."

   • Contact type *: To select the contact type from the drop-down menu, press Spacebar to open the menu, press the SR key+Right or left arrow key until you hear "Mail contact," and press Spacebar to select.

   • First name: Type the contact's first name.

   • Last name: Type the contact's last name.

   • Display name *: By default, EAC uses the names you entered in the First name and Last name boxes as the display name. To change the default, type the name as it should appear in the contacts list in the EAC and in your organization's address book. The display name can't be longer than 64 characters.

   • Email: Type the contact's email address that is outside of your organization. Email sent to the contact is forwarded to this email address.

   • Company: Type the name of the company the contact works for.

   • Work phone: Type the contact's work phone number.

   • Mobile phone: Type the contact's mobile phone number.

6. When you're finished, press the Tab key until you hear "Add, button," and press Enter. The Add contact pane closes, and the contact is added to the table in the Contacts list view.