Coach, CNIB, or occupational therapist
You are not installing a screen reader. You are not starting Narrator. You are not the product. In fifteen minutes you put a shortcut where the hand already goes, and you leave four facts the client can use when you have gone home.
Two installs, named so we stop mixing them. Computer install: a shortcut or home-screen icon to pinkhouse.tech/listen. Thoughtware install: the client can stop the PC, find Listen, use pink / Colour / Sound on a page, and turn it off, without you. If you only do one, you did not finish.
The one rule. Computer tips, not medical advice. This is not an ADL assessment and not an eye test. If they already use JAWS or NVDA well, leave that stack. Sight can sit on a website beside it.
Do not do these
- Do not start Narrator to “show how powerful it is.” Teach the off key. Leave it off unless they ask, and then sit through the first time.
- Do not run a Windows installer named Pink House Sight. An older leftover could start at logon and read Mail. If it is on the PC, take it off. Off zip.
- Do not transfer the whole instruction book. The book is for later. Today is four facts and a shortcut.
- Do not explain around the script. Read it. If they already know a step, skip that step.
- Do not stay as their reader. The test is: you leave the room for one minute. Can they open Listen and stop it?
- Do not put a Gmail button, or a button for each site, on Pink House. That is babysitting, and it becomes a look they have to hunt. Teach the address bar: click it, type the place, Enter. Gmail is gmail.com. They have to learn that part.
Before you sit down — two minutes
- Confirm the browser is Edge or Chrome if you can. Safari can still hear the website. Windows keys will not apply on a Mac.
- Download the shortcut now, while you can see it: Sight-Listen.url · zip
- Put it on their Desktop, not yours. Name it Listen. If this is a phone, Add to Home Screen.
- Memorise the stop key yourself: Ctrl + Win + Enter.
The fifteen minutes — say this
Coach, say this
- “I am not putting a program on this computer that starts by itself. I am putting a shortcut to a page that talks. Then I will leave you four facts.”
- “First we stop. Hold Control, the Windows key, and Enter. If Mail was talking, it should be quiet. If it is still talking, we stop pressing other keys.”
- “This shortcut is called Listen. Double-click it. A black page opens. Press the page, or press Space. The computer will talk. S stops. R repeats.”
- “That address is pinkhouse.tech/listen. If the shortcut is gone, a helper can type that.”
- “On pinkhouse.tech, a pink button turns help on. A ring means on. Colour is this page only, black and gold. Sound reads this page. Same buttons off. Mail stays Mail.”
- “If you want mail, we do not press a Gmail button here. Click the top bar, type gmail.com, Enter. That is how you go somewhere. We are not going to babysit every site.”
- “I am going to stand back. You open Listen. You stop it. You turn the pink button on and off. That is the whole install.”
- “There is no bill. If you want more later, the book is there. You do not need me for Colour and Sound on this website.”
The older cream-box script, if you want the longer ten-minute version after this: coach script in the book.
Done when — the leave-the-room test
- The client can find Listen (desktop, home screen, or the gold bar) without you pointing.
- They can start the voice and stop it.
- They can say what to do if Mail starts talking by itself.
- They can turn the pink button on and off on pinkhouse.tech, or they know they only need the trainer today.
- They have heard, once, that a place is typed: gmail.com, not a Pink House button.
If they cannot do those, you installed the shortcut and not the thoughtware. Repeat the four facts. Do not add Magnifier, contrast themes, or Narrator to “finish the hour.”
When Sight is not the right tool
- They need the whole desktop, Settings, and every app read: that is NVDA (free) or JAWS (they may already pay). Sight is a website square.
- They need a human to describe a scene: that is not this. Be My Eyes and similar are other programs.
- They are in medical or rehab goals you already own. Do not let this page rewrite those goals.
Leave-behind card — print this block
- Talking page: pinkhouse.tech/listen — press the page
- Long manual, out loud: pinkhouse.tech/listen/manual — website voice, not Windows Narrator
- Stop Windows talking: Control, Windows, Enter
- Stop the talking page: S, or Stop
- Pink House help: pink button. Ring is on. Colour and Sound are this page only
- No bill. Not a doctor. Not Narrator
- Coach door: pinkhouse.tech/start/coach.html
After you leave
Pink House does not have a staffed help desk. If the client or your organisation wants to tell us what broke, use the suggestion box. It is a box. We may not answer. If you need funded support later, that is an organisation conversation — CNIB, or a SaaS desk we have not built. Do not promise a callback from this page.