I was setting up a laptop that I just got with Windows 7. Why Windows 7, when it is about to lose support? Because Windows 10 is literally malware. I use Linux most of the time, and this installation was going to be for offline use anyway. But on this new (old) laptop, I was facing a problem in Linux where the discrete graphics chip would not up-clock when running demanding applications, like Blender. I do have some vision.

Anyway, I installed Windows 7, got it all working, and then my problem with the graphics chip persisted. Apparently it isn't just a Linux thing. So I uninstalled the latest graphics drivers from Intel and AMD and instead, went to install the ones from Dell, the laptop manufacturer, which are years out of date. Upon uninstalling the newer drivers, I was left with a black desktop on both the integrated monitor and external display.

So then I fired up Narrator to navigate around "in the dark" and install the official drivers from the OEM. My god, that program makes me want to slit my own wrists. It is that terrible, slow, and useless. Even though this is a 16GB memory machine with a 3GHz processor, there is at least a 1 second delay between when I press a key and finding out what I've done. Narrator quickly tells me that I pressed the tab key (as if I didn't know), and then pauses forever before reading me the dialog box. If it even feels like doing that. This next bit is not Narrator's fault specifically, but every other software vendor has to make a new type of installer that doesn't work with a screen reader. So that, when you are installing drivers in the dark because the monitor does not work (or you are actually completely blind), you can't tell what you are tabbing to and clicking on. But at least the default voice actually sounds somewhat like a human and not a robot! That's what's *really* important.

I'm convinced that the only reason the Narrator screen reader even exists is because of sweet, sweet, government contracts. Microsoft could not get them if they did not at least pretend to give a rat's ass about assistive technology for the blind, and so, Narrator was born. Yes, Windows 7 is old. But by 2009, Narrator should have worked. Even by then, screen readers had been around for at least 25 years.

Yes, I know about NVDA. It works well. And it's free too, that helps. But it's not there on a default Windows install. You are stuck with Narrator, the screen reader equivalent of an employee who fouls up any and every task you assign to him.