Use a screen reader to add a new shared mailbox in the Exchange admin center

This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Windows tools or features and  Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Accessibility help & learning 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 add a new shared mailbox. Shared mailboxes make it easy for a group of people in your organization to monitor and send email from a common account, such as info@contoso.com or support@contoso.com. When a person in the group replies to a message sent to the shared mailbox, the email looks like it was sent by the shared mailbox, not from the individual user.

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: "Mailboxes." With JAWS, press the Down arrow key instead. Then press Enter. The Mailboxes list view opens, and the focus moves to the Add a shared mailbox menu item.

4. Press Enter. The Add a shared mailbox pop-up window opens, and the focus moves to the Close button. Press the Tab key. You hear: "Name." Type the display name for the shared mailbox you're creating.

5. Press the Tab key. You hear: "Email address." Type the email address for the new shared mailbox. Do not include the at (@) sign or the domain name in this box.

6. Press the Tab key. You hear "Domain," followed by the currently selected domain. Press Spacebar to open the drop-down menu, then use the Down and Up arrow keys to browse the available domains until you find the one you want, and press Enter to select.

7. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Create, button," and press Enter. When the mailbox has been created, you hear: "Shared mailbox created successfully." Press the Tab key until you hear "Add users to this mailbox, button," and press Enter.

8. The Manage shared mailbox members pop-up window opens, and the focus moves to the Close button. Press the Tab key. You hear: "Add users, button." Press Enter. The focus moves to the Close button in the search dialog box. Press the Tab key to move the focus to the search box.

9. Type all or part of the name of the first user you want to add to the shared mailbox. When you stop typing, the EAC updates the list of search results. Press the Tab key until you hear the name and email address of the first result, and use the Down and Up arrow keys to browse the results. When you find the person you want, press the Right arrow key once, and press Spacebar to toggle the selection check box.

10. To add a second user, press Shift+Tab until you hear "Clear text, button," and press Enter. Then repeat the previous step. Do this for all users you want to add to the new shared mailbox.

11. When you have finished adding users, press the Tab key until you hear "Save, button," and press Enter. You hear: "Shared mailbox members updated," followed by "Close, button." Press Enter.

12. To close the pop-up window and return to the Mailboxes list view, press Shift+Tab. You hear: "Close, button." Press Enter.

    Note: It might take up to 60 minutes for the new mailbox and its members to be available in Outlook and Outlook on the web.