Better Accessibility for the Vision Impaired in Microsoft Sentinel

Last year in July, my colleague Innocent Wafula talked about Accessibility and usability for all in Azure Sentinel. Things like responsive design, content reflow, and linear order go a long way to provide better accessibility value for Microsoft Sentinel but also the Azure portal, in general.

But there’s more that can be done. And, while it would be great to have a Microsoft-provided solution, there are things that can be done now. Thanks to the Azure portal being web-based, many of these solutions are already available as web browser plugins.

I’ve personally tested each of the following and had a couple others test, too. While I’m not personally vision impaired, the others that tested are. However, I do suffer from optical migraines often which can leave me sightless for 15-20 minutes at a time and things like dark mode and color scheme changes help decrease how often those happen. The first one in the list – the Easy Theme – is only a slight adjustment of the Azure portal’s dark color scheme, but I can attest that it does make me better able to stare at the screen longer.

Easy Theme for Azure Portal – Chrome Plugin: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easy-theme-for-azure-port/jnfbljnollcdbbfmenlajfbnjgocifgc/related

Eye-Able – Accessibility Assistant – Microsoft Edge Plugin: https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/eyeable%C2%AE-accessibility/gcfjlpjkopkligfokkmgkdngneibiboj

Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader – Chrome Plugin: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read-aloud-a-text-to-spee/hdhinadidafjejdhmfkjgnolgimiaplp

Additionally, both Windows 10 and Windows 11 have Narrator built in. I’m not a huge fan of using it for the Azure portal, but some have had success. Check it out if you think it might help: Complete guide to Narrator

BIG NOTE: Do you use something else? Something that you swear by? Hit me up on Twitter (@rodtrent) or LinkedIn to let me know.

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