Ribbons are not menus.  They are ribbons.  In a program with ribbons, open the ribbons with alt.  Use the left and right arrow to move from ribbon to ribbon, as you would move from menu to menu.  Let's say you want to look through the view ribbon.  When you get to view, start to tab.  You will move through all the items in the view menu.  If you get to a menu, available in the ribbon in this way, press enter or space bar to open the menu.  Activate buttons in the usual way, with the space bar.  If you have problems working with structures, let us know.  There are often a lot more items in a ribbon than in one menu.  Something you intend to use regularly would be a good idea to memorize the command for.  As you move through the ribbon, such as the view ribbon, you will hear, if you let your screen-reader read to the end every time you tab, a command.  For example, this is fictitious, and if there is such a command it is coincidental, enlarge, v e.  If you press alt and then v and then e, you will activate the command or open the item, such as a menu. 

There are other commands to move faster between sections of a ribbon, but I'll let others discuss them.  I don't use ribbons enough to remember.  In other words, ribbons are generally divided into sections and you can move from section to section.  For example, an e-mail program may have a section in a ribbon named respond, where you will find commands such as reply and forward. 

Ribbon programs do have one menu you will find by left and right arrowing through the ribbons.  As you left and right arrow, you will come across something that says file, as I recall,  and it is a menu.  you may hear something else announced, I don't remember just what.  Perhaps something about a grid if you let your screen-reader read everything about the menu.  Don't worry about it.  Some common commands are in the menu such as save as.  You will see commands such as f,a, for save as in that menu.  Some of these commands will be the same as you are used to. 

Gene

Ribbons are not menus.  They are ribbons.  In a program with ribbons, open the ribbons with alt.  Use the left and right arrow to move from ribbon to ribbon, as you would move from menu to menu.  Let's say you want to look through the view ribbon.  When you get to view, start to tab.  You will move through all the items in the view menu.  If you get to a menu, available in the ribbon in this way, press enter or space bar to open the menu.  Activate buttons in the usual way, with the space bar.  If you have problems working with structures, let us know.  There are often a lot more items in a ribbon than in one menu.  Something you intend to use regularly would be a good idea to memorize the command for.  As you move through the ribbon, such as the view ribbon, you will hear, if you let your screen-reader read to the end every time you tab, a command.  For example, this is fictitious, and if there is such a command it is coincidental, enlarge, v e.  If you press alt and then v and then e, you will activate the command or open the item, such as a menu. 

There are other commands to move faster between sections of a ribbon, but I'll let others discuss them.  I don't use ribbons enough to remember.  In other words, ribbons are generally divided into sections and you can move from section to section.  For example, an e-mail program may have a section in a ribbon named respond, where you will find commands such as reply and forward. 

Ribbon programs do have one menu you will find by left and right arrowing through the ribbons.  As you left and right arrow, you will come across something that says file, as I recall,  and it is a menu.  you may hear something else announced, I don't remember just what.  Perhaps something about a grid if you let your screen-reader read everything about the menu.  Don't worry about it.  Some common commands are in the menu such as save as.  You will see commands such as f,a, for save as in that menu.  Some of these commands will be the same as you are used to. 

Gene

I suspect you can't do anything about this.  There is an icon that NVDA isn't announcing, I suspect because it isn't programmed to do so.  But why is that a problem?  If unread messages are announced as unread, then the only other thing they can be is read.  If you want more control of whether the status of an announcement changes from unread to read, you may be able to control this completely by turning off the view pane.  In e-mail programs with the view pane on, as I understand it, showing a message in the view pane is actually opening the message and they will be shown as read.  If the view pane is off, then you can arrow to a message in the list and not open it and it will be announced as unread until you open it. 

Also, you may be able to change the time a message is opened before its status changes.  If you can make the time long enough, you may be able to leave the viewpane opened and still have a message shown as unread if you arrow through the message list and stop on a message briefly.

Also, you may have some reason we don't know why you want to have announced what is both read and unread.  If you tell us if you use the different flags for certain purposes, for example, organizing mail in certain ways, you may get suggestions you can use to do whatever you want to do.  People often don't get good help because they only ask how to do something and don't explain what they are actually trying to accomplish.  That means that the only discussion is specifically about how to do the exact thing that is asked for even when other solutions may be available and may be better.

Gene