New laptop, alt F1 is not bringing up the menus

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Hi,
Thank you for the suggestions. Yes, it turns out it had to do with the function key. For some reason I never had this problem with my HP. I had a sighted helper go into the Lenovo Bios and fix the issue with the function key. I think it said something about enabling hotkeys or something like that. Anyways, it worked, now the laptop acknowledges things like alt F1 to bring up the menus. 
Thank you so much for your very helpful suggestion, if all continues to go well, I should be able to keep this laptop now.
SL