Reading by sentence

By Adrian Davids

In a previous entry we looked at reading by line, today we’ll look at reading by sentence with Jaws.

Keys to be used

1. The alt key
2. Up arrow. [num pad 8]
3. Down arrow. [num pad 2]

Do the following to read by sentence:

1. To speak the prior sentence, press alt plus up arrow.
2. To speak the sentence you’re on, press alt plus num pad 5.
3. To speak the next sentence, press alt plus down arrow.

That’s it for today, join me again next time for more on Jaws.

Reading by line

By Adrian Davids

Screens and documents are often read by line rather than character or word. For today’s exercise we’ll look at doing just that.

Keys to be used

In order to read by line we’ll need to use the up and down arrows. Let’s find it on the num pad.

1. Up arrow [8] “the key above the 5 on the num pad.”
2. The down arrow [2] “below the 5 on the num pad.”

Now that we know which keys to use, do the following:

1. To speak the prior line, press num pad 8. [up arrow]
2. To speak the line that you’re on, hold down the Insert key with your thumb and press num pad 8. [up arrow]
3. To spell the line you’re on, hold down the Insert key and press num pad 8 twice quickly.
4. To speak the next line, press num pad 2. [down arrow]

That’s our short, but effective lesson for today. Let us know what techniques you find useful with your screen reader.

Reading by word

By Adrian Davids

Moving from character to character to locate the spelling of a particular word is quite interesting, but another method I like to use is when the word is being spelled by Jaws.

So, let us see how to manipulate our cursor keys to perform this task.

I would once again suggest that you get your favourite document or page for the exercise.

Locating keys to be used

1. Find the Insert key with your thumb on the num pad. [the big key on the botem left corner]
2. Find the arrow keys or home row, 4, 5 and 6 for navigation.

Reading and spelling words

Now that we have the correct placement of the fingers, do the following.

1. To speak the prior word, hold down the insert key with your thumb and press num pad 4. [left arrow]
2. To speak the word that you are on, hold down the insert key and press num pad 5. [The one with the bump]
3. To spell the word that you are on, hold down the insert key and press num pad 5 twice quickly.
4. To speak the next word, hold down the insert key and press num pad 6. [right arrow]

This is one of my favourite techniques to use with Jaws. Let us know what tips and tricks you like to use when reading documents and screens with your screen reader.

Scanning words letter by letter

By Adrian Davids

Reading through and fully understand a document sometimes require one to scan particular words letter by letter. The Arrow keys on the Num Pad allows one to do just that. Let’s look at placing your fingers on the 4, 5 and 6, often called the Home Row
to perform this task.

Find your favourite document, book or page and find a word you’d like to use for this exercise. Let us begin once you have done so.

Home Row finger placement

1. Place your index finger on the 4, [left arrow] of the home row.
2. Place your middle finger on the 5, [has a bit of a bump on it.
3. Place your ring finger on the 6, [right arrow.] of the home row.]

Moving through each character

Now that we have the finger placement, let us see how to manipulate these keys.

1. To move one letter to the left, press num pad 4. [left arrow]
2. To speak the letter that you are on, press num pad 5. [the one with the bump]
3. To speak the letter phonetically, press num pad 5 twice quickly. [the one with the bump]
4. To move one letter to the right, press num pad 6. [right arrow]

Now you know how to scan a word by passing through its characters one by one in order to get its spelling. Next, we’ll look at Reading by word

The num pad

By Adrian Davids

The Numeric Keypad [Num Pad] is often used for reading screens and different kinds of documents with Jaws. The Num Pad is normaly located on the right side of your keyboard. Usually one would use it for tiping numbers, so in order to Perform Reading functions, you’d have to turn it off. In other words, you’d have to lock the Num Pad. You can do so by pressing the Num Lock key [upper left key] on the numeric keypad.

By pressing this key you would change the status of the Num Pad.
You’ll hear Jaws speak one of the following:

1. Num Lock on.
2. Num Lock off.

Now that we know where the Num Pad is situated and how to change it’s status, let’s see how we can manipulate the keys on it.

1. Scanning characters with Jaws

The Jaws Key Defined

By Adrian Davids

The Insert key is often used through Jaws in conjunction with other keys in order to perform certain tasks such as reading documents, navigate screens, brows the World Wide Web etc. The Insert key is then referred to as the Jaws key. You have the option of choosing as to wich key you want as the Jaws key.
Your options are:

1. The Inser key.
2. The Caps Lock key.
3. The Scroll Lock key.

To assign the Jaws key to any of the keys above, you can change the assignment of the key in itself, or change your computer keyboard layout. Let’s look at each one in turn.

Setting up a different Jaws key.

1. Press the Windows key plus M to put the focus on the Desktop.
2. Press J untill you get to the Jaws Icon.
3. Press Enter to highlight the Jaws application Window.
4. Press Alt plus U to open the Utilities menu.
5. Next, press the down arrow untill you get to the Configuration Manager item.
6. Press Enter here
7. Next, press Alt plus S, followed by the letter K to open Keyboard options.
8. Press Tab untill you hear Jaws speak something similar to the following: “Jaws key for Desktop layout Insert radio button checked, 1 of 3. To change the selection, use the arrow keys.” Here you can decide wich key you want to use as the Jaws key.
9. Once done, press Tab untill you get to the Ok button, press the Space Bar to save your changes.
10. When you exit the Configuration Manager, “By pressing Alt plus f4,” it will ask you if you want to save your changes before closing, just press Space Bar or Enter if this is your wish.
11. That’s it, you now have a new Jaws key. Go ahead and try it out and see how it works for you.

Next, we’ll look at changing your keyboard layout.

Changing to a different keyboard layout.

By Adrian Davids

This Article is continued from Page 1.

To change to another keyboard layout do the following:

1. Press the Windows key plus M to put the focus on the Desktop.
2. Press J untill you get to the Jaws Icon.
3. Pres Enter to highlight the Jaws application window.
4. Next, press Alt plus O to open the Options menu, you will now hear Jaws speak the first item in the menu wich is the Basics item, press Enter here.
5. Tab untill you hear Jaws speak something similar to the following: “Use keyboard layout: Combo box, Desktop, 2 of 5. To change the selection use the arrow keys. Alt plus L.” Here you can decide wich layout you want to use.
6. Next, press Tab till you get to the Ok button, press the Space Bar to save your changes.
7. That’s it, you now have a new keyboard layout. Go ahead and try it out to see how it works for you

Jaws Defined

By Adrian Davids

Jaws for Windows is a screen reading application that allow blind and visually impaired computer users the opportunity to go about doing their daily computer tasks as
sufficiently as their sited counterparts. In its most basic form Jaws can be described as a software application that turns text
into audio.

With Jaws, users are able to read and write documents, brows the internet, keep online dyaries and even create and manipulate audio files. Jaws is just one of the few/many Applications around to help people perform these tasks. For mor information, check out the Freedom Scientific Web site. “The link opens in a New Window. Press Shift plus Enter to open.”