JAWS is a screen reading software program that uses the sound card on the computer to change the text on the screen to spoken words through the computer. Most people who are blind use a screen reading program in order to use the computer. Although, JAWS is a very powerful program, it cannot read graphics; therefore, it does not work well with programs such as Mavis Beacon or WIN. It does work well with Microsoft Office Products. Sometimes it cannot read PDF files or other scanned documents because they have been scanned as "image" rather than as "OCR" which stands for optical character recognition. If a document cannot be read by JAWS, try rescanning it and choosing "OCR" or some type of text rather than "image".

*Here are some general Windows key commands that navigate the JAWS cursor as well

• Alt F4 closes a program

• Control F4 closes a document

• Tab from link to link or field to field

• Up and Down arrow keys read line by line.

• Left and Right arrow keys read letter by letter or, if you hold down the "control" key, it will read word by word.

• To highlight sections on the page: hold down the "Shift" key and use the up and down or left and right arrow keys.  (if you hold down the Control key at the same time as the "Shift" and use the left and right arrow keys, you can select word by word.)

• Holding down the Shift key with the up and down arrow keys will highlight by lines. 

• Control A selects all text on the page.

• If you want to move text after it is highlighted, use control C (copy) or control X (cut), put your cursor in the new location and then control V (paste).

• Control Z is the “undo” last function.

• To get to the desktop, hold down the Windows/Start key and tap the letter ‘M”.  You should hear, "Desktop".  You can skip quickly to an item on the desktop by hitting the first letter of the program (i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.)

• If you hold the "ALT" key down while tapping the Tab key, it cycles through the open programs.  Then just let up on both keys and it drops you into the program you want.

*Some JAWS Specific Keys

• Control T tells you the title of the program you are in.

• Insert F12 once tells you the time and twice quickly tells you the date

*Using Excel

• When using Excel,

• you must tab from cell to cell, once you type in the cell anything that was there gets replaced with the new type.  You can backspace and fix errors immediately but once you move from the cell, you will have to use the "formula" field at the top of the page. 

• To access the formula field, tap the minus key.  This will activate the JAWS cursor.  Arrow up or downuntil you here the alphabet.  One line above the alphabet is the cell number you are in and the text within the cell.   Use "Control" and the arrow keys together to get to the words in the cell then tap the second key from the top left on the number pad (keyboard stroke for left mouse click while using JAWS).  Then tap the plus key on the number padand you will be in the cell and able to edit.  Just hit the tab key to get out of the field.

• JAWS will only read what is in the cell you are in (plus which cell you are in such as A1).  To hear the lines in full, you will have to hit the minus key on the number pad to activate the JAWS review cursor.  Be sure to hit the plus to get out of the review mode before trying to type again.

*Using Internet Explorer

• Use Control O to type in a web address.

• Enter activates a "combo box" and then you arrow up and down to look at the options.  Then hit “ Enter” on your choice or tab to the next field. 

• Hit enter on an edit field to “activate” it or else you will not be able to type.  Hitting the Plus key on the number pad will release the edit mode.

• If something is not accessible by the regular up and down keys, use the JAWS review cursor.  You do this by making sure the number pad is off and hitting the minus key in the top right of the pad.  You then use the up and down arrow keys, or left and right keys in combination with the Control key.  Continue to hold down the control key and hit the plus key.  This will route the PC cursor to the JAWS cursor and activate what you were on.

• The / key of the number pad is a left mouse click and the * is a right mouse click.          

*Other Issues

• To stop a print job: Press Start/Windows key then Escape then tab until you hear “button” then arrow over to “document”.  Hit the "applications" key then arrow up and down to highlight the job to be deleted. Then hit delete. It will ask you for confirmation.

Updated September, 2009 by Cassy Polen, Region 3 Navigator.