Freedom Scientific recently released the JAWS Training Bundle, a collection of over 50 hours of audio training resources aimed at the brand-new JAWS user and those who may need a refresher course. The bundle also includes basic training on how to use Windows 7 and 8.1 with speech, browsing the web with Internet Explorer, reading PDFs with speech, and becoming productive on the job or at home with the Microsoft Office applications Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
I have been using Windows productively since the days of Windows 3.11 for Work Groups. However, to the best of my memory, to date I have never used JAWS, even in demo mode. So when the folks at Freedom Scientific offered me the opportunity to take a look at the JAWS Training Bundle I figured this was the ideal time to learn JAWS from the beginning, or very close to it, as the bundle assumes you have a copy of JAWS 15 already installed on your Windows 7 or 8.1 PC.
The Bundle
There are three purchase options for the Jaws Training Bundle. You can order it preloaded onto an SD card for $750 and use your own DAISY player, assuming it has at least 2.05 gigabytes of free space available. You can also order the bundle on an SD card preinstalled on your choice of a PLEXTALK or Victor Reader Stream for $995.
The bundle was produced as an audio DAISY file, with two heading levels. There is no text, so you cannot search for information unless you have bookmarked it.
I already own a Victor Reader Stream, so I went with the simple SD card option.
The JAWS Training Bundle is designed to help the most novice of computer users. These individuals may also not have experience with either of the DAISY players, so, helpfully, the bundle begins with two sections describing how to use the PLEXTALK and Victor Reader Stream respectively. Consequently, the only two things the novice user may need sighted assistance with to get started are how to turn on the player and where the Play/Pause button is located. This information is also covered in these sections, along with a touch tour of each device and instructions on how to navigate by sections and how to create and navigate bookmarks.
Getting Started Using JAWS
The bundle offers a brief introduction of the training providers, complete with phone and e-mail contact information for each, and then continues with a quick overview of what JAWS is and how it works.
We now begin our JAWS experience with three bits of essential JAWS knowledge: how to pause speech using the control key, how to change the JAWS keyboard layout if you are using a laptop, and how to find the JAWS modifier keys—the Insert key or the Caps Lock key, depending on your keyboard layout settings—and how to use these and other modifier keys to perform multi-key commands.
The instructor offers a touch tour of various keyboard configurations, and demonstrates these actions as he describes them. You can hear JAWS respond, but here we encounter a potential pitfall. When I installed JAWS on my PC it used the Eloquence voice by default. Higher quality voices can be downloaded and installed, but this particular customization is not covered until well into the bundle. Meanwhile, from the very beginning, the instructor uses JAWS running a high-quality Vocalizer voice. No mention of this difference is offered, and I can well imagine the near-panic of the very-first time accessible computer user as he or she wonders, "My computer doesn't sound like that one. What am I doing wrong?"
This first main section winds up with a few more bits of essential knowledge for beginner JAWS users. The JAWS-1 Keyboard Help Mode command, which speaks the function of various key combinations as you press them without actually performing the action; how to start and stop JAWS; and how to access the JAWS menu and invoke its various options. I believe even someone who has never touched a computer before could easily follow along and learn these skills.
Introducing Windows
There are some significant differences between the feature sets of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. When appropriate, the JAWS Training Bundle includes separate sections covering each of these operating systems. You can use the DAISY heading controls to access the section that covers your Microsoft operating system and skip the other. If you are using one and then begin using the other, you can always go back and learn the differences in their feature sets.
One of the difficulties in teaching a novice computer user to comprehend and operate an accessible PC is that you have to teach two things at once: how to use the OS, and how to use the screen access software. For example, it is difficult to use a screen reader to access the Windows desktop until after you understand what the desktop is and why you would want to get there. The JAWS Training Bundle does a commendable job intertwining these lessons, taking the listener through various Windows concepts and commands, then demonstrating how to use JAWS to access them. Topics covered include the Windows Desktop with separate sections for Windows 7 and 8.1, using the keyboard to read and edit text, an introduction to files and folders, and obtaining on-the-go keyboard and context sensitive help.
Browsing the Web
These days a sizeable portion of computer time is spent browsing the web. Here, screen access software and website programming can combine to make the experience both simple and pleasurable. Of course the novice user may not even understand the concept of a web browser, so in the JAWS Help menu there is an option for web resources, and this includes the ability to open your default browser automatically and head directly to a special Freedom Scientific website titled: "Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic." This resource is available to all JAWS users, but the training bundle uses the suite as a touchstone from which they can describe and demonstrate all of the fundamental web elements and navigation shortcuts and commands.
After a brief section describing the settings that need to be changed to instruct Windows 8.1 to always use the full version of Internet Explorer and not the limited Start screen version, the bundle proceeds with an in-depth discussion of browser fundamentals: the difference between webpages and websites, scrolling through a webpage using cursor keys or the JAWS Say All command, opening links, and working with browser tabs.
The bundle features several sections dedicated to web browsing, and the material is covered thoroughly and with many examples. Users are also encouraged to practice these new skills along with the instructor using the special website, and by the end of the web browsing sections the new JAWS user should be able to perform a Google web search and then access and navigate the results.
Testing Your Progress
The JAWS Training Bundle includes access to a set of web-based progress exams, which anyone can view and take. At this writing there are 10 exams posted, but more may be added later. The current exam topics are:
- JAWS Basics
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Reading Commands and Editing
- JAWS and the Internet
- Help and Webinars
- Microsoft Word 2010 or 2013
- Microsoft Excel 2010 or 2013
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 or 2013
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 or 2013
Note that several of the topics have already been covered in the bundle, while others pertain to lessons not yet begun. This is because the user will need to know how to use a web browser in order to access and complete the progress exams.
The questions are all multiple choice or true/false. Below are two examples.
From the Reading Commands and Editing progress exam:
Which key, when held down in combination with other reading commands, allows you to select text?
- ALT
- CTRL
- SHIFT
From the Outlook 2010 or 2013 progress exam:
Which keystroke combination is used to move the keyboard focus to the QAT (quick access toolbar)?
- CTRL+TAB
- ALT+TAB
- CTRL followed by TAB
- ALT followed by UP ARROW
Before you can take any of these progress exams you must enter your name, e-mail address and the e-mail address of your instructor or someone else you wish to receive your test results. This is an excellent way for an accessibility instructor to keep track of their student's progress, as both you and the second recipient will receive the results, listing the number of questions answered correctly, the number answered wrong, and the correct answers to all of the test questions.
I would have preferred to see a skills-based test system, with users needing to press JAWS hotkeys and locate web links, headings, and such. My guess is that this would require a great deal of script coding, but I do think such a testing platform is warranted.
The results of the progress exams can be viewed on the exam webpage, but they are also e-mailed to both the user and a person of his choice. However, many of the individuals this bundle is aimed for are basic users, if they need to learn how to open a browser, they likely either do not have an e-mail account or would need help accessing it. A later section of the training bundle teaches users how to use Windows Live Mail with JAWS, but in my opinion, this section, and the sections covering Windows Explorer and Windows 8 File Explorer, should have been here, or at least referenced.
MS Office with JAWS
Approximately 37 of the 51 total hours of the JAWS Training Bundle consist of replays of archived free and paid webinars. True, these resources are readily available online—they would cost $116 apiece for the Office 2010 and Office 2013 sets. But I believe there is a definite value in collecting and including them here. First, it is easier to work along, using the many downloadable practice files, pressing the PLEXTALK or Stream rewind or pause button when you need to, as opposed to having to toggle back and forth between Office and the browser to play/pause the audio track. It's also much easier to create and review bookmarked sections you may wish to review.
Each of MS Office's four main applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, receive a three-part webinar, for a total of 12 lessons for each version, 24 in total. Again, the instructors do an excellent job of interweaving Office features and commands with the JAWS functions and commands needed to access them.
These are by no means superficial introductions to the various Office apps. I will demonstrate by listing just a few of the advance topics covered:
- Word: Inserting images and running text around them; creating a sample American Psychological Association (APA) style manuscript.
- Excel: Creating charts; protecting workbooks and adding input fields.
- PowerPoint: Adding sound to presentations; editing slide masters.
- Outlook: Editing the Quick Access Toolbar; working with categories and flags.
All of these topics and more are covered in many excellent books covering Office, but these are the best demonstrations I have encountered that both describe Office features and demonstrate how to use them with speech. Even if the JAWS Training Bundle does not interest you, there may still be value in obtaining these archived webinars.
Winding Up
As mentioned, after the MS Office sections the JAWS Training Bundle goes on to instruct users about Windows Explorer and Windows 8 File Explorer, along with Windows Live Mail. Between these two there is a two-part webinar, "Working with PDF Files." The lessons take you through Acrobat Reader's various accessibility options, describing the best settings to use for reading PDFs with JAWS. Also described is the JAWS Convenient OCR function, which can help you quickly review an image-only PDF without a full-fledged OCR package. Currently, this feature will only recognize one screen at a time. JAWS Version 16 will improve these capabilities significantly. It will be interesting to see if and how quickly this and other chapters are updated to reflect the next JAWS release.
The JAWS Training Bundle concludes with a chapter describing JAWS Tandem, a feature that enables users to log in to another computer to either offer or seek help. Offering help is not a task users of this bundle will likely be ready to perform anytime soon, but seeking help is a different matter. I think this package would benefit greatly by at least a brief mention of this possibility in an early session, advising readers that the details can be easily accessed by skipping ahead with their device's heading movement key.
What Did I Learn?
As stated at the beginning of this article, I have never used JAWS before. I followed along with the various tutorials and webinars, and did not use any additional resources such as the JAWS manual or searching the web for information about certain features. I believe I took away a basic working knowledge of how to use JAWS successfully with Windows and the applications I use most. I was left wanting a bit more, however. There is no mention of how to navigate applications that require mouse movement and clicks instead of Tab presses and Enter/Spacebar. Granted, I have used a screen reader for many years, and I am more likely to want to know these things. However even a beginning accessible computer user will eventually run into software that operates without standard Windows controls.
I am not suggesting this training bundle should be longer and more complete. I do believe, however, that the producers missed an excellent opportunity to toot their own horns with one last section describing the wealth of additional JAWS functionality, when a user might need it, and how to find it via the JAWS manual and other Freedom Scientific resources. At the very least, they should have mentioned the FS Reader, a desktop DAISY reader program that is a gateway to a wealth of JAWS help and training.
Conclusions
With an aging population, the number of individuals who would benefit from accessible computing is increasing every year. Qualified trainers are already at a premium, and training budgets strain to keep up. Distance can also be a problem, as many of the newly visually impaired have yet to develop the mobility skills needed to reach a training center on a regular basis. Others live in rural settings, where one-on-one training is difficult to arrange.
I believe it would be possible for nearly anyone, including those who have rarely touched a computer before, to use this training bundle to learn enough JAWS skills to successfully surf the web, send and receive email, and compose a fairly advanced document, spread sheet or presentation. Some individuals may appreciate and prefer the opportunity to engage in this self-paced, self-directed learning option. For others the learning curve would be significantly enhanced when paired with at least some hands-on training, either in person or using the JAWS Tandem capabilities.
At $750 for the materials and another $245 for the optional DAISY player, the JAWS Training Bundle is by no means an impulse purchase. If you are an experienced computer user who wishes to learn a new screen reader, or an individual who is self-funding your computer learning, this training bundle is probably not for you.
The true markets for the JAWS Training Bundle are rehab agencies, high school and university school systems that support JAWS, and other organizations who engage in screen reader education. At approximately $15 per hour, the JAWS Training Bundle could help these agencies to stretch their training budgets by reducing the number of costly one-on-one sessions required and by reinforcing the learning. More importantly, the self-paced nature of these lessons can only serve to enhance the ?I can do this myself? spirit of accomplishment that is the hallmark of good rehab and accessibility training.
Product Information
The JAWS Training Bundle
Available from: Freedom Scientific, 800-444-4443
Price: DAISY format, SD card: $750; or pre-loaded onto a PLEXTALK or Victor Reader Stream
DAISY player: $995
