Jamie Pauls
At the end of every October, many blind people who use the ubiquitous JAWS for Windows screen reader know to expect a major new release of the product. Depending on what a particular user is hoping for at any given time, the anticipated release announcements can bring joy, disappointment, or perhaps neither of the above. To be fair, reading over the list of new additions, bug fixes, and enhancements to existing features should make it apparent to any fair-minded person that the developers of the product have put a lot of work into the latest version of the software. In addition to major releases, Freedom Scientific/Vispero, makers of JAWS for Windows, releases regular updates to the program—about every six weeks or so—that continue to improve screen reader support to Windows, the Web, and many popular applications including Microsoft Office. With the release of Jaws 2022 about three months behind us, let’s take a look at what JAWS 2022 brings to the table.
Anyone who has upgraded JAWS versions knows that it can take a bit of time to get all your old settings back the way you want them, unless you choose to import earlier settings. With JAWS 2022, this happens automatically when you have versions 2021 or 2020 on your system. There is a checkbox that allows you to install without migrating old settings, something I have always chosen to do anyway. I like the clean fresh approach, myself. I ran the public betas of JAWS 2022 when the checkbox to install fresh was not present, and so I can’t comment on installing JAWS 2022 after the public release.
You can also easily reinstall JAWS factory settings once you have made customizations or migrated older settings, something that might come in handy should you not like the changes you’ve made to JAWS and you find it difficult to get things back the way they were.
One particularly notable new feature in JAWS 2022 is the ability to route JAWS to one ear and other audio to the opposite ear. As an example, you could route JAWS to your left ear and a Zoom conference to your right ear. The idea is that separating your screen reader output and other audio when wearing headphones might make it easier to distinguish one from the other. Press Jaws with Space, V for volume, and B for balance. Then press the left arrow to move JAWS to your left ear and all other audio to the right, or right arrow to reverse the process. Up arrow brings all audio back in balance. As cool as this new feature is, I must confess that I never think to actually use it. Perhaps I will now that I have written this article.
Another layered keystroke, Jaws with space, V and then C, allows you to move through a list of existing sound cards on your system in the event that you lose speech because Windows has switched your audio. This is a feature I haven’t needed yet, but I am glad it exists, and I have had times in the past where I certainly could have gotten good use from that feature. JAWS continues to see more robust functionality in its Siri-like voice assistant which can be invoked with the phrase “Hey, Sharky.” You can change speech rate, check the time, and a whole lot more using just your voice.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the feature enhancements in JAWS 2022, and a look at the complete list of what’s new in JAWS 2022 is in order if you have already upgraded, or are thinking about upgrading to the latest version of JAWS. With the introduction of the $99 yearly license option instead of a maintenance agreement, it is much easier to stay current with your copy of JAWS than it has been in the past. Also, you can add JAWS to your list of screen reader options if you so choose.
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
