JAWS 2018 Public Beta

Jaws has released the 2018 Public Beta. Among the new features are:

• JAWS Version Number Change
• Microsoft Edge Support
• Convenient OCR Adds Support for Freedom Scientific Cameras and Flatbed Scanners
• All New Installer
• New Verbosity Options for the Virtual Cursor“Document and Web Pages Automatically Read when Loaded” Option added to settings
• Support for Microsoft Mobile Voices in Windows 10
• Updated Liblouis Braille Translator
• Improvement to Jaws Language Switching
• Acronym Expansion Included When Spelling a Word
• Read Dialog Boxes in Modern Apps

For more details and to download the JAWS 2018 Public Beta read What’s new in JAWS 2018 Public Beta on the Freedom Scientific website. 

The ZoomText 11.4 update is now available for ZoomText 11 Magnifier, Magnifier/Reader, and Fusion. This free update (for users of ZoomText 11) provides expanded support for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, including full 32- and 64-bit support, stable magnification, and our popular Smart Invert feature. In addition, this update also brings a variety of compatibility fixes for popular applications, a new banner and sound cues that improve the usability of ZoomText’s layered command keys, and other refinements to the ZoomText user interface and localizations.

Learn about all of the changes in the 11.4 update in the ZoomText 11 release notes https://www.zoomtext.com/help/releasenotes.

To get the 11.4 update, go to the ZoomText 11 toolbar and choose ZoomText > Manage License > Check for Updates. This will launch the update wizard and walk you through the installation. If you prefer, you can also download the full ZoomText 11.4 installer from the product updates page: https://www.zoomtext.com/help/product-updates/. Be sure to download the installer that matches your license type.

We hope you are enjoying ZoomText 11 and would love to hear your thoughts on how we can make it better. Send your feedback to support@aisquared.com.

Explore the not so distant future of autonomous cars and the accessibility implications with Jeremy and Mark.

The Interactive Accessibility Podcast (IAP) is an entertaining approach to accessibility. We enjoy sharing our discussions on accessibility and how it relates to technology, real-life issues, information, businesses, and people with disabilities. 

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

The latest release of NVDA (2017.2) includes full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current).

New Features

• Cell border information can now be reported in Microsoft Excel by using NVDA+f. (#3044)
• In web browsers, NVDA now indicates when an element has been marked as current (specifically, using the aria-current attribute). (#6358)
• Automatic language switching is now supported in Microsoft Edge. (#6852)
• Added support for Windows Calculator on Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB (Long-Term Servicing Branch) and Server. (#6914)
• Performing the read current line command three times quickly spells the line with character descriptions. (#6893)
• New language: Burmese.
• Unicode up and down arrows and fraction symbols are now spoken appropriately. (#3805)

Changes

• When navigating with simple review in applications using UI Automation, more extraneous objects are now ignored, making navigation easier. (#6948, #6950)

Bug Fixes

• Web page menu items can now be activated while in browse mode. (#6735)
• Pressing escape while the configuration profile "Confirm Deletion" dialog is active now dismisses the dialog. (#6851)
• Fixed some crashes in Mozilla Firefox and other Gecko applications where the multi-process feature is enabled. (#6885)
• Reporting of background color in screen review is now more accurate when text was drawn with a transparent background. (#6467)
• Improved support for control descriptions provided on web pages in Internet Explorer 11 (specifically, support for aria-describedby within iframes and when multiple IDs are provided). (#5784)
• In the Windows 10 Creators Update, NVDA's audio ducking again works as in previous Windows releases; i.e. Duck with speech and sounds, always duck and no ducking are all available. (#6933)
• NVDA will no longer fail to navigate to or report certain (UIA) controls where a keyboard shortcut is not defined. (#6779)
• Two empty spaces are no longer added in keyboard shortcut information for certain (UIA) controls. (#6790)
• Certain combinations of keys on HIMS displays (e.g. space+dot4) no longer fail intermittently. (#3157)
• Fixed an issue when opening a serial port on systems using certain languages other than English which caused connecting to braille displays to fail in some cases. (#6845)
• Reduced the chance of the configuration file being corrupted when Windows shuts down. Configuration files are now written to a temporary file before replacing the actual configuration file. (#3165)
• When performing the read current line command twice quickly to spell the line, the appropriate language is now used for the spelled characters. (#6726)
• Navigating by line in Microsoft Edge is now up to three times faster in the Windows 10 Creators Update. (#6994)
• NVDA no longer announces "Web Runtime grouping" when focusing Microsoft Edge documents in the Windows 10 Creators Update. (#6948)
• All existing versions of SecureCRT are now supported. (#6302)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader no longer crashes in certain PDF documents (specifically, those containing empty ActualText attributes). (#7021, #7034)
• In browse mode in Microsoft Edge, interactive tables (ARIA grids) are no longer skipped when navigating to tables with t and shift+t. (#6977)
• In browse mode, pressing shift+home after selecting forward now unselects to the beginning of the line as expected. (#5746)
• In browse mode, select all (control+a) no longer fails to select all text if the caret is not at the start of the text. (#6909)
• Fixed some other rare selection problems in browse mode. (#7131)

Changes for Developers

• Commandline arguments are now processed with Python's argparse module, rather than optparse. This allows certain options such as -r and -q to be handled exclusively. (#6865)
• core.callLater now queues the callback to NVDA's main queue after the given delay, rather than waking the core and executing it directly. This stops possible freezes due to the core accidentally going to sleep after processing a callback, in the midle of a modal call such as the desplaying of a message box. (#6797)
• The InputGesture.identifiers property has been changed so that it is no longer normalized. (#6945)
  • Subclasses no longer need to normalize identifiers before returning them from this property.
  • If you want normalized identifiers, there is now an InputGesture.normalizedIdentifiers property which normalizes the identifiers returned by the identifiers property .
• The InputGesture.logIdentifier property is now deprecated. Callers should use InputGesture.identifiers[0] instead. (#6945)
• Removed some deprecated code:
• `speech.REASON_*` constants: `controlTypes.REASON_*` should be used instead. (#6846)
• `i18nName` for synth settings: `displayName` and `displayNameWithAccelerator` should be used instead. (#6846, #5185)
• `config.validateConfig`. (#6846, #667)
• `config.save`: `config.conf.save` should be used instead. (#6846, #667)
• The list of completions in the autocomplete context menu of the Python Console no longer shows any object path leading up to the final symbol being completed. (#7023)
• Unit tests and infrastructure are located in the tests/unit directory. See the docstring in the tests\unit\init.py file for details.
• You can run tests using "scons tests". See the "Running Tests" section of readme.md for details.
• There is now a unit testing framework for NVDA. (#7026)

If you are submitting a pull request for NVDA, you should first run the tests and ensure they pass.

As you may have guessed from the title, today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! If you don’t know what GAAD is, it is “to get everyone thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.”  And, if you are coming to our site to learn about accessibility, you are in the right place!  Interactive Accessibility is known globally for being the experts in digital accessibility.

GW Micro recently announced on its website that they are ending the sales of Window-Eyes, effective immediately in the United States and Canada. Users outside of the United States and Canada should contact their local distributor for options.

Understanding how important a screen reader is to individuals with vision disabilities, they are offering JAWS® for Windows 18 as a replacement. Stating, “We are committed to providing a smooth transition and will honor existing Window-Eyes product purchases and software maintenance agreements.”

It is important to note that the free Window-Eyes Offer for Users of Microsoft Office version is not part of the conversion program.

For complete details visit the GW Micro website.

People with guide dogs can still drive, right? In my last post, I noted that I taught my guide dog, Darren, to bark for green and red, so I would know when to go. Of course, I’m just kidding! Darren has no way to know when the light is red or green. And, to satisfy the curiosity of one elementary student, he doesn’t know when the light is yellow, either.

Freedom Scientific has released JAWS 18.0.2738, which boasts several improvements made between the JAWS 18 February 2017 release and this April 2017 update. The latest release can be downloaded at the JAWS download page.

Here is a list of the improvement you find in the new download:

JAWS

• A customer reported that Krzysztof was missing from the Vocalizer Expressive 2.2 Polish compact voices collection. This has been resolved and the updated voice collection can be downloaded from the Synthesizer Downloads web page.
• Resolved an issue where the Weather Research It lookup source was not displaying any results.
• The JAWS Audio Ducking feature, which lowers the volume of other apps while JAWS is speaking, is currently disabled in the Windows 10 Creators update due to issues with JAWS not ducking audio as expected in some situations. We are continuing to work with Microsoft and plan on having Audio Ducking available again in a future update of JAWS, as soon as the necessary changes happen in an update of Windows 10.
• When focused in the Book Page View of the Kindle for PC app, pressing INSERT+F1 now displays an appropriate help message.
• This update includes updated drivers for the Alva BC6 braille displays from Optelec.
• Resolved an issue in both WordPad and Word where JAWS was not reading the prompt to save changes when pressing ALT+F4 to close the app and the current document had not yet been saved.
• Addressed an issue where JAWS was not reading the results when searching from the Windows 8.1 Start screen.

Google Docs

• Pressing the INSERT+F8 keystroke in Google Drive or Google Docs now displays a list of the controls on the toolbar. Use the UP or DOWN ARROWS to select the control you want to use and then press ENTER or choose OK to activate it. Choose the Move To button to move focus to the selected control on the page. Note that using this command in Internet Explorer may not display all available toolbar controls due to limitations with this browser.
• You can now use the JAWS Text Analyzer feature to locate errors in Google documents such as unmatched parentheses, unintentional format changes, extra whitespace, and stray or unspaced punctuation. When focused in the document area in Google Docs, press ALT+WINDOWS+I or ALT+WINDOWS+SHIFT+I to move to the next or previous inconsistency in the document. To have JAWS announce inconsistencies as you navigate with the ARROW keys or Say All (INSERT+DOWN ARROW), press INSERT+SPACEBAR, followed by A.
• Improved JAWS support for the Google Docs spell checker. When focused in the Spellcheck dialog box, pressing INSERT+F7 now speaks and spells the current suggestion, and also reads the spelling error in context.
• Pressing INSERT+PAGE DOWN while focused in the Google Docs document now reads the activity status such as "online" or "offline."
• If a Google document contains comments, you can now press CTRL+INSERT+M to read the comment at the cursor location. In addition, JAWS support for the Comment Stream Box (ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+A) which allows you to manage comments, has been improved. Note that JAWS support for comments works best with Firefox or Chrome.
• The CTRL+DOWN ARROW and CTRL+UP ARROW keystrokes to move by paragraph now work in a Google Docs document.
• Resolved issues with JAWS double speaking in tables when using table navigation commands.
• JAWS no longer says "blank" when deleting a character.
• If the JAWS Commands Search (INSERT+SPACEBAR, J) is launched while focus is in Google Docs, the Virtual Cursor is now enabled so you can navigate the search page and then disabled again when focus returns to Google Docs.
• When focused in a document, resolved issues with JAWS double speaking when performing copy, cut, paste, and undo operations.

Microsoft Office

• Improved JAWS automatic announcements of Office 365 notifications that are displayed when collaborating with other users. For example, you should now hear JAWS indicate when one or more users join or leave the document, or if the current line is locked for editing by another user. JAWS also alerts you to any conflicts that are created while co-authoring a document so you can press F6 to move focus to the dialog box where you can address the conflict.
• You can now use the L and SHIFT+L Navigation Quick Keys in Word documents in Office 365 to move by lists in a document. Pressing CTRL+INSERT+L will also now display a list of all lists in the document. Note that an update to Office is required in order for list navigation to work. If these commands are not working for you yet, future updates from Microsoft will fully enable this functionality.
• When the CTRL+INSERT+V keystroke is pressed in Office applications to obtain version information, JAWS now also reports if you are running a subscription of Office 365 or a retail version of Office 2016.
• Added support for the Office Activity pane, which can be accessed using F6. The Activity pane may appear in certain situations, such as when you attempt to open the previous version of a file.
• When navigating in the Office 365 Styles grid in the ribbons (ALT+H, L), JAWS now indicates the style currently in use.
• Resolved issues with reading tables contained in slides in PowerPoint 2016.
• Resolved an issue where the Virtual Cursor was not always enabled as expected after pressing F5 to start a PowerPoint presentation.
• When navigating by line through the text of an object in PowerPoint, resolved an issue where JAWS would say "graphic" on every line of text.
• Addressed an issue with JAWS not reporting links as expected when tabbing through a slide in PowerPoint.
• Improved speech and braille support for the Thumbnails pane in PowerPoint 2016.
• JAWS now reads group labels as you navigate the Options dialog box in Outlook 2016.
• Continued improvements to JAWS performance in the Outlook 2016 calendar for how appointments are announced as you navigate through dates.
• In Excel 2016, addressed a customer reported issue where JAWS was not automatically speaking auto-complete information while typing in cells.
• Resolved a reported issue with the virtual ribbon not working in Spanish Office 2016.
• Added a new Quick Settings option, Use UIA for Edit Controls, to specify whether or not JAWS relies on UI Automation (UIA) from Microsoft when reading and editing Word documents in Office 365. This option is enabled by default, and in most cases, should be left on as UIA provides the most complete information to JAWS. However, turning this setting off may improve JAWS performance when navigating very large documents. After toggling this setting, you must close and restart Word before this change will take effect.

Web Browsers

• The "Select and copy full content using onscreen highlight" Quick Settings option now works in Chrome similar to Internet Explorer. This feature enables you to select and copy text from web pages and paste it into other applications while retaining the original formatting.
• In response to a customer request, the JAWS Cursor can now be used in Chrome.
• Resolved an issue where selected items in an ARIA grid were not being indicated in braille.
• Resolved an issue where attempting to move by paragraph in a multi-line edit field in Chrome was not working as expected.

Windows 10

• When typing in the Search edit field of the Settings app (WINDOWS Key+I), you can now use UP or DOWN ARROW to move through the list of search results.
• JAWS no longer speaks extraneous information in the Settings app.
• Addressed issues with reading messages in the Windows 10 Mail app.
• When composing a new message in the Mail app, JAWS now reads suggested contacts as you type in the To field.
• Resolved an issue in the Mail app where pressing the END key was not moving to the end of the current line as expected in wrapped lines.
• JAWS no longer speaks extraneous information on the account sign-in screen in various Windows 10 apps such as Mail or Maps.
• Addressed a customer reported issue where JAWS was not automatically speaking results in the Windows 10 Calculator.

Plastic sliding calipers that are known as Squirrel Devices provide better access to STEM material for students who are blind or have low vision. The tactile caliper enables students with vision disabilities to read measurements in Braille just like a student with sight would on a standard ruler. Jain and Singhal, who are PhD candidates in Course 2 (mechanical engineering) at MIT, co-founded Squirrel Devices to create better access to STEM courses for students with vision disabilities. The accessible calipers are their first device and help make geometrical shapes and lengths able to be measured by students who are blind.

Read more about the tactile calipers on GAATES.

Did you know there are only about 10,000 guide dogs in the United States? With only 0.003% of the population using a guide dog, it is understandable that people do not know how to react to a service animal. Whether it is an adult or a curious toddler, I’m often the focus of attention everywhere I go.  Many times, the public seems to forget all manners and yell out “Dog! Dog!” or “Puppy!