1. JAWS Basics: Don’t be Afraid to Swim with the Sharks
Greg Aikens
Cobb County School District
October 21, 2015

2. Session Outline Intro Research about teaching screen readers
Resources for teaching JAWS
When to teach
How to use JAWS: Hands-on experience
Questions

3. About me: I am a TVI with Cobb County in the resource room.
For the last 4 years, I have taught children ages to use JAWS.
Most of my instruction has been on the middle school level
I have been a JAWS user since 1997.

4. How important is learning to use a screen reader?
Technology is increasingly ubiquitous.
Computers, smart phones, tablets, and other smart devices are used to complete more and more tasks.
Students have to use technology to access course materials, turn in assignments, and complete assessments.
Individuals who are blind or do not access these devices visually rely on screen readers for access.

5. How prepared are TVIs?
Experts in our field identified screen reader technology as 1 of 111 AT competencies TVIs should have.
Experts agreed that TVIs should have a Basic/Proficient understanding of screen readers and make adjustment to basic features (Smith et al., 2009).
In a follow up study, TVIs reported having a basic/proficient mastery of screen readers. This may actually only represent the more tech savvy among our field (Zhou et al., 2012)

6. How prepared are you?
What are your biggest concerns about teaching screen readers?
What barriers do you face?
What questions do you hope to answer today?

7. Resources for Teaching JAWS
The JAWS Help system, available from within the JAWS program or from
JAWS Training Materials in DAISY format, available through the JAWS Help menu or
Free webinars and trainings through Freedom Scientific.

8. Resources for Teaching JAWS (Ctd.)
EVALS Kit from TSBVI (
The screen reader assessment lists many important skills.
Some of the skills are dated/does not include the latest screen reader features that students need to know.

9. Resources for Teaching JAWS (Ctd.)
Typability from Yes Accessible (
99 lessons teach the basics of JAWS and the entire keyboard
Only basic JAWS concepts are covered.
Tech Vision (
Downloadable lessons covering everything from basics to advanced topics.
These lessons cost money but are reasonably priced.
BlindHow.com

10. When to teach JAWS Concepts
Students using JAWS need to be able to complete similar computing tasks to their peers.
This may include opening and completing educational games in early grades and completing assignments online in later grades.
Do not wait to start screen reader instruction until the student has mastered typing.

11. Michigan AT Guidelines
The Michigan DOE has created AT Guidelines for students who are blind and visually impaired for Pre-K through grade 12.
These guidelines list recommended concepts for each age group and suggest learning activities.
Guidelines and checklists are available from:

12. Hands-on Experience
For the remainder of this session, we will go through basic JAWS concepts and how to teach them.
Your primary objective is to gain a better understanding of how JAWS works and what it can do.
Memorizing keyboard commands is secondary to understanding the “big ideas.”

13. Getting Started with JAWS
Use the instructions from Sections 1 and 2 from your handout to start JAWS and adjust speech so that you can understand it.

14. Learning the Desktop
Start by teaching students the layout of the desktop and all its partss, e.g. desktop, start menu, taskbar, etc.
Use commands from section 3 of your worksheet to access all parts of the desktop screen.
These commands require several function or modifier keys: Alt, Ctrl, Windows, etc. but very few letters.

15. Accessing Menus
Use the commands in Section 4 of your handout to access both the Start menu and the menus in one of your open programs.

16. Navigating Text Type a few sentences in a Microsoft Word document.
Practice using the navigation commands in section 5 to move through the text you have typed.
Notice that there are several duplicate commands. Try using both the NumPad and Arrow Key versions of these commands.

17. Selecting text
By adding the Shift key to many of the commands in Section 5, you can select text for copying or deleting.
See Section 6 of your handout for a review of these commands.
Try changing parts of your sentences using these commands.

18. Getting Help
You and your student can learn a lot about using JAWS by using the built in help system.
Try pulling up context specific and application specific help files in more than one application.
Open the main JAWS help system from the JAWS application and read the topics “Using the PC cursor” and “Using the JAWS cursor.”
Open up a training book from the Help menu in JAWS.

19. Editing Documents
Return to your Word document from before and add formatting features using the commands in Section 8 of your handout.
The menus in Microsoft Office 2007 and above behave differently than menus in other programs.
Teaching students to use these ribbons is important.
There are short cut keys for many items in the ribbon. Your student should memorize the most commonly used commands.

20. Using the Internet
Key concepts to understand with JAWS and the internet:
First letter navigation (headings, form fields, etc.)
Forms mode
Strategies for exploring a new page or finding specific info.
Using headings or other landmarks.
Looking for blocks of text.
Using the find command (Ctrl+F)

21. Using the Internet (Ctd.)
More important than memorizing keystrokes, students must develop a variety of strategies for exploring web pages.
The goal is for students to efficiently locate the information they are seeking, without having to arrow through an entire web page.
Using arrow keys may be appropriate when beginning instruction or to teach basic web page concepts.

22. Summarizing
What was your most significant new learning from this session?
What questions do you still have?
What resources do you plan to check out in the future?

23. Contact Info
Greg Aikens Cobb County School District Work Personal

24. References Smith, D. W. , Kelley, P. , Maushak, N. J
References Smith, D. W., Kelley, P., Maushak, N. J., Griffin-Shirley, N., & Lan, W. Y. (2009). Assistive technology competencies for teachers of students with visual impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 103, Zhou, L., Ajuwon, P. M., Smith, D. W., Griffin-Shirley, N., Parker, A. T., & Ocungu, P. (2012). Assistive technology competencies for teachers of students with visual impairments: A national study. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 106,