The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many of us to spend more time at home. Some of us are now working from home. Some of us may be staying home to stay safe. Others may be at home in order to self-isolate or quarantine. Even before all of this began there have been many opportunities for online training using meeting platforms such as Zoom. Now that more of us are forced to stay in our homes the opportunities for remote training and assistance will likely increase.

A couple of weeks ago I attended my first Ibug conference where participants are encouraged to ask questions and to provide support for one another with their iOS devices. I really liked the format of the conference but I wanted to see a similar opportunity covering topics from a Windows perspective.

I decided that I’d like to host such a conference and this will likely be the first in a series of free, online tech workshops, assuming there is enough interest in such a project.

The first of these workshops is titled, “JAWS, Just Because” and is scheduled for Friday, March 20 at 8:00 PM Eastern time. This conference will allow users of the JAWS screen reader to both ask questions as well as to provide answers to those who use the JAWS screen reader. No question is too basic or too esoteric and it should be stressed that there is no such thing as a stupid question.

For this conference I’m looking for two types of participants. First, anyone with a question regarding JAWS is, of course, welcome. Second, I’m hoping that those who are knowledgeable in the use of JAWS will also consider participating to share knowledge. Due to time constraints we won’t have time to provide lengthy support or to tandem into a user’s machine. Questions which require this type of intervention would best be addressed by Vispero’s technical support.

In order to keep the conference running smoothly I am going to adopt a similar policy which has been successfully used by iBug. Users who wish to ask a question or to provide a response should say their name, as in, “This is John.” At that point please wait to be acknowledged by the host, as in, “Go ahead, John.”

I have some other ideas for similar workshops but would like to hear some of yours so that I can determine the needs that you have as well as the level of interest. With many of us working from home are there specific applications or programs that you might want some assistance with? Programs that come to mind are Slack, Teams, etc. Would there be interest in similar workshops for NVDA users?

I would also like to invite other assistive technology trainers to write to me privately if you’re interested in assisting with any of these workshops. Many of you may have some ideas which I haven’t thought of and you surely have expertise with topics which I do not. I am unable to provide any type of compensation for any assistance you may choose to provide but the point of these workshops is to provide free assistance to those who may be spending more time at home doing work or completing other tasks. This can be a stressful time for many of us. Many kind and patient people assisted me when I was first learning about assistive technology and I just want to pay it forward and give something back to the blindness community, particularly during this time when the need for some tech help may be even greater

Here is the relevant information about the upcoming conference.

Topic: JAWS, Just Because

Join our Zoom Meeting via the following link.

https://zoom.us/j/3565857579

Meeting ID: 356 585 7579

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Meeting ID: 356 585 7579

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I haven’t used the Zoom platform with JAWS yet, but I find the iPhone app for Zoom really easy to use thus far, as long as you have an earpiece with microphone so that people don’t hear voicover talking.  If I were doing a class with Zoom, I might run Zoom from my phone, leaving my laptop open for taking notes.



Hi, any tips or pointers on using Zoom would be greatly appreciated. I was able to set up an account, but had some problems with settings and muting/unmuting etc. Need to learn this fast as a class I’m in is going online for discussions. Using Jaws 2019 and windows 10. Thanks in advance. Judy & Libby

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There are a whole set of tutorials on using Libre Office Writer on the following link.

They assume using NVDA but I  imagine most if not all of it will be transferable to Jaws also.

http://www.talking-computers.org.uk/jimonlibreoffice.html

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word

Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.

Hi all,

In addition to what was mentioned, while arrowing up and down in Outlook, JAWS says something like ‘if the message is not displayed correctly, click…’. Any solution appreciated.

Best regards,

Gezim

Brian, I am having the same problem as Stan. Went through the steps and got back the normal view. Then, and I’m not sure what happened, it reverted back to being arranged by date.

I will go back and go through the steps again. And please don’t snark at me, I do not need it today or any other, for that matter. Norma

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 9:09 AM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: annoying verbosity in Outlook since yesterday's update

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 09:44 AM, Stan Bobbitt wrote:

Excuse me

Sorry, but it wasn't me who ignored content posted hours before, than fixed the issue, then asking for it again.  That's on you.  Read through the topics BEFORE replying.

It's just common netiquette.
 
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363  

Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.

        ~ Joshua Liebman

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word

Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.

On Mar 19, 2020, at 4:25 PM, Gezim Rexha <gezim_rexha@...> wrote:



Hi list,

 

Someone sent me some Kindle books, but I can’t open them, probably because Kindle is not installed on my PC. I would appreciate if you could instruct me ho to download  and how to use it with JAWS 19.

 

Cheers,

Gezim

Brian, I am having the same problem as Stan. Went through the steps and got back the normal view. Then, and I’m not sure what happened, it reverted back to being arranged by date.

I will go back and go through the steps again. And please don’t snark at me, I do not need it today or any other, for that matter. Norma

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 9:09 AM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: annoying verbosity in Outlook since yesterday's update

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 09:44 AM, Stan Bobbitt wrote:

Excuse me

Sorry, but it wasn't me who ignored content posted hours before, than fixed the issue, then asking for it again.  That's on you.  Read through the topics BEFORE replying.

It's just common netiquette.
 
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363  

Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.

        ~ Joshua Liebman

Hi,


Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.


Thanks,

~Ann

It is the current update.

It seems they have begun releasing updates monthly until the next version comes out, and in fact, they released some updates to prior versions even after 2020 was released.

So, probably not the last update to 2020.

Friends: After a confusing and seemingly faulty experience with the installation of the last update, I presently have installed version j2020.2003.13.ilm.

Is this really the last update of J2020?

Thank you. Stan

Friends: After a confusing and seemingly faulty experience with the installation of the last update, I presently have installed version j2020.2003.13.ilm.

Is this really the last update of J2020?

Thank you. Stan

Friends: After a confusing and seemingly faulty experience with the installation of the last update, I presently have installed version j2020.2003.13.ilm.

Is this really the last update of J2020?

Thank you. Stan