Help learning JAWS

Posted by pokerchip on 2/9/2009 at 4:25 PM

Hello,

I am a software engineer that develops products for use in the health care industry, and since we have government contracts, we are obligated to be 508 compliant. As sighted users, we are struggling to learn JAWS in a manner that best mimics use by someone impaired. Additionally, we are curious what functionality in the reader is considered most important or most used.

Are there any resources we can tap into, or are there any tutorials (or even classes) outside of those offered from freedom scientific that could help us? Does anyone have any sighted family or friends that have learned JAWS and could provide any tips or tricks? We are learning this hands-on as we go, but there are times when we feel as if we are not using it optimally because we have a bit of an advantage by knowing what the screen "looks like" and how it should function for a sighted user. We really we would like to know how someone uses the reader in real life, and how their perception of a screen is different from a sighted user so that we can understand their needs better.

Apologies if this question has an obvious answer (e.g., just keep using it!), but we want to make our products as accessible as possible, and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

There are currently 3 replies

Re:Help learning JAWS

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Re:Help learning JAWS

would not a blind person be your best trainer, some one who use's JAWS?

Jaws functions great with the window keys. Try contacting the Guild for the Blind. They offer classes on Jaws.Re: Help learning JAWS