JAWS - Windows (JAWS) screen reader software

JAWS for Windows (JAWS) screen reader software, runs on multimedia enabled PCs with either Microsoft Windows 95/98/Millenium or Windows NT 4.0/2000 Professional
JAWS offers comprehensive screen reading capability that enables a blind or visually impaired person to use computers similar to a sighted person.

How does a blind or visually impaired person use the computer?

1. With the help of JAWS - JAWS helps the blind/VI person during typing by providing speech output through the multimedia speakers. Hence while typing, the person is fully aware of what is being typed. Any key or command pressed is ''spoken''.

2. JAWS will also "speak" when any event occurs on the PC. For example, if a dialog box appears on the screen, JAWS will "speak" the contents of the dialog box enabling the blind person to make the right choice and answer the dialog box. If a menu is opened, JAWS will read out the selected menu item and so on.

3. JAWS also provide many shortcut keys to help the blind/VI person. For example, if they need to know which application is currently active, they can "read" the title of the active window by using Insert-T. If they need to know the font displayed on a particular line in Word, they will use Insert-F.

4. The blind/VI person is taught to use keyboard commands instead of mouse commands. For example, instead of clicking on the start button, they will use Ctrl-Esc, which brings up the start menu. Instead of clicking the mouse on menu items, they will use the Alt- key. They learn the keyboard commands that are available for every Windows application. For example, to change the font for the selected text, they will use Ctrl-Shift-F.

5. JAWS provides methods for the user to use the mouse through keyboard inputs

6. JAWS can be configured with different voices and rate of speech. It can also be configured to speak more for the beginner and less for the advanced user. It can be configured to speak

JAWS works very well with standard Windows applications such as Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express etc. It is a powerful tool that can also be CUSTOMIZED for non-standard products or non-standard applications that are available in the market. The customization has to be done by trainers/technicians familiar with JAWS.
Please contact Enable India (98453-13919) For further details

Hardware : Regular PC with multimedia (sound card and speakers) and Windows 95/98/ME/XP operating system, or Windows NT 4.0/2000. Windows XP requires a 233 MHZ or faster processor.

Cost : The main investment to be made by the company is in the purchase of the JAWS software and in upgrading existing computers to have multimedia capability/speakers.