Re: length of jaws training

Hi Jim,

I just want to concur with Francis on the num pad topic.  The num pad is 
absolutely an essential part of the Jaws keyboard commands.  It's not 
optional, at all.  Every key on it, in connection with the Insert key at the 
bottom (0 if you've got the num pad turned on, of course) has a specific 
function for not just navigating through text, as you may be imagining, but 
specifically for directing nearly every reading action of Jaws.  You operate 
your PC with Jaws using a combination of the myriad Windows key commands 
most people aren't aware of in conjunction  with the Jaws commands on the 
num pad.

A suggestion:  I never took instruction in Jaws, or on computers, from a 
skilled teacher like Francis.  But this is because I had years of experience 
using a PC with more or less normal sight (now deteriorating continually due 
to Retinitis Pigmentosa), plus when I got my first version of Jaws, it came 
with an excellent package of audiotape tutorial cassettes.  I think Eric 
Damery was the instructor.  So I put a tape player on the desk beside my 
keyboard, and went through the tapes methodically, in order, pausing every 
time I was instructed to try out a particular Jaws action.  It was a really 
well structured tutorial.  Yes, it took some hours of concentrated 
attention, as any skill worth learning  does, but I got through it with 
ease, and it provided me a firm foundation as a beginning Jaws user, ready 
to learn more as I went, to ask questions on a supportive, informative 
mailing list forum like this one, and even, eventually, to be able to offer 
helpful suggestions to others.

Now, I think I've heard that a tutorial of some sort is currently provided 
in another way, either as .mp3 files on the Freedom Scientific site, or 
using that other reading system they're demonstrating or selling on the 
site.  But I don't know the details.  I hope someone here might be able to 
fill you in on that.  There's nothing like a good tutorial.  then it becomes 
a matter of methodical skill acquisition, not random guesswork, which isn't 
just efficient but more frustration than anyone ought to put himself 
through.

Hope this helps.  As Francis says, there aren't dumb questions at all, most 
especially in this matter.  As a professional educator and trainer, Francis 
knows this truth more deeply than most of us, in fact.  You're in good 
company.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francis Daniels" <fdaniels@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: length of jaws training


Hi Jim,

What is that saying? "There are no dumb questions, only the ones you never 
ask."  Something like that.

JAWS uses the num pad as a vital way for people to get information about 
what is happening on the screen, what they just typed, to make sure they did 
it correctly.  Yes, you could drop some commands from the num pad, but it 
would cost you in extra keystrokes or forgetting what the prompt was.

I said before that you cannot teach JAWS in a vacuum.  It has to be taught 
within a context so that the commands make sense.  In the same way, it would 
be really hard to use Windows, or Windows programs, and not use the 
JAWS-specific keystrokes.  For example, you are typing some text for a cool 
short story you are writing.  You want to listen to each word on a line, to 
make sure you got it correct.  You could press Control right arrow to move 
through the words, using both hands to do this. You could also press Insert 
right arrow to do the same thing, using just your right hand.  Both do the 
same thing.  Which would make it easier?

By the way, in the JAWS help, they list control right arrow as the way to 
move from word to word in Microsoft Word.  They've dropped the Insert right 
arrow function from the help description, even though the command works and 
is more efficient.  Go figure.

Almost all the keystrokes for reading text and screen elements are in the 
num pad.  Other listers will certainly add to this, but each application 
carries with it particulars for how JAWS reads stuff to you.  But they all 
have the num pad in common, to make it easier for you to figure out what is 
going on and to get going again.

I don't know about Kurzweil, as I don't use it.  Maybe someone else can 
handle that.

Don't stop asking, Jim.

Francis



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