Here at Freedom Scientific, we have renamed the month of November Sharkvember, a month-long celebration of accessibility, creativity, and community. Visit the Sharkvember page for a list of events that will take place during this month.
As part of Sharkvember, we are providing daily JAWS and ZoomText keyboard command tips, which we are calling “Sharkvember Shortcuts.” Visit the Sharkvember Shortcuts page each day for a new tip.
Each Friday, we will provide a roundup of shortcuts for the week right here on the blog. Here are the Sharkvember Shortcuts for this week.
Sharkvember Keyboard Command of the Day
Nov 6: ZoomText Command
Change the Voice rate
Increase voice rate
Keystroke
Description
CAPS LOCK+ALT+UP ARROW
If you are running ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, ZoomText speaks program controls, menus, and dialog boxes, plus reads documents, emails, and web pages. Use this command to increase the voice rate.
Decrease voice rate
Keystroke
Description
CAPS LOCK+ALT+DOWN ARROW
If you are running ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, ZoomText speaks program controls, menus, and dialog boxes, plus reads documents, emails, and web pages. Use this command to decrease the voice rate.
Nov 7: JAWS Command
Get Screen sensitive Help
Desktop keystroke
Laptop keystroke
Description
INSERT+F1
CAPS LOCK+F1
Describes the current window or control, what it is used for, and what keystrokes can be used at the current location. This information is placed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer where you can read it using standard navigation commands or copy it to the clipboard. If a link has focus, its source URL will be shown so you can responsibly manage possible phishing links in suspicious emails. Press ESC to close the Virtual Viewer.
Nov 8: ZoomText Command
Toggle the Zoom to 1x magnification
Keystroke
Description
CAPS LOCK+ENTER
The Zoom to 1x feature allows you to switch between your current magnification level and 1x, which is the size of the screen content when unmagnified. When you Zoom to 1x, all other magnifier and reader features of ZoomText remain active so you can still use them even while the screen is unmagnified. For example, if your magnification level is 3x, pressing this command once will switch to 1x, and pressing it again will switch back to 3x. This is a handy way of comparing how much of the display you can actually see when it is magnified.
Nov 9: JAWS Command
Get Hotkey Help
Desktop keystroke
Laptop keystroke
Description
INSERT+H
CTRL+SHIFT+CAPS LOCK+H
Lists available JAWS hotkeys in the application in focus. These commands are placed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer so you can read them or copy them to your clipboard. Press ESC to close the Virtual Viewer.
Nov 10: ZoomText Command
Launch the Quick Access Bar
Keystroke
Description
CAPS LOCK+SPACE, then Q
The Quick Access Bar is a toolbar that can contain up to eight shortcuts of your most used magnification and speech features in one convenient place. For mouse users, the benefits are twofold. First, you no longer have the distraction of leaving your current app to find the ZoomText or Fusion toolbar to perform an action and then returning to and trying to find your previous place in the app. Second, you do not have to memorize keystrokes for all the different things that you can do with ZoomText and Fusion.
Nov 11: JAWS Command
Get Windows Keys Help
Desktop keystroke
Laptop keystroke
Description
INSERT+W
CAPS LOCK+W
Press this keystroke for a list of Windows shortcut keys, keyboard help, and other information in the application in focus. These commands are placed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer so you can read them or copy them to your clipboard. Press ESC to close the Virtual Viewer.
Nov 12: ZoomText Command
Cycle Verbosity Level
Keystroke
Description
CAPS LOCK+ALT+B
Verbosity allows you to adjust the amount of information spoken about program controls when they become active or highlighted. Program controls include application and document windows, menus, dialogs, buttons, icons, and more. Three verbosity levels – Low, Medium and High – allow you to quickly increase or decrease the verbosity. High verbosity provides the most information, while Low verbosity provides the least. Each of these verbosity levels can be fully customized according to your personal needs. Press CAPS LOCK+ALT+B to cycle through the three verbosity levels.