What’s New in the August Freedom Scientific Software Releases?

The August software releases of JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion offer new features and improvements. These include:

• Notification of major upgrades, (JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion, English only)
• A fix that applies personalized web settings (JAWS and Fusion)
• An added help topic for Microsoft Edge (JAWS and Fusion)
• A fix for reading chat messages in Zoom (JAWS and Fusion)

Notification of Major Upgrades

The notification of major upgrades has been added to the English language versions of JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion. Once the August 2020 update has been installed, users will receive a notification when new versions, such as JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion 2021, are released. Those major upgrades will also be displayed in the list when users check for updates.

In addition, JAWS will also detect whether the user has authorization to run the new version. If so, the update can be installed. If not, the update is shown with a message that a license renewal is required for installation as a full product rather than a 40 minute demo.

Apply Personalized Web Settings

The new updates of JAWS and Fusion include a fix that applies personalized web settings to web pages as specified by the user. This feature sets JAWS apart from other products, and now works as expected.

One example of this is choosing whether a page is read automatically when it loads. When the option “Document and Web Pages automatically read when loaded” is checked, pages on the current website will be read automatically.

When not checked, these pages will not be read. Pages on other sites will not be affected by this change.

Help Topic for Microsoft Edge

The new software updates for JAWS and Fusion include a help topic for the Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser. Learn Edge features and keyboard commands to get the most out of your browsing experience.

Read Chat Messages in Zoom

When using Zoom with JAWS or Fusion 2020, an issue occurred with the scripted hotkeys CTRL+1-0 to read alerts. While meeting alerts were read, chat messages were not. This issue is resolved so all alerts including chat messages are read.

Learn more about these and other features on the JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion What’s New pages. Visit the Freedom Scientific Software page to download your update today.