Announcing Scripts for the Zoom Conferencing Platform - Professional Edition.

Since we produced the free JAWS scripts for the Zoom conferencing platform, we've received some very positive feedback regarding them. The free scripts are not going away and will remain available to you at any time. Moreover, if the Zoom client changes to the extent that modifications are required, they will be made to the free scripts so that at least the existing functionality still works.

However, people have requested additional features and improvements. So on 25 February, we will be launching the professional edition of the scripts. Just to answer two immediate questions which may arise: the scripts will function with JAWS Home as well as JAWS Professional. They will also function with the free version of Zoom and not just for Zoom Pro Account users.

The scripts will offer the following additional benefits above and beyond what is available currently.

Zoom alerts can be suppressed globally. This is probably the most important feature and is worth purchasing these scripts just for that. Many organisations are now using Zoom to host their meetings, and you often will hear "X has left the meeting", or, "Y has joined the meeting", together with text chat messages. Particularly for presenters this is extremely disconcerting, and when people are having group discussions and users have JAWS output through computer speakers, it is incredibly distracting to all participants. So you are able to disable these alerts irrespective of the application in which you are focused.

Even if alerts are disabled, you may still want to be notified of people who have raised their hand prior to asking a question. Such alerts can be enabled if required so you only hear about those.

A keystroke exists to give a quick summary of who has raised their hand, perhaps to ask a question.

Technical Support will be available for these scripts. The free scripts offer no facility for technical support at all.

Documentation will exist to support the new JAWS scripts. Documentation does not exist for the freely available scripts.

Doubtless as we move through 2019 we will receive more feature suggestions which will be very welcome. If you would like to place an order for the scripts so as to receive them on the release date, You can do so here.

We hope people find the new added functionality helpful in delivering (and being a part of) presentations and classes when using Zoom. If you would like to suggest any new features and improvements, feel free to write to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com.