Learn JAWS Scripting From Scratch Revisited! A Comprehensive Course for the Scripting Beginner!

Essential Notes.

This training course was originally produced in 2015. Many things have changed since that time:

• The original training course was not produced to anywhere near the high standards adopted now for current training courses.
• No text transcript was available.
• Some of the JAWS concepts for scripting have changed.
• Some of the applications used for the practice exercises are no longer available.

The major criticism of JAWS scripting is that some of the concepts are difficult to understand. The primary goals for this revised training course are:

• To simplify matters further so as to provide the concepts to ensure applications are accessible.
• Reducing spoken output in specific applications so as to become more productive overall.
• Automating common routines.

Scripting isn't just about making applications accessible. It can be about creating more convenient ways to carry out computing tasks, reducing speech output, gathering information and presenting it in a form more easily readable, and much more.

Introduction.

Have you ever wanted to learn how to write scripts for the well-known screen-reader JAWS for Windows? Do you work with an application which is only partly
accessible and you would like to do more so as to improve the experience? Have you tried scripting yourself but you do not find working through help topics
or the Scripting Manual particularly easy?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, then why not learn scripting in our training course. The objective once the course is completed is that you will have a good understanding of scripting basics and how to go about customising JAWS to work alongside applications.

There's nothing like having someone teaching you a topic. Now, here is your chance to learn JAWS scripting in this way.

What Do I Get?

• Tuition from someone who has been writing scripts (and creating JAWS-based products) for 24 years, who has taken the advanced JAWS scripting class from
  Vispero in Florida and who holds current JAWS product certification.
• Twelve lessons.
• Opportunities to create scripts during the course.
• Extensive documentation to support the topics covered.
• Code samples to illustrate specific points.
• A recording and text transcript of the entire course, delivered weekly.
• An Email list in order to ask questions between sessions.
• A number of Zoom conference meetings to review progress.
• Opportunities to submit work for comment.

You will need the ability to think in a creative way. Anyone potentially can write scripts, but it is what you do with that knowledge which makes the difference between whether other people would wish to use them or not. Working with time values in an application is a good example. Any programmer can cause JAWS to say "00:02:22", but to improve the usability it is preferable perhaps to cause JAWS to say "2 minutes 22 seconds", ignoring the hours entirely if there are none and to present that information in an understandable form.

Topics Covered include:

• An introduction to JAWS script writing and why you would want to create scripts.
• File types and their meanings.
• Using the Keyboard Manager effectively.
• JAWS script hierarchy.
• Technical overview of scripts.
• The Script Manager and how it works.
• Manipulating cursors.
• Reading the screen.
• Automating common routines.
• Creating a global script which can be used anywhere.
• Constants and variables.
• Understanding functions.
• Passing keystrokes through to applications.
• Calling a function from within a script.
• Calling a script from within a script.
• Using contextual voices and why this is important.
• Placing text into the JAWS Virtual Viewer and Results Viewer. There will be extensive discussion surrounding the merits of each approach.
• Creating application-specific Hotkey Help with Hyperlinks.
• Creating JAWS specific Dialog Boxes.
• Linking script files together.
• Windows program structure.
• Reclassifying unknown window classes.
• Exploring applications with the JAWS utility functions.
• Extracting part of a string from your output.
• Preliminary work on using objects, analysing them and activating/setting focus to them.
• Putting it all together. Creating scripts for an application.
• The preliminaries of working with Braille.
• Improving access to websites and browser-based applications.
• Working on your own and furthering your knowledge.

What Else Should I Know?

You should have a good working knowledge of JAWS and Microsoft Windows in general.

This training course will begin on 21 February 2024.

How to Purchase.

Learn JAWS Scripting from Scratch is £200 which is approximately 253 American dollars.

Alternatively please send an email to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com whereupon an invoice can be sent to you which can be paid by credit or debit card.