brianhartgen's blog

In the wake of the noisy takeover of Twitter last year, people have been looking for alternatives to the microblogging social media platform. Many of those fleeing or hedging their bets have turned to Mastodon, which has attracted millions of new users since Twitter's acquisition.

Like Twitter, Mastodon allows users to post, follow people and organizations, and like and repost others' posts. But while Mastodon supports many of the same social networking features as Twitter, it is not a single platform.

Instead, it's a federation of independently operated, interconnected servers. The interconnected Mastodon servers, along with other servers that can talk to Mastodon servers, are collectively dubbed "the fediverse". Sound confusing? It isn't when it is explained to you in easy to understand language, and that's the subject of our training course.

For five hours, you will learn that using Mastodon with Windows is not as difficult as you perhaps suppose. Undoubtedly, when considering the various social media platforms, Mastodon is by far the most accessible. So it's important to encourage as many people as possible to be part of it. Moreover, new features and ways of doing things are being discovered all the time.

There is a myth that it is not especially easy to sign up to Mastodon. If you think that, or you've been told that, don't worry. If you don't have a Mastodon account. We'll help you set one up.

We will begin with some theory before getting to the practical. In addition to demonstrating the Mastodon procedures, the central concepts are thoroughly explained in each case. The topics covered are as follows:

• A lengthy discussion as to the advantages of using Mastodon.
• Signing Up using a conventional mainstream instance. Which server to choose.
• Registering on the Tweesecake instance.
• Profile configuration including composing the Bio.
• Installing Tweesecake and linking it to a Mastodon instance.
• Exploration of timelines and configuring the order of Tweesecake buffers.
• Configuring essential options in Tweesecake including modifying templates.
• Creating an introductory toot using the introduction hashtag.
• Pinning an introductory toot to the profile.
• Defining the privacy options, such as followers or mentions only.
• Using the Tweesecake auto-complete facility.
• View toot in edit field, favourite, boost, replying, following and accessing the local timeline.
• Additional functionality in the View dialog and accessing conversation elements.
• Working with profiles and timelines.
• Uploading an audio post and changing the soundpacks.
• Content warnings.
• Thread mode.
• Editing and deleting posts, together with creating a new conversation derived from a mentioned user.
• Setting a nickname.
• An alternative method for composing a direct message.
• Working with different keyboard interfaces.
• Searching for users and working with hashtags.
• Bookmarking.
• Muting sounds, blocking users and showing or hiding boosts.
• Trending hashtags.
• The profile directory.
• The federated timeline.
• Tweesecake portable mode, multiple accounts and JAWS scripts.
• Attaching a picture to a toot and creating alternative text.
• Working with filters.
• Setting default privacy options.
• Scheduling toots.
• Updating.
• The new separation of mentions and notifications.
• Keystrokes to move through posts more quickly.
• Exporting a buffer to a text file.
• Applying alternative text to media.
• Recording audio from within the Tweesecake application.
• Working with polls.

Questions from the course participants are given at appropriate times.

Accessing Mastodon.

At the time of writing, our preferred method of accessing Mastodon is using a Windows application called Tweesecake. Tweesecake makes it super easy to undertake many of the tasks being discussed and demonstrated. Even if you cannot remember all the keyboard shortcuts, there are other ways of accessing everything you need.

Time is devoted to accessing some aspects of the platform using a browser and even that is highly accessible. It is less convenient on several levels but there may well be reasons why you would want to at the time of writing. In summary, at the present time one specific method of access may not allow you to do everything you want, so it may be necessary to use a combination of these.

Training Course Structure.

In the training course you will receive:

• A recording of the sessions.
• A text transcript of the sessions.
• A DAISY audio book of the sessions.
• Access to a web page containing lots of resources referred to in the training course and some which are not but which are nevertheless useful.
• Access to an Email list for course announcements and to ask questions.
• A text guide containing shortcut keys covered in the training.

Please note: The demonstrations are delivered using the JAWS for Windows screen-reader. You are welcome to join us if you are using an alternative screen-reading program, however the same results cannot be guaranteed.

The training course comprising close to six hours of audio is available now.

The cost of Masto-Done; Riding the Elephant is £50 which is approximately $61 US.

Alternatively you can request an invoice and this will be sent to you by Email. The invoice can be paid by any major credit or debit card. Send an Email to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com.

Conclusion.

Join us to find out how truly accessible and usable Mastodon is when using Windows. You can start chatting with people in no time!

Since the demise of the majority of the specialist third party clients to support the X social networking tool, people have been attempting to navigate the official web site or Windows app with varying degrees of success. It is achieveable but very unsatisfactory. There is a great deal of additional verbosity, there is no way of discerning how many characters of a tweet have been typed and there is the need to move in and out of the JAWS Forms Mode frequently, to name but three aspects.

Third party X clients made it possible for screen-reader users to access the social network in a convenient and efficient way. While those days are gone, we can at least improve the experience somewhat by a set of JAWS scripts to support both access to the X web site or app. Through the use of more logical shortcut keys and a little creativity, we have a solution which at the very least will allow you to access X with some logic and efficiency.

The JAWS scripts include:

• Easy to remember shortcut keys, such as Up and Down Arrow to move through tweets, Control+N to compose a new tweet, Control+R to reply, Control+Shift+R to retweet, Control+Shift+Q to retweet with quoting, etc.
• Abbreviated Mode which will condense what you hear (or see in Braille) as you move through tweets. For example, the default output for a tweet when browsing the X web site, even with its dedicated shortcut keys, might be as follows: "BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking 57 minutes ago Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years", etc, whereas Abbreviated Mode would give you, "BBC Breaking News Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years".
• Easy to remember keystrokes to move to core sections of X, such as Home, Mentions, Direct Messages, to switch accounts and more.
• A keystroke to activate the Context Menu for a tweet, so as to carry out common tasks in relation to it, such as Unfollow or Mute a user.
• A keystroke to copy the focused tweet to the Windows Clipboard.
• Scan images in posts quickly via Picture Smart or Be My Eyes.
• Assign nicknames or short-forms to usernames which may be lengthy or contain emoji.
• Open a profile and focus is set to the correct location with the Virtual Cursor activated.
• Full list of keystrokes in the JAWS Hotkey Help.
• Documentation to provide descriptions of how to use the various functions.
• Online Update facility.

Hear a demonstration of the scripts in action!

Important Notes.

• Users of our Leasey product do not need to purchase these scripts as they are included already.
• The JAWS scripts for X in no way violate X's Terms of Service.

The cost of the JAWS scripts for X is £30 which is approximately $38 US.

We're very pleased to release Leasey version 8. This is a major new release of the product which we hope you will enjoy. It contains new features and we expect to have many updates to come this year in the version 8 series which you will be entitled to receive as a Leasey 8 user.

This document contains details of the new features. It also contains help if you are upgrading from a previous version of Leasey and details of remote assistance if you have difficulty.
Each new feature is fully explained in our documentation. You can access the documentation online, in RTF format, DAISY Text and HTML.

There is a demonstration of each new feature in an audio tutorial through our LeaseyBites.
LeaseyBites are available through a link on every page of our web site, or by subscribing to a podcast feed from Apple's podcast service.
They are available on the BrailleSense, Humanware's Victor Reader products, Amazon and Audible.

Changed in Leasey 8.1.

Completely compatible with JAWS 2024.
It is hoped that the majority of difficulties with the new Results Viewer have been overcome.

When in the Placemarker Dialog Box, ALT+A should activate the Add button.

Pressing the Leasey key then ALT+K should route the JAWS cursor to the focused area of the web page and left click.

ALT+Windows+Grave Accent starts Microsoft dictation.

Within Microsoft Outlook, and you press the Leasey key then ALT+Windows+N, you should now be able to create a new Leasey Note.

The following keystrokes are available when Face in View is active. These keys are pressed by themselves:
O: Close Face in View.
D: Face in View description.
L: Face in View brightness.
P: Face in View Picture Smart.
U: Face in View change confidence threshold.

Previous Changes.

WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is an ideal service for sending instant text or voice messages, making calls or sharing files. Last summer, Leasey included support for what is known as the WhatsApp Web client. Now, that support is provided to the Microsoft Store app. Having used it extensively, we know you can move around the application quickly and the Leasey support makes it super easy to work with. This really is the ideal time to give it a try!

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

When searching for WhatsApp in the app store, you may prefer to search for "WhatsApp Beta". The official app works just fine, but there are some accessibility tweaks in the beta version and more are coming along every day. One was noticed this morning.

A group on WhatsApp has been created for those people who feel they may like a little assistance as this is a new platform for a number of us. To join, please let us know. We will then send you a link which you can activate so as to join the group.

Leasey Virtual Notes.

It is more than possible that you would like to work in one application while referring to notes in another one or within a series of applications. Here are some examples.
You may be writing a report in Microsoft Word, but you've made notes relating to a client which are stored in a text file which would typically be opened up in Notepad or another text editor. To get to those notes, you may have to press alt with tab a number of times to find it, especially if you have several applications open.
alternatively, you may be a person who does quite a lot of audio recording, and you need to read text which you have compiled from a number of documents or web page sources. You would need to start the recording, and then press alt tab often several times in order to move to the web page or document of interest.
a new feature in leasey version 8, called leasey virtual notes, makes referring to text a very easy process. You can stay within the primary application, such as Microsoft Word or your recording application, and still have access to your important text. It's a bit like a sighted person having two monitors side by side: one containing the document and the other displaying the text notes. Best of all, these notes can be from a variety of different sources.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Mastodon Address Book.

Mastodon is a social network which has become popular in recent months. One of its attractions is that you can express yourself more fully, as some of the server providers allow you to send messages comprising thousands of characters. after all, if you have to condense a message into a small number of characters, this can lead to misunderstanding and frustration. But one problem can occur, and this relates to how to remember the different addresses of the people you would like to write to. Meet the Mastodon Address Book which can help.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Mapping Folders to Drive Letters.

If you are fond of typing a folder path into the Windows Run, Open or Save As dialog boxes, you could find yourself entering something which is quite lengthy.
If the path to a folder location is reasonably difficult to get to, and you use it regularly, it would be good if you could save yourself some time in
order to save items there more quickly. A feature available in Leasey allows you to map folders to drive letters.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

The Leasey Start Menu.

This feature arose as a direct request from a number of customers.

The Leasey Start Menu serves two purposes. It allows you to access computing applications you may wish to frequently launch. But it also allows you to
open common utilities in Windows it may be more difficult to get access to. One could assume that such a feature is designed for computer beginners. However,
we already know that experienced users of JAWS are benefiting from it.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Continuous Tagging in File Explorer.

Since version 1, Leasey has contained a feature called Leasey Tags.
LeaseyTags is an intelligent application which allows you to manage files within File Explorer.
For example, if you wanted to select files 1, 3 and 25 in a File Explorer list, perhaps for copying, cutting or deleting, this could be difficult. It can
be done using the keyboard but there is the potential for mistakes to be made. LeaseyTags makes this and other similar functions simple!

Leasey version 8 contains the ability to tag files in a continuous range. Activate the mode with Control+Windows+T. Then, press Down Arrow to tag files continuously. If you change your mind, and you wish to cancel tagging, press Escape.

Elegance for ElBraille and Focus Displays.

In some situations, we have found that pressing Enter to terminate Elegance mode on the Focus Braille display is not working correctly. Please try pressing Z-Chord instead.

Upgrading From a Previous Version, Obtaining Support and Other Notes.

As described in the documentation, when the computer is restarted following the installation, Leasey will check online to see if an activation file is available for you.
Assuming the file is found, it will be installed onto the computer and you will be prompted to restart JAWS for Windows. Please press the letter "Y" for JAWS to be restarted.

If a message box appears stating that an activation file is not available, please contact us immediately! This may occur if installing Leasey within a company or organisation, since the Firewall or virus checking software may block the activation file. If so, we can arrange for a manual activation file to be sent to you. Please include your JAWS serial number!
You can always copy the JAWS serial number to the Windows Clipboard by pressing the Leasey Key followed by letter U.
If you do not send along your JAWS serial number, all you are doing is delaying the fixing of the problem you have.

If You Need Remote Technical Support.

Remote Technical Support means that we can with your permission connect to your computer to resolve any difficulties with the Leasey program.
Please note this is not training!
If you require individual training, this can be arranged for an additional cost.

The following paragraphs will assist you in downloading and installing the Remote Incident Manager software which we use to provide advanced technical support and allows us to connect to your computer.

If you have Leasey installed, you can always press the Leasey Key then Backspace. If the Remote Incident Manager client is not installed, Leasey will install it in the background.

Alternatively, the software can be downloaded here.

Please go ahead and install the software. The installer is extremely straightforward. Just press Enter if necessary repeatedly so as to work through the various screens. When the install begins, it is likely to take a minute or two to complete but it will prompt you when the process has concluded.

When the software has been installed, you will find a shortcut on the Windows Desktop entitled Remote Incident Manager. Press Enter to launch the program.
Alternatively, you can press the Leasey Key then Backspace.

A web-page-like environment will be available with an Edit Field which should be focused.
The title of this page is: Remote Incident Manager: Receive Remote Help.
Some text is below this which is as follows: Please enter the keyword you received from the person helping you.

When prompted by the technician on the phone, type in the key word which you will mutually agree between you, then press Enter.

Thank you for your interest in Leasey!

WhatsApp is a popular, free, multi-platform messaging app that lets users make video and voice calls, send text messages, share their status, and more with just a Wi-Fi connection. Part of what makes this app appealing is that it works on various phone and computer operating systems, so you can continue your conversation anytime, anywhere. It can also take advantage of Wi-Fi and cellular data to make one-to-one or group calls, reducing the need for expensive calling charges. You never miss messages, but even if you miss notifications while your phone is off, the app saves recent messages for when you re-open it.

WhatsApp can identify people in your contact list who currently use the app, so you typically don't have to add them manually. You can also invite people who don't have WhatsApp or connect with other users you know but who Are not on your contact list.

In 2022, our Leasey product began offering support for WhatsApp. We're now pleased to extend the same functionality so as to support the app downloadable from the Microsoft Store. We've now got this to the point where our new interface is an absolute pleasure to use and where you can be super efficient when using WhatsApp.

Script Features In Brief.

• Keystroke to toggle between whether identification is given as to whether a person is typing or recording a message. This has four conditions: Disabled, Play Typing Indicator Sound, Indicate Who Is Typing, and Play Sound And Indicate Who Is Typing. Having these options on a quick keystroke is ideal because there will often be situations where you will want to disable this functionality.
• Keystroke to enable or disable the automatic speaking of incoming messages as they arrive.
• Option to reduce the speaking of incoming messages, so as to remove the time stamp and status.
• Keystroke to identify who is typing or recording.
• Keystrokes to read the last 20 incoming messages. Press twice quickly to play an audio message, place into the JAWS Virtual Viewer for closer inspection or to activate the Context Menu.
• Keystroke to identify the focused conversation and status.
• Plenty of keystrokes to move around the WhatsApp interface quickly without having to press Tab and Shift+Tab.
• Keystrokes for ending a call and learning if the microphone is muted or if the camera is enabled.
• Option to set a nickname to reduce spoken output for a long name or phone number.
• Keystrokes for working with attachments.
• Keystroke to virtualise profile information, ideal for obtaining the user's phone number.
• Keystrokes for managing aspects of recording, such as Pause and Send. We ensure that speech output from JAWS does not intrude into the recording.
• A keystroke to verify whether recording is in progress or has been paused.
• Sounds to indicate important status, such as when a message is sent, when recording is started or paused and to denote audio messages when moving through a Chat List.
• A dialog box when you cancel a voice message to ensure you do not accidentally discard it.
• Hotkey Help.
• The ability to bring into view a list of links in the chat.
• Update Facility.
• Supports most modern versions of JAWS, not just the latest.
• Full documentation.
• And More.

Hear an Audio Demonstration of the Scripts in Action!

The scripts are priced £30 which is approximately $37.

Hi Everyone!

We would like to wish you all happy holidays and a very merry Christmas. As some of you may know, we are closed for business as of next Monday at 12 PM UK time, and I wanted to ensure all our Email lists and social media outlets had this notice before we go away for the Christmas holidays.

This has been an incredible year for us at Hartgen Consultancy. We would like to thank those of you who have purchased products from us, our beta testers for the hard work and time they have invested in getting the products to where they need to be, and our wonderful product distributors who sell and support what we have to offer. We're very grateful to everyone.

Let me choose some highlights to celebrate this year.

Leasey has had an amazing year in 2022. More features have been added during the past 12 months than any other year. Those which particularly stand out are all our new search tools, such as Amazon, EBay, time conversions, holidays, recipes etc. Support for WhatsApp was introduced and that will be extended next year. The help system was improved which included the ability for people to create their own custom notes for applications. And we mustn't forget being able to store settings in the cloud so they can be used on multiple machines.

The LeaseyBites have made a return in the form of a podcast, and new episodes are set to be recorded in the early new year. One of the reasons for their continuation is because we will have new features to show you in version 8 of the product. The new release is being worked on right now!

Another area which has seen significant growth this year would be training and scripting. This is particularly true in the area of JAWS script writing for government departments and organisations, but it also includes our range of training courses. We had a training course this year called Jaw Muscles (containing useful JAWS for Windows tips), a huge course entitled SenseAbility devoted to the BrailleSense 6, Opening Windows (useful Windows tips and procedures), and Catching Up With JAWS (to get people up-to-date with the latest features in the screen-reader). Using the Brave browser is first on the list for next year.

All the segments in the Webinars are divided into separate files for easy navigation, and people love the text transcripts too. The archive and text is usually available within 12 hours of an individual Webinar. We think that is fast.

Our other products have also had updates this year including J-Say for voice recognition. Many people are benefiting from J-Say as each week goes by.

The only fly in the ointment is Microsoft Teams. Development to improve some major flaws in the accessibility of Teams is exceptionally slow, and it would be good to see some improvement in that area next year.

The ability to support customers more effectively took a giant leap forward this year with the new update to Remote Incident Manager from Pneuma Solutions. This not only makes it possible to resolve difficulties more quickly, but also assists in the area of training and demonstrations. It really does make the world of difference in terms of what can be achieved.

And finally, we were thrilled to be presented with an award for excellence by the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind. This was the 2022 Impact Community Award. You can check out the full details of that on the Home Page of our web site.

Again, thank you all for helping make 2022 the wonderful year that it has been and we look forward very much to helping more people use their computers next year!

Brian Hartgen

Finding a web browser which is right for you is these days just as important as choosing a good screen-reader or Email client. As using the web is so liberating for us as blind people, it's an important choice and it's right that you evaluate as many browsers as you can. In this training course, Brave Words, we would like to show you some of the many advantages the Brave browser can offer.

There are lots of reasons why Brave is becoming a popular browser. The fact that its tools are accessible is a prime consideration, privacy is undoubtedly another and a faster browsing experience is a third out of many.

In addition to the above, Brave can do a great deal more than allowing you to browse the web as will be demonstrated. This training course gives to you a combination of good strategies for browsing the web with JAWS together with explaining in detail many of the features which could cause you to give Brave a good workout.

Topics covered include:

• The advantages of using Brave.
• Installing and getting to know Brave.
• How fast is Brave?
• Working with Tabs and windows.
• Introducing settings.
• Setting Brave to be the default browser.
• Customising Brave for ease of use with JAWS for Windows through browser Settings.
• Keyboard shortcuts for web browsing and getting to where you need to be.
• Working with the Brave Address Bar.
• Creating and managing your Favourites in two distinctly different ways.
• Downloading files: where they go and how to control them. It's not as straightforward as you think.
• Listening to audio content.
• Tabbed Browsing: what is it and getting the most from it.
• The New Private Window.
• Opening pages in a new window.
• Settings not related to accessibility and optimisation. Customising settings is at the very heart of this browser in order that you can make the most of its powerful features so we'll be spending a lot of time there.
• Customising advertisement preferences and Tracker blocking.
• Browsing History.
• Working with Brave News, to keep up-to-date with the latest information from many sources. Brave News creates a customizable, up-to-date news feed, curated from a list of sources you’ve selected. Hundreds of top publishers and RSS feeds, blogs, news outlets, print and web magazines, and more, across dozens of categories.
• Brave Talk, an accessible and flexible way to have one to one or group meetings with audio, video, text chat and polls.

The cost of Brave Words is £50 which is approximately $60 US.

Alternatively you can request an invoice and this will be sent to you by Email. The invoice can be paid by any major credit or debit card. Send an Email to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com.

Conclusion.

Considering that most of us increasingly rely on the web browser to get things done, the search for the perfect web browser will never stop. Learning the facilities of an alternative browser to the one you currently use is always preferable so you can make the right choice. Discover how to gain the most from Brave in an accessible way and enter a brave new world!

Hi to all

We have made a decision to cancel our training course on Mastodon for next week. There is simply not enough interest in this at the moment. All our other training courses are always well attended, but as of the time of writing, people are not interested in this particular one. For various reasons this can be well understood.

Should the situation change in the future, perhaps early next year, we will consider delivering the training. Naturally, the small number of people who did purchase the training course will have their money refunded today.

If you are using Eset Internet Security Suite 16, you may encounter a problem where some screen-reader keystrokes will not function when working with a browser. This particularly applies to Quick Navigation keys but it can affect other keystrokes as well.

This occurs because the secure browser aspects of Eset are corrupting the screen-reader keystrokes and so they cannot be processed correctly. We know this because if you use our J-Say product with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and execute commands by voice, you are not affected. It is only if you use the keyboard with the screen-reader.

If you install Eset Security suite, there is an option when doing so which asks if you would like secure browsing with banking and payment protection. If you elect not to install this component you will not get the problem.

If you have installed the program with the default settings however, you should work through these steps:

1. Open up Eset Security.
2. Press function key F5 to move into Advanced Setup.
3. Press Tab until you reach "Web and Email", then press the Space Bar.
4. Press Tab repeatedly until you reach the option "Banking and Payment Protection" and then press the Space Bar.
5. Press Tab repeatedly to reach the Check Box "Enable Banking and Payment Protection". Press the Space Bar to uncheck it. A dialog box will be displayed announcing that you need to restart your web browser if it was opened at the time of carrying out this procedure.
6. Press Tab to reach the "OK" Button and press the Space Bar.

Introduction.

Now is your chance to get some high quality training on some of the latest features within the screen-reader JAWS for Windows which have been introduced over the past two years. This follows on from our previous popular training courses on this subject. These training courses are still popular and people are purchasing the older volumes in the series even today!

If you are a person who chooses to upgrade your copy of JAWS on a regular basis, or maybe you've skipped an upgrade or two and you are about to update your computer to JAWS for Windows version 2023, chances are that you may not have had time to get to grips with the latest features the screen-reader offers. While JAWS does contain excellent documentation, there's nothing like someone sitting down with you to explain how many of these new features work. Particularly in the last two years, Vispero have introduced some features which will both keep you informed and productive.

That's why at Hartgen Consultancy, we've created a short course to enable you to get your JAWS knowledge up-to-date. The course focuses upon the new features included with JAWS versions 2022 and 2023.

With the annual subscription to JAWS now available in the US and Canada, (designed to make it easier for people to obtain JAWS or to jump up to the latest release), it's a good chance to get your knowledge updated. Not only that, this training course is ideally suited to users of Zoomtext Fusion too.

Purchasing JAWS is a significant investment, so it is important that you make the most of what you've paid for and that you are taught by someone who fully understands all aspects of using it. You may also be an access technology Trainer, or an I T Lecturer in a College who has a basic awareness of how JAWS works but again is not up to speed with the latest enhancements.

What You Will Learn.

This course has a duration of two hours. It is designed for anyone who already understands how to use many functions of JAWS but who would like to gain a greater skill level with the latest features. The features are demonstrated with real world examples so that they make sense.

Each topic is contained within its own MP3 audio file and text document.

Topics include:

• Introduction.
• An introduction to Smart Glance highlights using Amazon.
• An introduction to Smart Glance highlights using Audible.
• Setting up Smart Glance highlights.
• Navigating tables with arrow keys.
• Concluding remarks on web-based features.
• Working with previous settings.
• Changing sound sources.
• Audio sound splitter.
• Determining file locations.
• Customising Outlook verbosity.
• Has Details and audience participation.
• Customising alerts from applications.
• Customising Windows notifications and audience participation.

How to Purchase.

Catching Up with JAWS is priced £35 which is approximately 40 American dollars.

Alternatively, anyone can purchase the course by sending an Email to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon a fully accessible electronic invoice will be sent to you which can be paid through PayPal or any major credit or debit card.

Conclusion.

Be sure you are at the cutting edge of JAWS-based technology and become familiar with everything in the past two releases. You'll be glad you did!

JAWS version 2023 should be with us very soon, so it is time to write some notes about how you can prepare for this. In fact, this year is more important than most. This message will be distributed to our many Email lists, so you may see it more than once.

With the exception of our products J-Dictate, The Muze and Microsoft Teams scripts, all of our script packages have had an update of some kind. We have no idea as to the official date of the release of JAWS 2023. So following a day or so after the release, you should check our web site or social media to learn if there is an update for the product you wish to install.

Very shortly after release, Leasey, Zoom scripts, and StationPlaylist scripts especially will be made available for use with JAWS 2023.
You will need to download each installer package and install into JAWS 2023.

In the case of J-Say, we are targeting the second week of November for the release of J-Say version 21, which will be compatible with JAWS 2023. Anyone who has a J-Say SMA, or who is entitled to a free upgrade, will be able to use that version.

There is an additional requirement this year which we would please like you to check after you have installed JAWS 2023.
1. Press Insert+6 to move to Settings Centre.
2. Press Control+Shift+D for the default file.
3. Into the edit field, type the word "Unified" without the quotes.
4. When the results appear, arrow down once to reach the option relating to Unified Keyboard Processing and uncheck it.
5. Tab to "OK" and press Space.

The option for "Unified Keyboard Processing" should be disabled by default but we're just checking. If it is enabled, your product from our company will not function at all.

If You Need Help.

If you are unable to install or configure one of our products, we can easily remote onto your computer and do this for you. At the top of each page on our web site, you can find a link to Remote Incident Manager, which gives us a great deal of control over both installation of software and configuration of the computer. We can if necessary also provide you with what is known as an Unattended Installation of RIM. This means sending you a link to an installer. You install the program and thereafter we can connect to the computer right away. We've had enormous success with this particularly with people who find it difficult to initiate the remote access session manually. As soon as it is installed, the configuration work can be done quickly. Just ask if you need that service.

We hope you enjoy using our products with JAWS 2023!