brianhartgen's blog

It's always good when a company lets you know what happens behind the scenes rather than just promoting the products and services they offer. Here's a blog post which does just that.

As well as delivering training courses and webinars on the subject of using JAWS and Fusion, as a company developing products we also need to provide technical support. In addition we provide one-to-one (or individual) training to customers remotely in their own homes.

As a small company based in the UK, it's not always possible to provide such services for people in the US, Australia or New Zealand for example, because of the considerable time difference. This is why we employ the services of a Consultant on a part-time basis who carries out work for us.

When we consider people to do work for us of this nature, we only want the best. The person has to be friendly and welcoming to customers, have considerable in depth knowledge of JAWS and Fusion, and has to apply that knowledge to solving problems and training people how to use those skills to work with mainstream applications. Moreover the person has to be "unflappable!". Things can and do go wrong. When that happens, you need someone who can put them right without the customer becoming flustered. Caroline Toews, (who lives in Canada), ticks these boxes and many more!

There are good screen-reader users and great screen-reader users. Caroline falls very much into the "great" category and is able to explain things in a way which people find easy to understand.

Caroline carries out a range of tasks with customers; from installing and customising computers to work with our Leasey product, through to the provision of a full training course to assist blind people to take advantage of social media to market their business. She's also trained people in the use of Outlook and Excel to name but two applications.

Do you want Caroline to train you? Head on over to our Remote Training page!

You may be aware that people taking part in our training for Microsoft Teams have additional JAWS script files to support them. These include features such as notification of when a person is typing through a sound, speech or Braille. They give access to elements of Teams which cannot be navigated to with the keyboard. There is a special "Condensed Mode" to abbreviate information in the Teams Calendar. There are additional prompts to aid navigation in specific areas of Teams. More keystrokes have been added to support meetings. You can disable a lot of the added tutorial-based information sent to the user by the program. You can even get to Teams from anywhere. And so much more. The scripts are packed with features.

Our course participants also have access to our scripts for Microsoft Outlook, providing a considerably enhanced level of support to the Outlook calendar, flagging items and Email attachments. Teams shines when you use it in conjunction with Outlook! Best of all, we've ensured that people can easily access links in Meeting Notes; useful for customising meeting options.

But there is one upcoming feature which deserves special mention. We call it "ClickBoom".

Imagine you are researching something on the web or you are working in a Word document. A message arrives in Teams or Outlook. JAWS says the word "Outlook" or "Teams", followed by who the message is from and optionally a brief summary of the message.

Press a keystroke and you'll be able to read the message in full, reply to it or delete it. No need to ALT+Tab to your Inbox, find the message, and open it. Of course you can attach a file to your reply, especially important if the boss is waiting for a spreadsheet! She may be a boss who doesn't like waiting!

When you've replied, press a keystroke, and "Boom", you are right back where you were, within the web page or Word document.

So when the message arrives, you click into it, do what you need, and then "Boom", you can go right back to where you were!

The ClickBoom feature also allows you to review the last ten incoming messages from either program or all of them which JAWS has captured. You can also stop them from being spoken entirely which is often useful when your chats get busy.

Our scripts for Teams and Outlook will be available later this month as a separate module to the Teams training, or they can be purchased as part of the tuition as is currently the case. Over eight hours of training will be available by the time the course has completed.

Improve your productivity with "ClickBoom!"

Back in 2017, our company produced an audio tutorial and virtual training class on the use of the Reaper application with screen-reading software.

A lot has happened during that time, and the original plan was to re-record it and run the class again last year. Unfortunately as we know, the worldwide pandemic changed everyone's plans considerably, and for us there were greater priorities.

However, we do know the training course needs to be updated. But we're going further. We're going to start again with a brand new training course on this subject which is next on our list after completing Microsoft Teams. That too is taking longer than expected.

The new training course will not only be completely reorganised, but it will be expanded to include many new sections. There will also be a text transcript of at least the majority of the audio files which will ensure quickly referring to important information can be more easily achieved.

Pricing and availability will be made available in May with a suggested start date of mid-June 2021.

We would appreciate it if you did not ask questions at this time. The sole purpose of this announcement is to let people know that the production of this training course is very much in mind and this is the year when we will revisit this topic.

The next release of our Leasey product is expected to be available next week.
We thought you may be interested in details of these two utilities, the first can be found under LeaseySearch.

Track Package.

This service allows you to track a parcel from hundreds of major couriers worldwide.
Regardless of the online store or the market you have purchased, you should be able to trace the full path of the order with the parcel tracking service
This includes couriers such as USPS, Canada Post, Royal Mail, UPS, FedEx, eBay and Amazon. In each case, you should be able to see a history of the tracked item and the expected delivery date.

Having selected this item, when prompted by Leasey enter the tracking reference number and press Enter. In the case of Amazon, the order number is required which you should have available as part of your Order History on the Amazon site or sent to you by Email.

A screen is then revealed containing the appropriate information, such as:

Dispatched Wednesday, 31 March AMAZON LOGISTICS

31 Mar 2021

Ordered Wednesday, 31 March AMAZON LOGISTICS

Destination United Kingdom

Found in Amazon Logistics

Tracked with couriers Amazon Logistics

Delivery By Amazon

Delivery ETA Arriving Sunday

Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging feature built into Facebook. The application is an instant messaging service that connects to the Facebook database and has replaced the in-app Facebook messaging service. It allows Facebook users to connect with each other and send instant messages, emoji, photos, videos, and perform other light tasks.

Essentially this is a largely uncluttered accessible interface for Facebook Messenger, where you can communicate not only with your Facebook friends, but it would seem anyone who happens to be on Facebook that it fines.

While the interface is very accessible, Leasey removes extraneous speech in some areas and adds some shortcut keys. In summary, the whole point of a messenger program is so that you can send quick, frequent messages to people with the minimum of effort and Leasey helps with that.

To obtain Facebook Messenger, you can download it here.
If you have any problems downloading the Windows desktop application, please contact us.

Here are some basic procedures you can use to work with this application.

As you launch Messenger, you will see close to the top a list of people with whom you could create a room or have a conversation with. These are the people from your Facebook friends who are online.

Below this, you can see a list of the people you have recently chatted with. You can get straight to those users by pressing Control+Windows+C.
These are links, and jaws will announce if there are unread messages associated with the conversation.
Press Enter on a link of interest. Note that these conversations can go back for many years!

When inside a chat, press ALT+1 in order to move to the most recent conversation thread by date.

Press Control+Windows+F for the "Find Chat" Edit field. Forms Mode should already be activated. Start typing. Press Enter to send.

When someone replies, this is a standard Windows notification, and so you can press any one of the keystrokes Leasey has for such events, Insert+Space then Control+1 for the most recent, Control+2 for the next most recent, and so on.
For speed, you can also press ALT+Windows+1 through to ALT+Windows+0.

Notifications will also be announced as they arrive, but they have special significance here, because you will only hear the person’s name, not any preceeding text indicating it is a notification from messenger so as to improve efficiency.

To compose a new message to anyone, press Control+Windows+N for "New".
Into the resulting edit field, type a name or partial name, such as, Hartgen.
You should then be able to arrow down the list, the output for which has been customised somewhat. You will hear details of any friends matching the search term, and even people who are not on your friends list. If someone has mentioned this particular name on Facebook when conversing with you in the past, in other words if it is part of the text of a previous message, that too will be highlighted.
Just press Enter on any item so as to compose a new message to the person referenced.

The next release of our Leasey product is expected to be available next week.
This includes a new utility, Elegance for ElBraille. We thought you would be interested in a full description of how this works.

The ElBraille gives you a lot of flexibility in order that you can use your favourite Windows applications while on the go, and with the unit's long battery life, it could be a good proposition. However imagine using only 8 keys to perform all those Windows functions you take for granted. The concept is that you press various keyboard combinations to effect Windows keystrokes. So if you want to execute ALT+F4 to close a program down, you hold down dot 8 with space which says to the ElBraille "I want to do a Windows keystroke now", and you also press dot 6 which represents "ALT", and dot 1, which means "A function key is now going to be pressed". Release those keys, and press letter "D", representing 4.

Leasey makes this much easier. We call this functionality Elegance for ElBraille. It gives you complete control of your device without the need to remember complex key sequences, and it also means you can do so within a matter of minutes. That is how it should be. You've purchased a sophisticated device and you want to get up and running as quickly as possible. Elegance for ElBraille allows you to do this while you get to learn the more complex Braille input keys, if that is what you wish to do.

The concept is that you press a key on the keyboard which is "Of-Sign Chord", or dots 1-2-3-5-6 with the Space Bar.

You will hear a small click sound. This indicates to you that the keyboard has been suspended from its usual functionality and is in a special Elegance mode waiting for you to control the device with an appropriate command.
Note that this keyboard suspension occurs only for 30 seconds, so you need to move onto the next step within that 30 second period. Once that keystroke has been pressed, you can type what you would like to happen.

Use computer Braille to type a command, so for example type:
windows D
That is windows space d, uncontracted, and press the Enter key. When you press the Enter key, you will hear a sound to indicate that the Elegance mode has been terminated.

The above example sets focus to the Windows Desktop. Now use the same procedure to run a windows application. Press Dots 1-2-3-5-6 with the Space Bar, wait for the click sound, and type windows R, that is Windows space R, and press Enter.
The Run dialog box appears, into which you can type Notepad and then press the Enter key to launch it.

Here are some other commands you may like to enter. You can of course substitute these strategies for other keyboard commands.

Control Space F4.

ALT Space F4.

Control Space Shift Space P.

Windows Space E.

ALT+Windows+RightArrow.

You can also carry out any JAWS screen-reading command. Provided you know the keyboard action to perform the command, you can enter it on the device. Here are some examples.

Insert Space F7. Brings into view a list of links on a web page.

Insert Space UpArrow. Reads the current line.

Insert Space F11. Brings into view a list of icons in the System Tray area of Windows.

It is possible to abbreviate any one of the above keystrokes. This saves a great deal of time when controlling your device, since the full word of the keyboard action does not need to be spelled out, such as Windows. The abbreviations are:

Windows equals W.

ALT equals A.

Control equals C.

Shift equals S.

I equals Insert.

Here are some examples of how you might use these abbreviations.

W Space R. Brings into view the Run dialog box.

W Space A Space RightArrow. Presses the keystroke Windows+ALT+Right Arrow, perhaps for moving to a new buffer within a specialist Twitter client.

I Space F7. Presses the keystroke Insert+F7 so as to bring into view the list of links dialog box.

Finally, Leasey-related keystrokes can be entered by substituting the Leasey key for the abbreviation, L E. Here are some examples:

LE Space Control+L. This brings into view the list of LeaseyCuts.

LE Space Control Space Semicolon. This brings into view a list of LeaseyCuts pointing to web pages.

LE Space F1. Copies text to LeaseyClip 1.

Advanced Functionality of Elegance.

Now we have outlined the basic principles of using Elegance for ElBraille, we will go onto describing how it can become more sophisticated and how you can make it do tricks.

The above discussion is all very well if you are content to type out the various keystrokes in full, but this can be a little time consuming. However Elegance for ElBraille gets a little better, because you can customise your own shortcuts and abbreviations to carry out a number of tasks.

This is done by launching the ElBraille mode using dots 1-2-3-5-6 with the Space Bar and typing the word, elegance.
This opens up a file in notepad, a simple text editor. We have provided a sample file for you. You can delete or change any entry in this file, and we encourage you to create your own entries so the device will do what you want it to do with the minimum of effort.

The concept is that you specify the abbreviation you would like to type, then write an equals sign, and follow it up with the action you would like to carry out as a result.

Below, you will find contents of the sample file provided, and we will go through it with you here so that you can see some of the actions which are possible. It will also teach you how this file should be constructed so you can create your own abbreviations and shortcuts.

Conventional windows keystrokes.

desk=windows+d

run=Windows+R

close=alt+f4

What does this all mean? Simply this. If you add such an entry to the Elegance file, in the future you can just type the abbreviation to carry out the task. You do not even need to press Enter so as to terminate the special mode. In the above examples, if you pressed dots 1-2-3-5-6 with the Space Bar, then the term Desk, you would automatically be focused on the Windows desktop.
If you pressed dots 1-2-3-5-6 with Space, and typed the word Run, the Windows Run dialog box would appear.

Let us now look at some other examples.

JAWS keystrokes

sp=Control+NumPad5

If you used this abbreviation, pressing dots 1-2-3-5-6 and Space Bar, followed by the characters SP, would cause JAWS to read out the current paragraph. The default command for that on an ElBraille device by the way is LEFT SHIFT+RIGHT SHIFT+DOTS 2-3-5-6-7-8, so it's quicker and easier to do it this way.

links=insert+f7

If you used this abbreviation, pressing dots 1-2-3-5-6 and Space Bar, followed by the word Links would cause the list of links dialog box to appear.

For the TWBlue Twitter client

rt=alt+windows+rightarrow

lt=alt+windows+leftarrow

Whenever you press Of-Sign Chord followed by RT, you would advance to the next buffer in a Twitter application, such as TWBlue.

It is even possible to run specific files if you care to create abbreviations for them.

For ElNotes

ElNotes=C:\Program Files (x86)\Elita Group\ElNotes\ElNotes.exe

This means whenever you type Of-Sign Chord followed by the word ElNotes, the ElNotes application will launch.

What we are doing here is specifying in our elegance.ini file the abbreviation, an equals sign, then the full path of the file to be launched.

Finally, if you have created LeaseyAbbreviations which are attached to LeaseyTexts, you can even type those through this feature. For example, if you had an abbreviation assigned to the characters SIG, this may type your signature, such as name, company position, etc. There is a LeaseyBite audio tutorial on how to create abbreviations.
In this example, you would press Of-Sign Chord, followed by the characters SIG, to reproduce the signature.

When you have added your various abbreviations, press Control+S to save the file, followed by ALT+F4 so as to close it.
As soon as the file is saved, you can begin using the abbreviations.

Concluding Notes on Elegance for ElBraille.

It could be that you enter Elegance Mode with Of-Sign Chord, and then change your mind. For example, you may enter the mode and misspell the word Control, to represent the control key. That is not a problem. Just press Z-Chord, or Z with Space, and this mode is terminated. You will hear a sound to indicate it has been terminated.

Finally, there is a conventional Windows Desktop keyboard shortcut which allows you to enter Elegance mode. This is ALT+Windows+F12. This allows anyone to test this functionality using a standard Desktop keyboard if necessary.

Hi to all

At a time when companies are making announcements about upcoming product releases, it is the right opportunity to tell you about the upcoming release of Leasey, together with news of some of our other products too.

Leasey Version 6.

Leasey version 6 is just a few weeks away as we are in the final stages of testing. Here are some of the highlights.

Elegance for ElBraille.

One of the difficulties with using a Braille input keyboard to drive the Windows operating system and associated applications is the keystrokes which need to be remembered to perform such tasks, many of which some people find bewildering. Elegance for ElBraille takes the learning of these keystrokes away allowing you to key into the device exactly what you would like to happen. The feedback from our beta testers so far is overwhelmingly positive, and they wish it could be available for other Braille displays!

The concept is as follows. You press a key on the Focus display.
From this point you are in a "special mode", allowing you to type what you would like to happen. So if you would like to move to the desktop, you type:
Windows Space D
or, for purposes of speed,
W Space D,
with the letter "W" representing the Windows key.
Then you press Enter.

To type Control+O to open a file you would enter
Control Space O
or
C Space O.

There are also other commands for ALT, Shift, the Insert Key and the JAWS Key. This makes it particularly powerful, since you can quickly use JAWS utilities such as the list of Links, Say All, or anything else which comes to mind. Provided you know the keystroke for it, you ought to be able to use it. In summary, if you have a device such as the ElBraille, you really should be able to use it within a few minutes without giving the matter too much thought!

Given it is the Enter key on the Focus display which initiates the required keyboard action which takes an extra key press, we have a system of shorthand which eliminates the need to use it. This means that you can create abbreviations for keys which you would like to execute, whereupon the pressing of the Enter key is not required.
These abbreviations are completely customisable. For example, you might have the abbreviation Desk, which moves to the desktop, or Close, which is the equivalent to ALT+F4.
Elegance for ElBraille also allows you to create abbreviations to launch programs or to run a JAWS script file.

As of april 2021, Elegance for ElBraille will be sold separately for those people who will not have Leasey version 6 installed.

Track Packages.

Leasey gives you the ability to track packages from hundreds of couriers worldwide. Orders from Amazon and eBay are also supported. All you need is the tracking number, (or in the case of amazon the order number), and you should receive accurate results of the status of your parcel.

Disney+.

As with our support for Netflix, YouTube etc, it is possible to move through movies with our standard Leasey keystrokes, such as ALT+Windows+Control+Right or Left arrow to skip through the movie. Controls are also available to adjust the volume and to play/pause. In our User Guide, we will provide details of how to activate the Audio Description function.

Facebook Messenger.

Functionality is available for the Facebook Messenger application. Functions include:

The ability to read the last ten incoming messages, or to place them in the JAWS virtual viewer for closer inspection.
Reduction of unnecessary speech output.
A keystroke to initiate a new chat.
A keystroke to move directly to the message composition field.

Other Changes.

We already have keystrokes in Microsoft Word and Outlook so as to move to the next or previous spelling error; very useful if you are not a fan of the more modern spell checking options in those applications. By customer request, we also now have keystrokes to move to the next and previous page in a Microsoft Word document.

We already have a feature to find a specific word or phrase in a document, which is easier to manage than the conventional Find Text dialog box. You can also find the next instance of the search. We now have keystrokes to find the chosen word or phrase in the reverse direction.

We already have keystrokes to read the last ten Windows notifications. We now have a keystroke to virtualise all notifications captured.

When in the standard list of Windows notifications, you can now place the currently selected notification into the JAWS Virtual Viewer in the event you wish to examine it.

When in the list of LeaseyCuts, pressing Control+C will copy either the web page URL or full folder or file path to the Windows clipboard, whichever is appropriate.

When defining a LeaseyCut to a web page, you can now specify the browser you would like to run the page in the future.

There are various improvements to Spotify including re-worked options for the Leasey Application menu.

Summary and Next Steps.

To repeat, this version of Leasey will be released very soon. However, there is one further feature to discuss.

One of the features which has often been requested is a macro creator. This allows you to record a series of steps, such as keyboard actions, which you would like to carry out specific computing routines. While this can be accomplished using JAWS scripting, the vast majority of people are not comfortable working with scripts, hence the need for such a tool. In addition to recording various keyboard actions, you will be able to execute JAWS scripts, such as to speak the current line, or anything else which comes to mind.
Naturally, this will tie in nicely to Elegance for ElBraille as well, since you can define an abbreviation to run your chosen macro.

We very much hope this will be available as part of Leasey as we head towards the summer and of course will be available to you if you have Leasey version 6.

When available, an upgrade to Leasey Version 6 from any previous release will be the usual cost of £20 which is currently 28 American Dollars.

Other News.

We're about to start training people in the use of Microsoft Teams with our JAWS scripts which enhance the functionality of the application. There's still just time to register for that one.

The scripts for StationPlaylist Studio have had a great deal of attention given to them this year so far and there are still one or two new features to produce with those.
Our product, The Muze for researching music-based information, is also due to get some new features soon. So there is an enormous amount going on at the moment.

In summary, we very much hope you will enjoy our product updates in the coming months!

Hi to all.

It has been a while since we updated you on news relating to what is happening at Hartgen Consultancy, so I thought I would take the time to do that now. While the pandemic continues and it is snowing outside, there's still a lot to celebrate in terms of what we are doing. So here are the highlights.

After successfully launching our product The Muze in December, we were lucky to be able to work with the developer of one of the music sources we use, so as to improve the functionality a little further. This meant that with the Ultimate Music Database, it is now possible to input the title of a song and have the results returned quickly, detailing the song artist, name, UK and US chart positions. We wanted this as part of the initial release, but it was only after working with the developer that we could make this happen. So we're thrilled about that.

Participants are now working through our training course in the use of the audio application Studio Recorder. This has meant more JAWS script writing than perhaps we would have liked, but the end results are very good and ensure that blind people really can get access to information quickly and in a concise format. The scripts also reduce the number of conflicts between JAWS and Studio Recorder.

Our next training course relates to using Microsoft Teams which is becoming particularly important in employment and education. You can check the details here.

Our scripts for the Zoom conferencing client continue to evolve. There have been tremendous improvements in the area of reducing speech output in the Participants List as this tends to refresh often when people speak, raise a hand, or enter and leave a room. The accurate reporting of audio recording we hope has also been improved upon.

And finally, we're about to launch a very significant update to our StationPlaylist scripts for JAWS. This week, users of these scripts will benefit from a range of new features and improvements. Again, getting things done quickly and easily without a lot of complication is the focus here. You can read about what is coming.

A small number of people have asked if it will be possible for our StationPlaylist scripts to work alongside our Leasey product in the same JAWS version. As soon as we are confident the new release of the StationPlaylist scripts is working for most people, there will be a version of them which will work with Leasey. To say again, this only affects in our view a very small number of users, but we are pleased to be able to do this.

In summary, further development on all products will continue as we move into the spring, and that includes new improvements for Leasey and J-Say especially.

Feel free to check out the links we have pointed you to and we hope very much to being able to work with many of you in 2021.

Introduction.

It has been exactly two years since we produced a training course in the use of Microsoft Teams. Since that time, the Teams application has significantly changed. Two years in this context is a long period of time. There have been some accessibility regressions and changes. Moreover, depending upon which build of Teams your organisation has access to, the level of accessibility you will receive will vary.

Our training course, Winning Teams revisited, teaches someone who has never used the application before how to work with Teams. It will bring you up to speed in terms of changes in the application. It will give you strategies in terms of how to manage situations if accessibility is not all that it could be.
We have learned a great deal about Teams during the past two years.

There is another important component of this training course and that is how to work with Teams efficiently. It is all very well for a person to let you know that you can move to different parts of the interface by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab. But if you are in a high pressure situation, taking calls or hosting meetings, you want to be the best. When taking a call, in your job, you want to transfer a call quickly or perhaps put them on hold with the minimum of keystrokes. When hosting a meeting, you don't want your audience to be sitting there waiting while you Tab around trying to find out whose hands are raised. As a blind person, you should be able to deal with participant queries as if you were hosting a radio talk show. So efficiency is at the very heart of this training course. If you study what is here, you can be better than just adequate.

There is a substantial discount available for people who have previously taken the training course. Please read on to find out more.

We also offer this time a full text transcript of the training which was a service we did not have access to back in 2021.

Accessing Teams.

As stated previously, if you are collaborating with people, either through meetings or text chat, you want to ensure that you can do everything as quickly as possible. To that end, some JAWS scripts will be provided for course participants which can be optionally installed. The functions of these scripts are listed on the appropriate page of our web site.

Training.

In addition to the JAWS scripts, of course you also receive high quality training, delivered using our Zoom conferencing facility. The training does not just demonstrate how to use a specific feature. In many cases, it describes the concepts behind the feature being worked through so you gain a clear understanding of the purpose.

Topics, (some of which are very extensive), are as follows:

• Introduction and terminology.
• Instalation and script activation.
• Learning the keystrokes.
• Basic navigation.
• The purpose of Control+E and changing status.
• Initial Teams customisation.
• Working with notifications and importing our own rules.
• Adjusting the Zoom or View.
• Introduction to the New Chat dialog box.
• Composing a chat to one person.
• Reviewing messages in a chat.
• Chat filtering.
• The chat context menu.
• Opening a chat in a new window.
• Creating group chats with meaningful names.
• Introduction to working as part of a team.
• Structure of teams, channels and threads.
• Creating our first team.
• Creating channels.
• Starting a new conversation and submitting a reply.
• Mentions and hashtags.
• Using the Activity feed.
• Participating in a channel by Email.
• Organising teams.
• Entering commands with Control Forward Slash.
• Moving to a specific channel quickly.
• Changing status including setting appropriate text.
• Navigating the Teams calendar, first slowly, then efficiently.
• Creating a simple Teams meeting in the calendar.
• Creating a Teams meeting using the Scheduling Tab.
• Creating a Teams meeting using Microsoft Outlook.
• Viewing the details of a Teams meeting.
• Customising meeting options.
• Customising devices in readiness for meetings.
• Prior to entering a meeting, what to look out for.
• Introducing the meeting toolbars.
• Common meeting tasks.
• Admitting participants from the lobby.
• Using PowerPoint Live.
• Accessing a recording from the list of chat messages.
• Accessing a recording using the Files Tab in a chat.
• Searching for files, and opening them using the native desktop app.
• The Files app.
• Attaching files to chats and channels.
• Answering calls and the call interface.
• Making calls and Meet Now.
• An introduction to the Calls app.

You will need:

• Access to Microsoft Teams version 1.6. This is usually part of a Microsoft Office subscription. If you are part of an organisation deploying Teams, you are likely to have access to more features than are available to individuals.
• JAWS version 2021 through to 2023.

What You Will Receive.

As a course participant you will receive:

• Over six hours of training provided in a series of MP3 files. This is an archive of the webinar series divided into short audio files for easy reference.
• A text transcript of all of the lessons.
• A DAISY book of all of the lessons.
• The JAWS scripts previously mentioned.
• Access to an Email list for ongoing discussion.

If you did not take part in the original training course, the cost of this package is £150 which is currently $184 US.
If you took part in the training course previously, the cost is £80 which is approximately $97 US.

If you are part of an organisation wishing to make 10 bookings or more, there is a very substantial discount on the cost. Please contact us for details.

How to Purchase.

If you have not taken part in the Winning Teams training previously:

If you have taken part in the Winning Teams training previously:

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.

Teams is a powerful and extremely useful collaboration environment that will only get more popular. But undoubtedly it is challenging and it is important to know how to meet those challenges. Become part of a winning team and find out how to use it in an accessible and effective way!

Introduction.

As visually impaired audio enthusiasts, we often talk about many of the mainstream production and recording tools available: Sound Forge, Reaper, GoldWave, to name but three. But when a new version comes along, the first question we're going to be asking is, how accessible will it be? What we really need is something which is easy to use, contains a lot of power and where you can just get the job done. And there's something else. You want the editing work on the audio to be of the utmost precision.

Fortunately there is a product which meets all requirements and is the subject of our training course, Studiously Recording.

What is Studio Recorder?

Studio Recorder is a seriously underrated software package from APH, the American Printing House for the Blind, and is ideal for anyone who wishes to record speech perhaps for podcasting, to produce and edit the reading of a book, or some other purpose. While not widely recognised, it also can be used to mix music with speech. Indeed we would go as far as saying that unless you want to use multi-track software, it beats every other mainstream product hands-down for mixing sound on sound for some very compelling reasons!

Studio Recorder includes features not found in audio recording and editing programs primarily designed for music production. Such features include:

• Speed up playback with no change in pitch.
• Three levels of phrase detection.
• Index tone generation and removal.
• Instant open on large files.
• Instant cut, copy, paste, and delete.
• Simple user interface.
• Accessibility for blind and visually impaired users.
• Multiple user marks and notes.

Studio Recorder was originally written for internal use at American Printing House for the Blind to serve as a tool for creating direct to digital audio recordings for the National Library Service (NLS). It contains many features that ease the task of recording, editing, and proofreading audio books. It also includes features that simplify the production of analog cassette tapes from the digital master, and it aids in the production of Digital Talking
Books.

The training course not only teaches you how to work with Studio Recorder, but also to understand important concepts such as good microphone placement, poor and excellent editing, and effective audio mixing. Topics include, but are not restricted to:

• Installing Studio Recorder and the accompanying optional JAWS script files.
• Configuring Studio Recorder including the settings specific to recording and playback.
• Making Your first recording.
• Saving and opening files.
• Playing and navigating through the audio.
• Learning the location of the cursor in hours, minutes and seconds.
• Moving to a specific time in the audio.
• Selecting audio ready for editing.
• Playing the selected audio.
• Cut, copy, paste and delete.
• Making very small audio adjustments.
• Moving between a number of files which are open.
• Copying audio from one file to another.
• Adjusting playback speed and pitch.
• Adjusting Volume and normalising.
• Checking the level metres.
• Fading and Crossfading.
• Mixing voice over music.
• Creating a simple podcast intro with music, speech and sound clips.
• Saving recordings to MP3.
• Recording within a selection period.
• Pre/Post-Roll Corrections.
• Inserting material through recording.
• Singing to a Kareoke track and recording at the same time.
• Other processing functions.

The course will give to you:

• A set of JAWS for Windows scripts which can optionally be installed. They provide some additional functionality so as to ensure that JAWS works alongside Studio Recorder at an enhanced level, including suppressing some unwanted speech output and to provide time-based information in a more concise form. Other features include Audition Cut;
• Sample audio files for practice;
• An audio recording of the lessons;
• A text keystroke summary to cover all topics covered in the lessons.

The audio recordings are accessed through a secure area of our website which is only available to course participants.

Things You Should Know About Studio Recorder.

The training course uses JAWS as the screen-reader to work with Studio Recorder. While users of other screen-readers are welcome to purchase this training course, we cannot guarantee the performance and you will not have access to some of our advanced features for precision editing.

Studio Recorder is priced 200 US dollars. Sadly the American Printing House do not seem to allow you to purchase the product online, but a demonstration copy is available. If an order is placed by telephone, a code to unlock the full features of the product can be emailed.

How to Purchase.

Studiously Recording is priced 50 pounds which is approximately 62 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.

While Studio Recorder was originally written for use by the professional narrator and narration monitor, its simple operation makes it ideal for nearly anyone interested in recording, editing, and producing spoken word audio documents and other audio-related material in an efficient manner. Come along to find out how it can be used to its best effect!

Hi to all

Christmas and Thanksgiving are now just weeks away, and while we are always busy here, this is one of our busiest times of year.
This is because the new upgrade to JAWS, version 2021, is just around the corner. Our understanding is that it should be released on 27 October. So, let's give you a quick summary as to what is happening and when.
This blog post is being distributed to multiple email lists and we apologise for that in advance.

If you want to learn about the new features of JAWS, and even some things which are not documented, you've got one day now to take part in our live training session Catching Up with JAWS Chapter 3.

Leasey. We now have a version of this product ready to go supporting JAWS 2021. So on JAWS 2021 release day, Check this page for the latest build. That is the one you should have to install into JAWS 2021. Our usual reminder. Please do not migrate settings from an earlier JAWS version and expect it to work, for two reasons. First, not all the files get migrated. Second, specific support in some areas has been included for JAWS 2021, and you will not get that if you go down that route. You must install it using the build of Leasey we give to you.

Zoom Scripts. There are no changes there. You can install them into JAWS 2021 if you have not done so already. The same applies to J-Dictate.

StationPlaylist Suite. We're still waiting for further test and final builds of V5.5. Scripts are available but we cannot sign them off yet as working to our satisfaction. But there is nothing stopping you using the existing V5.4 scripts with JAWS 2021.

When StationPlaylist V5.5 is released, you may like to get into our training session, Another Hour of Music Power.

J-Say. November is always the month for J-Say improvements, as a finished JAWS product is then available with which to test. We have an added challenge this year because we also need to ensure it is compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking V15.6, which in some areas is vastly different to V15.3 our preferred release at the time of writing. But we would expect to have this available in late November in time for Christmas as we always have.
We would please ask J-Say users not to upgrade to JAWS V2021 until that time.

The Muze. You may not have read about our new product which is now complete, The Muze. For lovers of music, or radio broadcasters, you may like to check out details of that product which we're very excited about.

Finally, next week Hartgen Consultancy are present along with Vispero on ACB Radio's Main Menu program, principally to talk about the Leasey product. It should be a good show, so do come along. We'll try to distribute details of the broadcast time nearer to the event.

We hope you are all safe and well and looking forward to Christmas and Thanksgiving!