JAWS - Change how capital letters are indicated

JAWS - Change how capital letters are indicated

Problem

JAWS by default announces using raised pitch when speaking capital letters reviewed in a document with left/right ARROW keys.  Some users may find this hard due to hearing difficulties or because they are using Vocalizer or another third party speech engine where this doesn't function or is hard to hear.  


Affected products:

  • JAWS
  • Fusion

Resolution

The instructions below allow you to change how JAWS indicates capital letters from the default setting of raising pitch as indication.  Some customers with hearing difficulties or when using some speech engines the pitch increment is not sufficient to reliably tell if a letter has been capitalized or not.  You can have JAWS indicate capitalization by either of the following methods:


  1. Say a word such as 'cap'
  2. Play a sound just before the letter to indicate capitalization

  1. Press JAWSKey+F2 and select “Settings Centre” and press ENTER.
  2. Press control+shift+D to open the default configuration to make this change global (all apps) unless it only desired in one single app in which case skip this step.
  3. Type “sound” without the quotes and press down arrow to reach “speech and sounds Scheme”
  4. Press F6 to switch window pane and press TAB key so you modify the current “Classic” scheme” and press SPACEBAR on the “modify” button.
  5. Then TAB to “Edit selected scheme” button and press SPACEBAR on nit.
  6. Press TAB to reach the “General” tab and press right arrow to reach the “misc” tab.
  7. Press TAB to enter the list view, then  and press down arrow to either of these items to change them individually:

    AllCaps
    Cap

  8. If you wish to have JAWS speak a word before the letter such as 'cap' press alt+I and TAB to the edit box and enter 'cap' without any quotes.
  9. If you wish to have that item play a sound immediately before the uppercase character press ALT+P to activate “play sound“ radio button press alt+W to to open the list of sounds to play.
  10. Use the arrow keys to browse through the available sounds and use alt+P to play the sound.

Hint
  1. When choosing a sound care should be taken to make it a short sound as it will play just before the announcement of the letter.
  2. When making this modification for the AllCaps attribute you may wish to use a different sound to 

  1. Once the desired sound is located press ENTER to select it.  
  2. Then TAB to the “OK” button and press ENTER. Then TAB to “Save selected scheme” and press SPACEBAR on it.
  3. Then TAB to “OK” button and press ENTER. Then press TAB to reach the “Apply” button and press SPACEBAR on it.
  4. Then press ENTER to dismiss the “Settings Centre” window.


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