Accessibility & Inclusivity Notes - VIII
Rachna Ghiya
Articulate Storyline Developer | Freelance eLearning Developer | eLearning Designer | eLearning Video Producer | Making Visuals @a_little_pause
Reading time?~ 1 minute |?Speaking time?~ 2 minutes
I recently took a two-week break and made a change to the frequency of this newsletter. It will now be sent once a week.
During this past week, I started learning about JAWS, which stands for Job Access With Speech. It is a popular screen reader designed for computer users who have vision loss and are unable to see the screen or navigate with a mouse.
I decided to learn about JAWS in order to understand how people with disabilities access content. This knowledge will also assist me in designing eLearning that is accessible to all. Additionally, I am planning to pursue JAWS Certification.
JAWS functionality heavily relies on keyboard shortcuts, which cater to the needs of its users. However, I must admit that I am finding it challenging to learn this software. In this message, I am reaching out to individuals who have completed JAWS certification, seeking their advice on understanding the software solely through audio training, without a paid JAWS license.
By the way, are any of you currently pursuing any training/certifications for designing accessible learning experiences? I would appreciate it if you could share in the comments section.
—
?? Hello! I'm, Rachna.
? Freelance eLearning Developer with expertise in Articulate 360 & Vyond
? If you need some help, let's connect.
Community Engagement and Development | Grant Writer | Accessible Learning Designer and Adult Educator
1 年Hi Rachna. It's good to read your newsletters. I haven't used JAWS myself (the price is just so prohibitive), I mostly use NVDA for testing. There are differences between screen readers, so it is good to test a few of the main ones. There's absolutely a learning curve with all screen readers. I’ve found this has a really great overview of the different shortcuts https://dequeuniversity.com/screenreaders Also check out on YouTube, some users screen record themselves using screen readers. I've learned a lot from people with lived experience of vision loss who use screen readers, as I would never have thought of using them the way they do.
Community Engagement and Development | Grant Writer | Accessible Learning Designer and Adult Educator
1 年This is a really good course too from the people behind the WCAG and shows how some people use assistive technology https://www.w3.org/WAI/courses/foundations-course/ All the best!