Navigating Web Pages

JAWS makes reading web pages easy. When you visit a page JAWS immediately begins reading the page from the top down. In this section, you will learn about Navigation Quick Keys, reading text, and navigating headings, lists, links, and images.

Reading Text

JAWS uses the Virtual Cursor to move through HTML pages, enabling JAWS users to read and select text and move to different elements on the page. The Virtual Cursor is invisible to sighted users, however, JAWS highlights text as it is read so a sighted user such as a teacher, parent, tester, or developer can easily follow the text visually.

The commands used to read web pages are the same as the commands used to read text in any other type of document. You can also select and copy text on web pages. The sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport demonstrates the layout and content of a typical web page on the Internet.

JAWS Tip: To see a complete list of commands that you can use to read text in documents, refer to the JAWS Reading Commands table. If you are not yet familiar with JAWS table reading commands just press DOWN ARROW to move through and read the commands in the table.

JAWS Tip: To begin reading anywhere on a web page beneath the mouse cursor with JAWS, move the mouse pointer over the text you want to read. Then press the keystroke INSERT+NUM PAD PLUS. This is the keystroke to route the virtual cursor to the mouse cursor. Then use normal reading keys.

To practice reading text on the Internet with JAWS, do the following:

  1. Press INSERT+F7 to display a list of links on this page.
  2. Make sure the link Jim's Cafe at Innisport is selected and press ENTER. This opens the sample page in a new browser window. You can hold down CTRL and press TAB to switch back to this window and refer to these instructions. JAWS remembers where you are on the page, so you won't lose your place. If the page opens in a completely new window just use ALT+TAB to switch between windows.
  1. When the page loads, JAWS begins reading it. Press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page. Then press P three times to move to the second paragraph on the page. The first press of the letter P on this page moves to the graphic logo and heading level one at the top of the page for Jim's Cafe.
  2. Use the standard JAWS reading commands to read the text on the page. Any command that you can use to read text or Word documents can be used when reading web pages.
  3. Press SHIFT+P until you return to the first paragraph on the page.

JAWS Tip: The letter P is a Navigation Quick Key that lets you move by paragraph through the page. There are other Navigation Quick Keys that let you move through all the headings, links, images, and other elements on the page. If you hold SHIFT when you press one of these keys, JAWS moves to the previous element. For example, pressing SHIFT+P moves you to the previous paragraph. To read more about them choose the link Navigation Quick Keys.

Hyperlinks

A hyperlink (or "link" for short) is text that performs some action when you click it or select it and press ENTER. You can move through all the links on the page by pressing the TAB key. To see how JAWS helps you navigate links, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press U to move to the first unvisited link on the page. An unvisited link is one that leads to a page or location that you have not visited.
  3. Press V to move to the next visited link on the page. A visited link is one that you have previously activated or one that leads to a page you have visited recently.
  4. Press INSERT+F7 to display a list of all links on the page. Use the arrow keys to select "Innisport Hotel" and then press ENTER. Read the message that appears and then press ENTER.

NOTE: If the dialog box does not read automatically just press the JAWS keystroke to read the current window, INSERT+B.

  1. Press INSERT+F7 again. Select "Reputation for Quality Service" and press ALT+M to move to this link. JAWS says, "This page link," to indicate that this hyperlink will take you to another location on the current page.

JAWS Tip: The link "Reputation for Quality Service" is the start of a list of four links. Many web pages use clusters of links like this to consolidate page navigation in a single spot. If you wanted to continue reading down the page without using any of these links, you could skip over them by pressing N. The Navigation Quick Key N moves you to the next block of text that is not a link.

  1. Press INSERT+F7 again. Select "Send us an e-mail message" and press ALT+M to move to this link. JAWS says, "Send mail link," to indicate that this link allows you to send a message to an e-mail address using your default mail program.

NOTE: In addition to same page and e-mail links, another special type of link you may encounter is called an FTP link. When you move to these links, JAWS says, "FTP link." Activating an FTP link opens an FTP session that usually allows you to download files. For example, the following is an actual FTP link: Download an Accessible Chess Game. When you activate this link, the browser begins downloading a file containing an accessible chess game called WinBoard from the FTP site.

Skip to Main Content Links

Some web pages have special links with names like "Skip to Main Content" or "Skip Navigation." These same page links allow you to quickly jump past site navigation tools, such as menus, navigation bars, and so on and go directly to the important information on the page. These types of links usually appear at the beginning of the page and are often invisible to sighted users.

Lists

Web pages often contain bulleted (unordered) and numbered (ordered) lists that provide information. The procedures on this page are examples of lists. To see how JAWS navigates lists, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press L to move to the first list on the page. This is a bulleted list that contains three items.
  3. Press I to read the first item on the list. You can continue using either I or the DOWN ARROW key to read through the rest of the list. To move back through the list, use SHIFT+I or the UP ARROW key.
  4. Press L to move to the next list. This is a numbered list with four steps that explain how to locate the restaurant. Review the steps in this list with I or the arrow keys.
  5. Press I until you move to step three.
  6. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the nested list within step three. This nested list is an unordered list of three bulleted items. A nested list is a list of items that is contained within a larger list. Another example of a nested list would be an outline. JAWS announces the level of nested lists.

Lists may be arranged differently depending on their purpose. Web page authors may interrupt a list with a paragraph, quote, image, or similar element. If this is the case, the next list on the page usually begins where the previous list ended. For example, if a procedure is interrupted during step three by an image, the next list on the page might begin with step four.

JAWS Tip: You can display all lists on the page by pressing INSERT+CTRL+L. You can then select a list and press ENTER to move to it. Note that the list items within each list are displayed in one single horizontal line per list within this dialog box, so you hear a lot of information when using this particular keystroke.

Headings

Web page authors use headings to divide a document into sections. Level 1 is the highest level of heading. Level 2 headings are subsections of level 1 headings. Level 3 headings are subsections of level 2 headings and so on.

Navigation Quick Keys for Headings

To see how JAWS allows you to navigate headings, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press H to move to and read the first heading on the page. JAWS says, "Jim's Cafe at Innisport." This is the only level one heading on the page. Level one headings often indicate the topic or subject of the page.
  3. Press H again until you move to the level three heading, "Poultry." Press P to read the text below this heading.
  4. Press H a few more times. You eventually reach the bottom of the page. JAWS says, "Wrapping to top," when there are no more headings. JAWS then moves you back to the first heading at the top of the document.

JAWS Tip: Don't forget that you can add SHIFT to navigation quick keys to move backward through the page. For example, press SHIFT+H to move to the previous heading.

When you reach the top of the page by using the SHIFT key in combination with navigation quick keys to move backwards through the page, JAWS announces, "Wrapping to bottom," and starts over again from the bottom of the document.

You can press ALT+INSERT+HOME to move to the first heading on the page, and press ALT+INSERT+END to move to the last heading on the page.

Using the Numbers Row to Jump to a Specific Heading Level

You can move to headings of a certain level by pressing a number between 1 and 6 as long as one or more headings of the specified level exist on the web page. To see how this works, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press 1 to move to and read the first heading on the page. JAWS says, "Jim's Cafe at Innisport." Press 1
  3. Since we've been to this page before, we know that all of the menu items are under level three headings, so we want to quickly jump to these without looking at anything else on the page. Press 3 to move to the first level three heading which is "Poultry."
  4. Did you notice that JAWS first announced the level two heading "Dishes and Appetizers" followed by the level three heading "Poultry?" There is a prior section with a level two heading called "Reputation for Quality Service" which does not contain any level three headings. Since JAWS completely skips over a section of the web page in order to reach the first level three heading, JAWS announces the higher precedence heading, in this case "Dishes and Appetizers," before announcing the "Poultry" heading so you know you have moved into a new section.
  5. Continue pressing the number 3 a few times. Did you hear JAWS announce "no next heading at level three in this section" after reaching the level three heading for Seafood?
  6. Now try pressing the number 3 with the SHIFT key to move backwards by level three headings. Did you hear JAWS announce "no prior heading at level three in this section" after reaching the level three heading for Poultry? This gives you a good idea of how the different headings relate to each other.

JAWS Tip: You can also choose to have JAWS play a sound to indicate when you move into a new section or you can restrict heading navigation using the numbers row to the current section. For example, if you attempt to move to a level three heading, but the very next heading is a level two, JAWS stops at the level two heading and will not pass it even though there may be level three headings in the next section.

To configure how JAWS navigates headings when using the numbers 1 through 6, open Settings Center, type "heading" into the Search edit box, select the "Heading Navigation Using 1-6" option, and then press SPACEBAR to choose the setting you want. Alternatively, open Quick Settings (INSERT+V) from your browser and configure the "Heading Navigation" setting.

The JAWS List of Headings

JAWS also has a list of headings that allows you to navigate by headings on a web page. You can sort this list by tab order or alphabetically. You can also view only headings of a specified level. To explore the options in this dialog box, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press INSERT+F6 to display a list of headings on this page. Press DOWN ARROW to move through the list and read the headings. If you select a heading and press ENTER, the list closes and you move directly to that heading in the document.
  3. Press the TAB key to explore the Heading List dialog box in more detail. Each option is described below:
  4. Make sure you are back in the actual list of headings. Press ALT+1 on the numbers row and read the current line by pressing INSERT+UP ARROW. You should hear that there is only one item now in the list, a level one heading.
  5. Press ALT+2 on the numbers row and read the current line by pressing INSERT+UP ARROW. You should hear that there are now four items displayed in the list, all level two headings. In the list of headings, you can filter out all headings except the specific level you are looking for by pressing ALT and any number from 1 to 6. To view all headings again, press ALT+L.
  6. Press ESC for now to close the list of headings.

TIP: Use the list of headings in JAWS whenever you first go to a web page to get an overview of how the page is structured.

Images

Most web pages use images to enhance their appearance, provide information, or assist with navigation. To see how JAWS handles images, do the following:

  1. Open the sample page Jim's Cafe at Innisport and press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the page.
  2. Press G until you move to the level one heading, "Jim's Cafe at Innisport." You may not have noticed it earlier, but the level one heading in this document is actually an image.
  3. JAWS cannot read graphic text. The text you are hearing for this image is called alternate text. Web page authors use alternate text to describe images.
  4. Press G to move to the next image, which is a graphical link. The alternate text tells you that this is a map. On an actual page, a person might be able to click this image to open another page where the image is shown in larger size.
  5. Press ENTER to activate the graphical link. Read the message that appears and then press ALT+F4. If the dialog box does not read automatically just press the JAWS keystroke to read the current window, INSERT+B.
  6. Press INSERT+CTRL+G to display a list of all images on the page. This keystroke only works if you have JAWS running.

JAWS Tip: When you press INSERT+CTRL+G notice that the item highlighted in the list is the one that is closest to where you are currently reading on the page.

NOTE: Currently not all graphics are seen in Chrome when using the letter G for graphics or when pressing INSERT+CTRL+G to get a list of graphics on the page. This is a known issue. Try loading the page for Jim's Cafe in Firefox and test this. You should hear JAWS announce a total of five graphics on the page.

  1. Select "FS-SiteFactory Logo," which is the next image on the page, and press ENTER to move to it. There is no alternate text for this image, so JAWS reads the title attribute instead.
  2. Press G to move to the next image. It is an image of the Freedom Scientific logo. Notice the difference between the prior image and this one. This one is more than just an image; it is also a graphic link. Additionally, this link has an alt attribute instead of a title attribute describing the image. The link takes you to the Freedom Scientific home page. If you want to activate the link, press ENTER.
  3. Press G again to move to the last image on the page. This image has no alternate text or title. However, this image is a link to another page. For images like this one, JAWS announces the image's file name and tells you that the image is a link.

Tab Pages in Web Browsers

You can have several different tab pages open at once in web browsers. You can switch between the multiple tabbed pages by pressing CTRL+TAB. Use the link here for a list of keystrokes for tabbed browsing. If you are using a web browser, such as Firefox or Chrome, and you want a more complete list of the keystrokes, how would you find out what keystrokes are available to you? You can press INSERT+F1 twice quickly in any application to find the JAWS help for that application. Also, within different applications try pressing INSERT+H to open JAWS Hotkey Help for that application.

JAWS Tip: You can use PlaceMarkers with JAWS to mark spots on web pages so that you can find them again quickly. PlaceMarkers are discussed in more detail later, but they are very easy to use. Here's how to get started with PlaceMarkers:

  1. Before moving on, let's put a PlaceMarker right here. You can move right back to any spot on any web page using JAWS PlaceMarkers. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K. The PlaceMarker dialog box appears. Focus is on the Add button.
  2. Press ENTER to activate the Add button. JAWS gathers the text from where you are on the page and puts it into an edit box. You can change this by typing over it or editing it, but for now, just leave it alone and press ENTER to close the PlaceMarker dialog box.
  3. Press CTRL+HOME to go to the top of the page.
  4. Now press the navigation quick key K to move back to where you just put the PlaceMarker on this page. See how that works? Feel free to put PlaceMarkers anywhere on the Surf's Up pages as you begin using them. It makes it very easy to get back to the exact spot you want to go to.

EXERCISE: Try the following exercise for tabbed browsing now.

  1. Press TAB to move to the next link on this page, followed by CTRL+ENTER. The Jim's Cafe page loads in a new tab page in the background. Navigating Web pages is still running on a tab page in the foreground. Jim's Cafe at Innisport

  2. Press CTRL+TAB a few times to move between the two pages.
  3. Next, press CTRL+TAB to move back to the Jim's Cafe page and spend a minute reading through it. When you are finished, press CTRL+TAB to move back to the Navigating page.
  4. Next, if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer, press ALT+F4 but don't go beyond that. If you only had one tab page open ALT+F4 would close that page and the whole browser window. Instead, since there are multiple tab pages open, you should get a message from the browser asking "Do you want to close all tabs?" Since you DO have multiple tab pages open, the browser gives you this prompt.
  5. Press ESC to get out of this dialog box.

NOTE: Currently, when you press ALT+F4 in Chrome and multiple tabs are opened, the browser closes without displaying a prompt and all pages will be closed.

  1. Press CTRL+TAB a couple of times to make sure you are on the Jim's Cafe page.
  2. Now press CTRL+F4 to close just that page. Focus returns to the Navigating Web page.

NOTE: It is still possible to have multiple instances of each web browser running and each instance can have multiple tabs. If you have two or more different browser sessions running you can press ALT+TAB to move from one session to another. For example, many of the sample pages for Surf's Up run in separate windows, not as tabbed pages.

Navigation Quick Key Manager

Navigation Quick Key manager is used to view, edit, or delete Navigation Quick Key assignments. To open Navigation Quick Key manager do the following:

  1. Press INSERT+J to switch to the JAWS window.
  2. From within the JAWS window press ALT+U to open the Utilities menu.
  3. Press N to open the Navigation Quick Key manager submenu. Focus moves to the first item of three, HTML/PDF.
  4. Press DOWN ARROW to move through the other two items. You find one for Microsoft Word and one for Microsoft Outlook.

NOTE: You can also find Navigation Quick Key Manager in the list of JAWS managers by pressing INSERT+F2.

ARIA and Regions

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) regions can be used to add additional navigation structure to web pages. Web page authors can add regions to web pages to make it easier to find the main parts of a page. For example, you might find a main region which is where the main content of a page begins. You may also find banner, navigation, and search regions on some web pages. When a web page loads, JAWS announces if there are regions on the page. Use the keystroke R to move forward from one region to another. Press SHIFT+R to move backward from one region to another. You may also use the keystroke INSERT+CTRL+R to open a JAWS list of regions for a web page.

The Surf's Up home page has three regions. There is a "main" region which begins near the top of the page. The main region is typically where the primary content of most web pages begins, and should be after, or below, the links that one typically finds near the top of the page for navigation to other parts of the web site. The Surf's Up home page and the remaining pages of Surf's Up also have a "content information" region. The content information region on most web sites, including Surf's Up, is typically the footer of the page and may contain more links and copyright information. We've kept the footer of Surf's Up pretty clean and empty of extra content for now. Finally, on the home page of Surf's Up only, there is a "navigation" region that contains links for just that, navigating to different parts of the Surf's Up web site.

  1. Press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of the current page.
  2. Press R to move to the different regions on the page. Regions are not visible on the screen, but they are used to make it easy to get from one part of the page to another. The main region is where the main text for the page begins. Regions designate the different broad categories on the page, such as the search region, the banner region, and more.
  3. Try pressing INSERT+CTRL+R to open a JAWS list of regions.
  4. Use the Surf's Up link at the top of any of the secondary pages of Surf's Up to move back to the Surf's Up home page and try these keystrokes there as well.
  5. Press ENTER on the main region in the list. JAWS moves focus directly to that part of the page.

Many web sites have a graphic company logo, which is also a link, at the top of their web pages to make it easier for you to get back to their home page. Surf's Up mimics this behavior so you can practice using it as well. At the top of every page in Surf's Up besides the home page is a graphic link that simply reads, "Surf's Up." It is a small thumbnail image of a shark's fin which is also a link to the Surf's Up home page.