Speech and Sounds Schemes

Have you ever wanted to hear things differently, perhaps to speed up your reading? Or perhaps you want to hear items you may be missing that you could read if only you knew they were there? If a button, check box, or other control within a Web page could be identified with a different voice, rather than using extra speech, it would mean you would have less to listen to.

Speech and sounds schemes let you use voices, spoken text, or sounds to identify various elements of Web pages, dialog boxes, and documents. For example, you could use different notes from a piano to indicate different heading levels. You can also assign speech or a sound to specific attributes such as HTML attributes or text attributes in a word processing document. Many Web page elements have both ALT and TITLE attributes. JAWS reads the ALT attribute by default and you may never know that a title is available. Perhaps the title would give you more information. Alternatively, you might want JAWS to identify bold text in a document by reading it in a deep voice. When you use speech and sounds schemes to alter the way JAWS reads information, you can store your associations as a scheme that you can apply at any time. You can also easily switch between schemes.

Tip: To change the active scheme, press INSERT+ALT+S. Use the arrow keys to select a new scheme and then press ENTER. This scheme remains the active scheme until you change it again.

EXERCISE: Explore the Select a Scheme dialog box.

  1. Press INSERT+ALT+S.
  2. Press UP or DOWN ARROW to explore the choices in the list.
  3. Make sure that Classic is the one you have selected before you press ENTER to close the dialog box, and move on with the lesson.

To open the Modify Schemes dialog box do the following:

  1. In Chrome, press INSERT+F2.
  2. Select Settings Center and press ENTER.
  3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to switch to the default file.
  4. Focus is in the Search edit box. Type in "scheme" without the quotes.
  5. Press DOWN ARROW to move to "Active Speech and Sounds Scheme" in the filtered results of the tree view in Settings Center. You can switch schemes here by pressing SPACEBAR. The Settings Center has two sides. On the left is the tree view and on the right is the configuration display pane. As you move through the tree view, a sighted user can simultaneously track cursor movement using the configuration display pane.
  6. Press F6 to move from the tree view to the configuration display pane. This is necessary when typing in an edit or edit spin box. Focus should be on the Select Speech and Sounds Scheme combo box. Classic will be selected there unless you have changed schemes prior to now.
  7. Press TAB. Focus moves to the read only text area for Scheme Description.
  8. Press TAB again. Focus moves to the Modify Schemes button.
  9. Press TAB once more and focus moves back to the Select Speech and Sounds Scheme combo box. Make sure that Classic is selected here before going any farther.
  10. Now, press F6 to go back to the tree view. Focus moves back to the Select Speech and Sounds Scheme node of the tree view. Don't press SPACEBAR at the moment. Pressing SPACEBAR here will cause items in the combo box to change.
  11. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Scheme Description. Do you notice how the tree view corresponds to the controls in the configuration display pane?
  12. Press DOWN ARROW again to move to Modify Schemes in the tree view.
  13. Now, press SPACEBAR on this and the Modify Schemes dialog box opens.

Move on now to the next section where you will create a new scheme.

Creating a New Scheme

A scheme is a collection of settings that you save as a single group. You can use schemes to quickly customize your JAWS speech and sound settings. You can switch between schemes quickly. Some examples might include schemes for the following situations:

EXERCISE: Use JAWS to create a new scheme by following the steps below. If you already have the Modify Schemes dialog box open, skip ahead to step eight below:

  1. In Chrome, press INSERT+F2.
  2. Select Settings Center and press ENTER.
  3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to switch to the default file.
  4. Focus is in the Search edit box. Type in "scheme" without the quotes.
  5. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Modify Schemes in the tree view.
  6. Now, press SPACEBAR on this and the Modify Schemes dialog box opens.
  7. In the Select Speech and Sounds Scheme combo box, make sure that Classic is selected before continuing with the exercise. If it is not, press the letter C several times to move through all of the items that start with that letter to find it.
  8. Press TAB to move through the dialog box and choose the Create New Scheme button. An Untitled - Edit Scheme multi page dialog box opens with focus on the General tab page. The cursor is in the Scheme Description edit area. The text description from the classic scheme is highlighted there.
  9. For now, type something like "My new scheme."
  10. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it by pressing SPACEBAR. The Save As dialog box appears.
  11. Give the new scheme a name, such as "My Test Scheme," and press ENTER. Focus returns to the Modify Scheme dialog box, with focus on the Create New Scheme button.
  12. Press ALT+S to save the current scheme.
  13. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and press SPACEBAR to activate it. A message appears asking, "Do you want to make your practice scheme the active scheme for Default (All Applications)?" For now, choose the NO button. This closes the Modify Scheme dialog box, returning focus to the tree view of JAWS Settings Center.
  14. Press TAB to move to the OK button and activate it with the SPACEBAR. The changes are made and saved. Settings Center closes.

EXERCISE: The Modify Scheme dialog box is a multi-page dialog box composed of several different tab pages. In the next exercise you will take a look at the dialog box in more detail using the scheme you just created. You will use the Edit Scheme dialog box to assign speech or a sound to almost any element that JAWS recognizes.

  1. Open the Modify Schemes dialog box again:
  2. If you are continuing this exercise immediately after the previous exercise, the active scheme in the list should be "Classic." Find your practice scheme in the list of available schemes before continuing.
  3. Press TAB to move to and SPACEBAR to activate the Edit Selected Scheme button. Focus is in the Scheme Description edit box of your new scheme, on the General tab page where you entered a description previously. You can modify this text any time by repeating these steps to get here.
  4. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the Control Type tab.
  5. Use the UP or DOWN ARROW keys to move through and explore the list of control types. Notice that all of the controls are set to speak the control type using the normal voice.
  6. For the time being, continue to press CTRL+TAB and explore all of the tab pages in this dialog box. There are tab pages you can use to modify the way JAWS reads control states, attributes, font names, font sizes, colors, indentation, HTML attributes, and more. Eventually, focus cycles back to the General tab.
  7. If you plan to continue with the next series of instructions, you can leave this dialog box open. If not, choose the Cancel button and focus returns to the JAWS Settings Center.
  8. Press TAB to move to either the OK button to save changes or the Cancel button to discard any changes. Activate the button with the SPACEBAR. The changes are made and saved, or not, depending on which button you choose. Settings Center closes.

Assigning Sounds to HTML Elements

You may recall that previously in the Surf's Up lesson on Dealing with Difficult Pages, there was a link for the Training and Certification web page that had a link in the foreground and a title attribute in the background. If you did not know that the title attribute was there, you might never find and read the extra information the author of the page intended to provide.

EXERCISE: In this section, you will change your scheme so it associates a sound with an HTML element such as a title attribute. To begin, open the Modify Schemes dialog box, if necessary, and make sure you select the scheme you created. Then, choose the Edit Selected Scheme button and do the following:

  1. Press CTRL+TAB until you move to the HTML tab page. There are already several different HTML elements that JAWS identifies listed here.
  2. Press DOWN ARROW to explore the list. Did you notice that Title is not in the list? We'll add it.
  3. Press TAB to move to the Add button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Alternatively, you could also press the access key ALT+A to activate the Add button without having to move to it first.
  4. Type the word title in the Add HTML Element Attribute edit field.
  5. Press ENTER to activate the Next button. A Select Behavior dialog box appears asking if you want to speak the item or play a sound when a title attribute is encountered on a Web page.
  6. Press DOWN ARROW to select the Play Sound radio button.
  7. Press ENTER to activate the Next button. The Select Sound dialog box appears with a list of over one hundred sounds that are included with JAWS.
  8. Press ALT+P or SPACEBAR to sample any sound in the list as you press UP or DOWN ARROW to move through the list.

NOTE: If you want to hear a sound while you are also listening to speech, like text on a Web page being read, the sound should be fairly crisp and loud enough to hear.

  1. For this exercise, press M until you select the MetalDing.wav sound. Press ALT+P to hear a preview of this sound. After you have previewed this sound, press ENTER. The Select Sound dialog box closes and focus returns to the Edit Scheme dialog box. Notice that now you have a rule defined for title that reads, "title, play sound, MetalDing.wav" in the list of attributes that JAWS will now look for. You can press INSERT+UP ARROW to re-read the item in the list.
  2. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Focus returns to the Edit Selected Scheme button in the Modify Scheme dialog box.
  3. Press ALT+S to activate the Save Selected Scheme button.
  4. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. A message appears asking, "Do you want to make your practice scheme the active scheme for Default (All Applications)?" For now, choose the NO button. Focus returns to JAWS Settings Center.
  5. Press TAB to move to the OK button and activate it with the SPACEBAR. The changes are made and saved. Settings Center closes.
  6. Switch to your test scheme. Press INSERT+ALT+S and find it in the list. Once you find it in the list, press ENTER to close the Select a Scheme dialog box.
  7. The line below this has the same example of a link with both screen text and a title attribute that was on the page with the lesson on Dealing with Difficult Pages. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the link. You should hear the text of the link spoken as well as the MetalDing.wav sound.

Training and Certification

Now that you hear the MetalDing sound played, you know that in addition to the text of the link, which is visible on the screen, there is also a title attribute for this link. The title is not visible on the screen, but you know it is there. Do you remember how to switch JAWS so that it can read the title information instead of the screen text for this link?

EXERCISE: Follow the steps below to switch JAWS to read the title information.

  1. Press INSERT+V to open the Quick Settings dialog box. Focus is in the search edit box.
  2. Type text links in the search edit box. Quick Settings filters out all results that do not match the search phrase.
  3. Press DOWN ARROW until you select "Text Links show Using - Screen Text."
  4. Press SPACEBAR to toggle this until you hear "text Links show Using - Title."
  5. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and then activate it with the SPACEBAR. The Quick Settings dialog box closes.
  6. Now re-read the link.
  7. Open the JAWS list of links with INSERT+F7 and notice the title now appears there as well.
  8. Press ESC to get out of the list of links when you are finished.

NOTE: Remember to repeat the steps above and change JAWS back to Text Links Show Using - Screen Text when you are finished.

Experiment with the other HTML elements available in the Modify Scheme dialog box. You can assign sounds to headings, form controls, graphics, frames, image maps, tables, and more.

Ignoring HTML Attributes

What if you don't want to hear some attributes that JAWS speaks on Web pages? For example, perhaps you don't want to hear JAWS say, "Clickable," when you encounter links or other content that includes OnClick attribute. JAWS also has the ability to ignore HTML attributes.

EXERCISE: To ignore an HTML attribute, do the following:

  1. In the Modify Scheme dialog box select the scheme you want to modify. Then activate the Edit Selected Scheme button.
  2. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the HTML tab. This tab contains a list of HTML attributes that have already been defined. OnClick is one of these. For this exercise, press DOWN ARROW until you select "OnClick" in the list.
  3. Press the TAB key one time to move to the Behavior group of radio buttons. Press DOWN ARROW to move to and select the Ignore radio button.
  4. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Focus returns to the Edit Selected Scheme button in the Modify Scheme dialog box.
  5. Press ALT+S to activate the Save Current Scheme button.
  6. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Focus returns to JAWS Settings Center.
  7. Press TAB to move to the OK button and activate it with the SPACEBAR. The changes are made and saved. Settings Center closes.

Create a Scheme to Speak Bold Text Using the Bold Voice Alias

EXERCISE: In this exercise you will create a scheme that looks for bold text and speaks it in a different voice.

You can use voice aliases to have JAWS announce certain items, attributes, or states in a different voice. In this section, you will assign a voice alias to bold text. To begin, open the Modify Scheme dialog box and then do the following:

  1. In the Select Scheme combo box, select the scheme you created earlier, and then choose the Edit Selected Scheme button.
  2. Press CTRL+TAB until you move to the Attributes tab. You are in a list of attributes. This list contains one definition for the Default setting, which is set to ignore attributes, and a few other definitions already created by Freedom Scientific.
  3. Press ALT+A to choose the Add button. An Add Attribute dialog box opens with a list of check boxes you can choose for different attributes such as bold, underline, italics, and more.
  4. Press SPACEBAR to select the Bold check box. Feel free to explore the other items you could check, but for this exercise, only check bold. When you are finished exploring, choose Next. The Select Behavior dialog box of radio buttons appears.

NOTE: If you check multiple items here ALL items must be present in the same text in order to match what you are looking for. In other words, if you select both bold and underline, the text must have both attributes present to match the rule. If you want to look for EITHER bold OR underline, you would create a separate rule for each.

  1. Press DOWN ARROW to move to and select the Speak Item Text Using Voice radio button, and then choose Next. The Select Voice Alias dialog box appears with a list of over thirty different voice aliases that Freedom Scientific has already created.
  2. Use the arrow keys to select the BoldVoice voice alias, and then press ENTER to activate the Finish button.
  3. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Focus returns to the Edit Selected Scheme button in the Modify Scheme dialog box.
  4. Press ALT+S to activate the Save Current Scheme button.
  5. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. Focus returns to JAWS Settings Center.
  6. Press TAB to move to the OK button and activate it with the SPACEBAR. The changes are made and saved. Settings Center closes.

You may need to switch to your new scheme to test your voice alias. Press INSERT+ALT+S to open the Select a Scheme dialog box. If your scheme is not selected, scroll up or down and choose your scheme. Test it by reading some of the lines of text on this page that have bold text. JAWS should read those words in a deeper voice. This makes it very easy to determine exactly which words appear in bold text.

Speech and Sounds Training Mode

Training mode helps you familiarize yourself with how the active scheme uses sounds to provide information. When training mode is on, JAWS announces detailed information for items, states, and attributes as well as the sounds assigned to them in the active scheme. You hear the sound, and then JAWS announces the same information you hear when using the Classic scheme.

Tip: Training mode also announces information for items, states, and attributes that the active scheme ignores.

Since the sound assignments made by the scheme's creator may not be immediately obvious, training mode can help you determine the purpose of each sound. For example, if a scheme uses two different sounds to indicate the state of a check box, you might not be able to tell which sound indicates that the check box is selected. If training mode is on, JAWS plays the sound and then says, "checked" or "not checked."

To turn training mode on or off:

  1. Press INSERT+ALT+S.
  2. To turn training mode on, select Toggle Speech and Sounds Training Mode On and press ENTER. If you want to turn training mode off, select Toggle Speech and Sounds Training Mode Off and press ENTER.