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Copyright 2003 Freedom Scientific Inc. |
HTML elements allow authors of Web pages to arrange text using headings, paragraphs, long quotations, etc. These elements are displayed so they are easy to identify when a page is read visually. Headings are usually bold, in larger font, and sometimes even underlined. Long quotations are usually indented. This allows people to scan the page visually and quickly find what they need. JAWS 5.0 identifies many structural HTML elements so you can also quickly find information and know how the information relates to the page as a whole.
Six heading levels allow authors of Web pages to divide a page into sections and subsections. Headings appear in a different style at each level. The title of this document, "The HTML Structure and Format Challenge," is a level 1 heading. The word "Headings," above, is a level 2 heading. This indicates a section of the page that discusses headings. This section is divided into several subsections, indicated by level 3 headings. Another section is indicated further down the page by a level 2 heading containing the words, "Long Quotations." Three additional sections are defined by level 2 headings. Can you find them?
JAWS provides commands that allow you to move to the next or previous heading on a page. Use these commands to explore the organization of the page. To move to the next heading, press H. JAWS announces the heading level and reads the text of the heading. To move to the next heading at a certain level, press the number of that level. For example, pressing 3 moves to the next level 3 heading in the document. These commands allow you to skim the page and locate the section that is likely to contain the information you need.
When you press the numbers 1 to 6 to move through headings at the specified level, JAWS informs you when you reach the last heading at that level in the current section of the Web page. For example, move to the "Headings" level 2 heading on this page. Then press 3 repeatedly until you hear JAWS say, "No next heading at level 3 in this section." So you know you are at the last sub-section at level three. To move to the next section, or to check for sub-sections at lower levels, press H.
You can also move to headings using the Headings List dialog. To open this dialog, press INSERT+F6. The headings are listed in the order they appear on the page. The controls in the dialog allow you to change the way headings are sorted or to display all headings or only headings at a certain level. To move through the list, press UP or DOWN ARROW, or type the first letter of a heading. To move through the page to the location of the selected heading, press ENTER.
The text of headings appears in a different point size at each level. JAWS provides a command that allows you to hear information about the font and other attributes of text on a Web page. Move to a heading and press INSERT+F to hear information about the appearance of the text.
JAWS announces heading levels by default. At times, this announcement may be distracting while reading a page. To turn off heading announcement, press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Verbosity Dialog, press H to move to Headings Announcement, and press SPACEBAR to change the setting to Off.
The "blockquote" element is used to set apart long quotations from the rest of the text on a page. The text of these long quotations is indented. JAWS identifies long quotations and reads the source, if one has been included using the cite attribute. This allows you to identify which text is included in the quotation. Press Q and SHIFT+Q to move between long quotations on a Web page.
"Every morning, I use JAWS and go to a pair of special baseball Web sites to get my updated statistics for our team and the rest of the league; it's key to my broadcasts, " Wardlow said. "There is another Web site where I use JAWS to find out if a certain player is hurt, whether a new player has joined a particular team or other roster information. I have to keep abreast of at least 16 teams daily to do my job," he added.
Wardlow also praised the HTML headings feature in JAWS saying that he can now navigate through the volumes of information much faster and easier.
He also uses JAWS to handle an enormous amount of e-mail he receives from fans, media, team officials, players, and others.
Font size, type, and color are used to associate certain meanings with text. Important terms may be displayed in bold or in a certain color. JAWS provides commands that allow you to get information about the font and color of text. To hear information about the font used for text, press INSERT+F. To hear the color of text, press INSERT+5. JAWS identifies both the foreground and background color. For example, JAWS says, "black on white," when you press INSERT+5 while the Virtual Cursor is on this paragraph, indicating that this paragraph contains black text on a white background. Try these commands on the following paragraphs. What information does JAWS give you?
This text is bold.
This text is in italics.
This text is in the Courier font.
This text is red.
This text has some inserted words. With the Virtual Cursor on any of the words in the phrase, "some inserted words," press INSERT+F and notice that JAWS tells you that the text is underlined. The rest of the text in the paragraph is not underlined.
This paragraph has oops a deleted word. With the Virtual Cursor on the word, "oops," press INSERT+F. JAWS identifies the font and says, "strikeout," indicating that the word has a strikeout line through it.
JAWS 5.0 introduces the revolutionary Speech and Sounds Manager, allowing you to configure JAWS to provide specific information in different voices, or with sounds instead of spoken text, and to control how JAWS presents information for you. Set JAWS to play a piano note to indicate a level one heading, and lower piano notes to indicate each lower level heading. Have JAWS use a different voice to read links. Set JAWS to play a sound when you move to a edit control or a button.
If you are using JAWS 5.0 to read this, try it now. Press ALT+INSERT+S to open the Select a Scheme dialog, then press W to move to the Web RentACrowd scheme, and press ENTER to select that scheme. Then press CTRL+HOME to move to the top of this page and start reading. Try it on other pages, and try other speech and sound schemes.
When you are ready to create your own speech and sound schemes, press INSERT+F2, then ENTER to open Configuration Manager. Press ALT+S, M to open the Speech and Sounds Manager, and create or modify schemes. Refer to JAWS help for more information.