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Re: Why is Insert + ; shortcut removed in Jaws 15 for Skipping ARIA Landmarks ?

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From: Léonie Watson
Date: Aug 21, 2014 2:54AM

Ravindra Kumar Jain wrote:
"Using JAWS 15 in trial mode I noticed something which was unanticipated.
Till JAWS 13 pressing Insert + ; was used to skip to different
Landmarks, which according to me was a very good feature , but sadly not
working in JAWS 15."

The "insert" key is not required. To move between landmarks on web pages in
Jaws -14, only the ";" (semi-colon) key is required.

"Pressing Insert + R as mentioned in webaim , only reads out , "You must
turn on either JAWS or Invisible cursor before you can set restriction ".
Only what comes closer is pressing Q for going to main region and pressing
Control + Insert + R for listing out ARIA Landmarks. Which according to me
is a "reduced functionality and inconvenient". Am I missing out something
?"

As before, the "insert" key is not required. Use "r" to move between
landmarks in Jaws15+.

" Is it something to do with Html 5 ? Why was this simple
functionality change in the later versions ?"

No, it's nothing to do with HTML5. The Jaws quick nav keys were changed to
make them more user friendly. Semi-colon is not an intuitive key to
remember, whereas "r" is much easier because it moves focus from one
landmark region to another.

"Adding to confusion are thousands of keyboard shortcuts which user has to
remember for accomplishing a task."

There are probably only a couple of hundred commands for any particular
screen reader, Jaws is no exception. Most screen reader users will only
utilise a handful of those though.

"Looking at a bigger picture , Does this means that every time the user
learns a new version of JAWS , he has to again do R & D for new shortcuts by
going to freedom scientific website which are unclear many times ?"

It isn't unreasonable for new versions (of any software) to introduce new
features and occaissional changes. That said, Jaws quick nav keys have
remained fairly constant since they were introduced in Jaws 4.5 in 2002. New
quick nav keys have been added over the years, including the landmark
shortcut in Jaws 12 in 2010, but to the best of my knowledge the change to
the landmark shortcut is an exception rather than the norm.

Léonie.