JAWS Scripts For Adobe Connect
Doug Lee
Last Revised September, 2020

This document describes the scripts for Adobe Connect and provides tips for using this application with JAWS. This document can be opened from within Adobe Connect via a double press of JAWSKey+F1 (or Insert+F1).

This document is laid out for easy navigation using JAWS HTML heading navigation commands: H will move through all headings, 2 through major sections, and 3 and 4 through any subsections or subsubsections.

System Requirements For JAWS Users
Script Installation Instructions
Key Sequences
Script Features In Brief
Tips For Using Adobe Connect
- General
- Chat Pods
Known Issues
Revision History

System Requirements For JAWS Users

There are no known system requirements for these scripts beyond those for Adobe Connect itself. The minimum JAWS version supported is 14.0. JAWS versions older than 17.0 have not been carefully tested with these scripts. The scripts have been tested against the following Adobe Connect Addin versions, most recent first:

11.9.980.387.
11.9.979.366.
11.9.976.291.

Script Installation Instructions

To install these scripts on a new system:

Load JAWS if this has not already been done. This will require administrative privileges on the computer.
Run JAWS as the user for whom the scripts are to be installed. This and the following steps must be performed for each user of the computer who will be using JAWS with these scripts.
Download and run, or run directly, the installer for these scripts; and follow the on-screen directions. Be sure to install the scripts in the currently running JAWS version if a JAWS version list is presented.
To verify successful installation, type Insert+Q while the application is in focus. Part of the JAWS spoken response should be a revision number. If you do not hear a revision number, the scripts are not correctly loaded.

Key Sequences

These scripts incorporate commands that consist of sequences of keystrokes, all beginning with a common prefix, or "command keystroke." This approach allows many script commands without the risk of conflicting with application keystrokes. See the "Multi-Key Command Sequences" section of the "Common Script Elements" document for further details, including how to explore the available script commands (similar to exploring a menu system), and how to change the Command key if necessary.

By default, the Command keystroke for these scripts is [. This document may refer to this keystroke as [ or Command; so, for example, [ Tab and Command Tab both refer to typing the prefix key, then separately the Tab key. Some sequences may consist of more than two keystrokes, or "levels"; for example, [ d r would refer to typing [, then d, then finally r.

Script Features In Brief

The scripts provide the following general keystrokes and features in addition to those provided by Adobe Connect:

Some fields, notably tree controls such as the Attendees participant list, read more accurately.
Alt+Tabbing into Adobe Connect should announce the newly focused control instead of saying nothing.
The standard JAWS Insert+B command for reading the current screen in logical order reads most if not all content.
` and Shift+` move focus forward and backward among available controls regardless of which pod is active. This can be useful for reaching controls that fall outside of Adobe Connect's tab order. Caveat: The order of controls for these commands may not match application tab order.
Command S reads the displayed connection status information. Typing this command twice quickly first toggles whether connection status details are displayed. Connection status details include latency and bandwidth currently being used in both directions. Note the following:
- When toggling details on, it may be necessary to type this command again after a second or two to read the newly displayed information, as Adobe Connect may take a moment to measure before showing numbers.
- Toggling details on and off may move focus to the Connection Status button. If this is inconvenient and you need to watch the connection status over time, just leave details toggled on and type Command S once now and then as needed.
Typing Insert+F1 twice quickly brings up the script documentation.

The scripts also provide the following features specific to chat pods:

When focus is in the input edit box for a chat, JAWS announces the name of the chat, which indicates who will receive your messages. This will be "Everyone" in most cases but can change if a private chat is activated.
Normal announcements during editing are provided, such as when backspacing, deleting, and moving through the edit text by character and word. The support is slow and may not work properly on rapid movement, such as rapid backspacing.
Alt with numbers read recent chats: Alt+1 reads the most recent, Alt+2 the next most recent, etc. Typing the Command key followed by a number is equivalent to typing the combination Alt with the same number; e.g., Command 1 reads the most recent message. Reversing the history text in a chat pod does not change the order of messages for these commands.
Alt with left and right arrows, Home, and End move among chats and keep track of position. Alt+Numpad5 (or Alt+Enter for keyboards without a number pad) repeats the latest chat read in this fashion with its position and the number of chat messages available. Pressing this key combination twice quickly will spell the current chat message. There is an alternate interface that reduces the need to hold down Alt: Press the Command key followed by any number of keys in the row from H through the semicolon. From left to right on a standard English keyboard, H moves to and reads the first message, J the previous message, K repeats the last spoken message and spells it on a quick double tap, L moves to and reads the next message, and the semicolon moves to and reads the most recent message. Again, reversing chat history messages should not alter the behavior of these commands.
In case JAWS' idea of message reversal gets out of sync, Command R reverses message order manually for the above Alt message reading commands in the current chat.
Some popular emoticons are spoken descriptively.
F4 or Command T announces who, if anyone, is currently typing a message into the currently shown chat. Typing either of these commands twice quickly will spell this information.
By default, the following occur automatically at appropriate times, though they may be individually toggled in Quick Settings:
- Incoming messages in the currently active chat speak on arrival, regardless of which pod is in focus. Messages you send out will also speak when they arrive in the message history window.
- JAWS will speak the name of whoever is typing a message when this changes.
- A typing sound will play while anyone is typing a message (not including yourself).

Tips For Using Adobe Connect

General

Most Adobe Connect instances include an application menu bar. Use Ctrl+Space, not the Alt key, to activate it. Some Adobe Connect instances, such as those used simply to play back a pre-recorded event, may not have an application menu.

Adobe Connect provides much help material, including a thorough guide to its keyboard shortcuts. To access Adobe Connect help, type Ctrl+Space for Adobe Connect's Application menu, then arrow left or right to reach the Help menu, and open it with a Down arrow. Of course, this only works in Adobe Connect instances with an application menu bar on screen. At this writing (September 6, 2016), the "Keyboard Shortcuts" menu item actually launches the Adobe Connect Accessibility Features web page in the default browser.

Adobe Connect screens are made up of "pods" (think of them like panes). More than one pod can be visible at once. Move among pods with Ctrl+F6. As a pod takes focus, JAWS should announce the pod's name. Example pods that may appear include

Attendee: Contains a treeView of attendees, organized into hosts, presenters, and participants. If you need to raise your hand to ask a question or speak, do it in this pod with Ctrl+E.. This pod also contains a tab control allowing a switch to a view that sorts attendees by status. Switch tabs by tabbing to the tab control, arrowing left or right to the desired tab, and pressing Space to select/activate the tab.
Chat: There is one chat pod, but it may contain several separate chats, only one being displayed at a time. There will generally be one public chat and may be one or more private chats in the pod. Ctrl+Shift+O will jump to whichever chat last produced an alert.

There can also be video, share, poll, and notes pods.

Some pods have pod-specific menus. To open the menu for the active pod, type Ctrl+F8.

Some controls may not appear, or at certain times may not appear, in Adobe Connect tab order. The scripts provide a means of navigating forward and backward through focusable controls, regardless of tab order, via the grave accent (`) key: Typing this key by itself moves focus to the next focusable control, while typing it with a Shift key moves to the previous focusable control. Both will cycle around to the first or last control, as appropriate, when encountering the end of the available controls. These commands thus function much like Tab and Shift+Tab but are not restricted to controls in the active pod. Be aware, though, that the order of controls using these commands may not match the order of controls in the application's native tab order.

Chat Pods

Use the chat message reading and navigation commands described under Script Features In Brief to read chat messages.

When editing or reviewing a chat message while typing it, avoid moving rapidly with arrows, as this is currently likely to result in strange behavior.

To start a private chat with a meeting participant:

Use Ctrl+F6 to navigate to the Attendees pod.
Tab to the tree of attendees, then use arrows to locate the attendee of interest.
Press Enter to open a menu of options for the selected attendee.
Locate "Start Private Chat" in this menu and press Space. (Enter does not work here.)
Move focus to the Chat pod's input edit box. JAWS should say the name of the attendee you will be addressing. Insert+Tab will verify this. Any messages typed at this point will go to that person and not to everyone.
To switch between open chats, Tab past the Send button and press Space on the button for the chat you wish to activate.

Known Issues

Issues shown in this section may be fixed in future script and/or application revisions but are not addressed as of this writing.

At this writing, these scripts only work with the external addin, AdobeConnectAddin.exe. They will not currently work when Adobe Connect resides within a browser window. To make a meeting launch using the external addin, add ?launcher=true to the end of the meeting's URL.

Reversing message history while in a private chat reverses the main "Everyone" chat but not the private one. This will confuse the scripts and require you to type Command R in the main chat to rectify message order for the Alt message reading commands.

Switching among chats in one Adobe Connect instance will not cause announcement of missed messages and will cause the position for Alt+Arrow chat reading commands to be wrong.

The Share pod provides accessible text but is not yet scripted and is not easy to read outside of a browser and the JAWS virtual view. Share pods without shared content display the message "Nothing is being shared," but this message is not reachable via standard JAWS means either.

Chat messages containing multiple lines may read oddly because there is no separation in the MSAA text between the lines:

This message is
two lines long.

is likely to read via JAWS as

This message istwo lines long.

This cannot be fixed via scripting.

Reversing message text in a chat pod may cause the first and second messages to merge and leave a blank line as the first message. This is due to an anomaly in Adobe Connect's MSAA formatting for chat history.

Restarting JAWS while chat history text is reversed will cause messages to be accessed by Alt chat reading commands in the reverse order from that intended. There may be other cases for which the reversal status of history messages is not detected correctly. Use Command R in such circumstances to reverse JAWS' concept of message order.

Revision History

Here is the revision history of these scripts, most recent revision first:

Revision 81, released September 02, 2020

The installer contains version and product information visible from the Details tab in Windows Explorer, to better identify its contents. This update is being applied to all projects.
A "directives" text file is included that provides information on how to install this set of scripts manually. See "Handling Directives Files" in the "Common Script Elements" document for further information.
Keystroke names in this document are more consistent, and there are other minor documentation improvements.
Fixed a bug that could cause some localized strings not to be spoken where expected.

Revision 76, released May 07, 2020

The release notes are part of the user guide instead of being separate.
Screen readers respond better to activation of Table of Contents links in this document.
The messages for these scripts are now distributed in XML rather than jsm files so that translators can create translations with no need for script source recompilation. See the Script Translation Procedure document for details on how to translate these scripts, including how to update the XML message file.
For those who need to change the Command key, the left bracket ([) by default, the system is significantly improved, so that you need not type the key or key combination out as a name or string of key names. You may edit the keystroke names before accepting them, but JAWS will type them out for you now. The system is documented in more detail in the Multi-Key Command Sequence section of my Common Script Elements page.

Revision 71, released April 3, 2019

Commands Ctrl+Shift+R and Ctrl+Shift+S are replaced respectively with the sequences Command R and Command S.
F4 still announces the current person typing, but the new sequence Command T also does so.
There are minor improvements to the installer, and also support for installing into JAWS 2018 and 2019.
Alt+Enter duplicates Alt+Numpad5 (repeat last-read chat message) for keyboards without a number pad.
In addition to the existing interface for handling chat message navigation (Alt with arrows etc.), there is an alternate interface that reduces the need to hold down Alt: Press the Command key followed by any number of keys in the row from H through the semicolon. From left to right on a standard English keyboard, H moves to and reads the first message, J the previous message, K repeats the last spoken message and spells it on a quick double tap, L moves to and reads the next message, and the semicolon moves to and reads the most recent message.
Source code to the scripts is no longer included. See my Script Distribution Policy document for details. As one side effect, this will cause installation to run much faster.

Revision 50, released August 25, 2017

The chat history text is more often found when the user is presenting content via the Share pod, according to tests.
Typing indicator sounds will not play for non-typing text provided in the same indicator control.

Revision 44, released September 18, 2016

This is the first public release of these scripts. Currently, Chat and Attendee pods are best supported. These scripts should at this time (September, 2016) be considered beta quality, as they have so far undergone only limited testing. Feedback is welcome.