Skip to main content
JAWS Scripts For Zello: 1.16
Help and documentation: Users Guide | Contact me
Go to: The Zello home page (zello.com) | My professional scripting page

JAWS Scripts For Zello

General Information

This page is laid out for easy navigation via JAWS:

• Use h to jump from section to section.
• Use Tab to move among links for different script versions. JAWSKey+F7 should also provide a list of these links.

Revision 116a

These are JAWS scripts for the Windows version of Zello. Documentation of script usage and features can be viewed by typing Insert+F1 twice in quick succession from within Zello while these scripts are running.

This script version is dynamic, meaning that updates to it will be made "in place." Newer revisions will replace older ones, and I will add change notes to this section as changes are made.

Here are the changes in release 1.16a, most recent first. In JAWS, use the h or 3 keys to move through changes by release date, or Tab to jump straight to the download links.

Revision 117, released October 14, 2017

This update comes after a long silence (since March, 2013), during which there were a few updates to Zello itself and the release of several major upgrades to JAWS. I stopped working on these Zello scripts in 2013 first because of the number of serious Zello bugs I encountered starting in 2012 and the fact that new releases of Zello were introducing new bugs; and then because I detected very little community interest in Zello scripts. Zello's popularity increased suddenly in 2017 as Zello became a popular application for helping with Texas hurricane relief efforts, but I still detected no interest in Zello scripts in the blind community until October.

Warning: I still regard Windows Zello as buggy, based on brief tests I ran in August, 2017. However, I provide this script update in case it is useful. For examples of bugs I initially saw in 2012, some of which I believe still exist, visit my PC Zello 1.17 Bug List page.

Included updates in this script revision:

• The oldest JAWS version supported is now JAWS 12.0.
• The scripts are now intended to support Zello 1.77.
• The installer is now Nullsoft instead of Inno Setup.
• JAWS 2018 is supported by the installer.

Revision 102, released March 29, 2013

This is an update to support Zello 1.30. Features and notes:

• Contact and participant lists are recognized in Zello 1.30 as they were in 1.22 and earlier. This makes Ctrl+arrows and other things work as expected in Zello 1.30.
• Zello 1.30 does not allow the Tab and Shift+Tab keys to reach the contact list. With the scripts running, a workaround is to Alt+Tab out of and then back into Zello. The scripts will place focus on the contact list when you return to Zello in this way.

Revision 101, released November 29, 2012

This release contains a few documentation updates for Zello 1.22. Also, channels with an invalid password count in searches as disconnected channels. This means you can use Ctrl with arrows to find channels whose passwords need updating.

Revision 93, released July 29, 2012

This is another fairly major update and addresses some issues in Zello 1.18 and 1.19.

Enhancements and fixes:

• The Applications key now opens context menus in Contacts, Recents, and a channel participant list, all of which stopped working natively in Zello 1.18 and 1.19.
• JAWS better announces contact list items. New items announced include
  • Contact status for non-channel list entries, based on the actual status icon. The posted status message is of course still announced as well when it is different from the icon.
  • Full-length status messages regardless of whether they are cut short on screen.
  • Clearer indication of new messages, still including the message count.
  • The word "channel" for channel list entries.
  Similar improvements are included for the participant lists for channels.
• Invisible tab controls no longer cause tab page announcement on Insert+t. This fixes, for example, the inclusion of "page is Contacts" in sign-in screens.
• Unlabeled graphic icons no longer cause speech.
• Focus no longer stays on invisible windows but moves to visible ones when possible. This causes 'Forgot your password?' to get focus during auto signin and prevents focus loss on signin errors and other situations.
• Space is no longer announced in outgoing text alert edit boxes when JAWS is in a typing echo mode other than Characters.
• Insert+PgDn works more often to read the Zello status line.
• More sign-in-time messages speak, though the actual "Signing in..." message still doesn't.

Revision 77, released June 23, 2012

This is a fairly major update and the first script version that includes features specifically aimed at Zello 1.17. These scripts still work with Zello 1.16 as well.

New features and fixes:

• When focus switches from another application into Zello, JAWS will land in a list control if one is available instead of always moving to the "Push to talk" button. This facilitates movement among users and channels.
• Tab and Shift+Tab work in the dialog that pops up when a call alert comes in.
• When you send a call alert to a contact, JAWS will announce when it successfully sends. If it is an invalid request, such as when you try sending to an offline contact, JAWS will announce this also. Note that there remain some types of failures that JAWS may not announce however..
• Typing letters in a list, such as Contacts, will do an incremental search and land on the next list entry beginning with what has been typed. You can, for example, quickly type "ec" to find the Echo user (if that user is in your contacts).
• The search always starts at the first list entry though, not the current entry. This may be fixed in a future release, but it is caused by a peculiarity of Zello itself.
• Incoming authorization requests immediately speak on arrival, including the name of the user making the request.
• When people join or leave a channel while you are focused on the channel's entry in the Contacts list, JAWS will say how many people joined or left instead of repeating the channel's list entry.
• If you leave focus in the list of participants in a channel, JAWS will announce the names of people joining or leaving.
• Ctrl+Shift+P, the script command for playing the next unread message, works in the Recents tab as well as in the Contacts tab. It also works in history lists and moves to a message as it starts playing.
• Ctrl+Shift+E failed to function properly for some users due to the appearance of a "Resize" icon for the Zello window too close to the status line. This should now be fixed.

Revision 51, released June 11, 2012

Heads Up: Ctrl+Shift+A, the keystroke that announced the number of pending authorization requests, is now Ctrl+Shift+E. This change conforms to Zello's actual intentions: The count is really the number of pending events of any kind. Currently the only type of event supported in Windows Zello is authorization requests, but the script author expects text alerts eventually to be included there.

This update includes the following enhancements:

• The manual includes much more information on how to use Zello with the scripts.
• The scripts cause F7, the default Zello transmit key, not to speak its name repeatedly when typed from within Zello or even from within any other application.
• Ctrl+Shift+A is now Ctrl+Shift+E as explained above.
• There is a system for searching your contact list for various types of entries: Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch among types of searches and Ctrl+Up/Down to search using the current search type. This system allows you quickly to locate channels and users with unread messages, channels that have been disconnected, the user or channel currently in solo mode if any, and the first user in your contact list, below all the channels. The manual describes this system in more detail.
• Ctrl+Shift+P from the contact list starts playing missed messages from the selected channel or user. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+P while a message is playing stops that one and starts the next one, which facilitates rapid skimming of new messages.
• Ctrl+Shift+W launches the Zello script home page in your default browser, which can be handy for checking for script updates. This command also sends information about your running JAWS version, Zello version, script revision, etc., to the web site so the script author can better know what configurations to support with the scripts.

This script update also includes a few experimental features, disabled by default but accessible via special hotkeys. These are described in the manual. The experimental features currently included allow you to hear user and channel names when people talk, hear which channel you are sending to before you start speaking, and use certain wireless headsets to start/stop transmission or review unplayed messages without having to use the keyboard. A link to the manual appears near the top of this page.

Revision 25, released May 29, 2012

Several features added:

• Much more complete help accessible via a double press of JAWSKey+F1, including a whole section on basic PC Zello usage.
• Ctrl+Shift+S reads the user's current status, and a double press allows the user to update it.
• Ctrl+Shifft+A does the same for any pending authorization requests.
• Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab switch among tabs in the main window, and JAWSKey+T (the SayWindowTitle command) includes the active page name.
• Improved announcement of prompt information in the initial account creation screen.
• More buttons say "button" instead of saying no control type. The sign-in screen contains examples.
• An intuitive process for changing Zello hotkeys: Press Space to start or cancel the changing of a hotkey. (Normally this would have required mouse clicks.)
• Silencing of extra announcements of "ListView" during arrowing through list controls like the Contact list.

Revision 4, released May 25, 2012

Initial release version with the following features:

• Silencing of F7, the default push-to-talk key.
• Better naming and spoken information for many controls in the Options pages.
• An indication of which Options page is currently active (just that page's button says "Pressed" when focused).

Download: Revision 116a executable installer (can also open with 7Zip)