JAWS®

The Worlds Most Popular Windows Screen Reader What is a screen reader? A screen reader is a software program that enables a blind or visually impaired user to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. JAWS, Job Access With Speech, is the world’s most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC..

• Read documents. emails, websites and apps
• Easily navigate with your mouse
• Scan and read all of your documents, including PDF
• Fill out webforms with ease
• Easy to use with Daisy formatted basic training
• Save time with Skim Reading and Text Analyzer
• Surf the net with web browsing keystrokes

Features

To use JAWS for Windows, you need a personal computer running Microsoft® Windows® with the following:

Note: The Previous JAWS Downloads Web page has older versions of JAWS for computers still running Windows XP (JAWS 15 and earlier) or Windows Vista (JAWS 17 and earlier).

JAWS Documentation

• What’s New in JAWS 2020
• JAWS Keystrokes (PDF)
• JAWS Keystrokes (text)
• JAWS Keystrokes (HTML)
• Braille Display Input Commands (HTML)
• JAWS Quick Start Guide (PDF)
• JAWS Quick Start Guide (text)
• JAWS Help System (ZIP file) Note: After unzipping and saving the help files, select JFW.CHM to launch the primary help file.
• JAWS Support for ARIA (Word file): ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is assistive technology markup used by Web content creators to make Web pages more accessible for screen readers. This is done by adding specific ARIA tags and elements to HTML code. Read this document to learn more about JAWS support for ARIA markup.
• JAWS Tandem Quick Start Guide
• JAWS Tandem FAQs
• Software Activation

JAWS Scripting Resources

• Basics of Scripting Manual (HTML)
• Basics of Scripting Manual (self-extracting file)
• Enhancements in Scripting
• FSDN (Functions Reference Manual)
• JAWS UIA Script API Documentation
• Domain Scripting Quick Start (PDF)
• Research It: Creating Rule Sets for JAWS (Word file)
• Updating Verbosity Scripts for the JAWS Options Tree View (self-extracting file)

Previous JAWS Documentation

If you want to view documentation for earlier versions of JAWS, visit the Previous JAWS for Windows Downloads page and download the appropriate JAWS version. Install this program and then look in the Help folder to find the product documentation.