[nabs-l] JAWS and foreign languages

Laurel and Stockard laurel.stockard at gmail.com
Sat Aug 24 17:12:16 UTC 2013


Sure! A lot of things depend on the language that you need. I study over 6 languages, and there's a variety of solutions for each. I'll cover some of the more common ones, but if y'all ever need help with a specific language, or more language questions then we wanna cover on list, please feel free to write me off list at laurel.stockard at gmail.com

French: JAWS has a French voice. Also, you can download a Realspeak Solo Direct French voice that works with JAWS. A link to this voice can be found on freedom scientific's website. Rather than trying to type in the French accents via commands with the function keys, it's easier to get a French keyboard. This is easier than you think and free. Your computer already has multiple language keyboards on it, but by default, the only one selected is U.S. English, or whatever your computer's language is set to. PC users can go to the control panel, language and region or something similar to this, and find a language keyboard option. If it's not under language and region (or a similar phrase) on your computer it'll be under keyboards and language and keyboards. You simply check the check box next to your desired language (French, Spanish, etc) and then you can switch between keyboards. With JAWS, switching between keyboards is usually done with alt plus shift. I only switch to the French keyboard when I need a letter with an accent.

spanish: There is a Castillian and South American JAWS spanish voice, and also a real speak solo voice found on freedom scientific's website that you can download. You can set up a secondary language keyboard that you can switch back and forth to just like you can for the French. I will not that if you're using the mac and voiceover, your language keyboard options will be found under preferences, and then keyboards. On an iPhone and iPad you can change the voiceover language under the voiceover settings if you activate and use the language roter, and the keyboard can be added or changed under keyboards under settings. The mac/apple products are for another post someday, but if you have both a PC and apple products you'll find this helpful.

These same language principles work for Italian, Portuguese, German and the other common JAWS installed languages. If you want Arabic, Chinese, Russian or something different, it's a little harder, but still possible. No matter what language, you still change the keyboard so you can go between English and your language of choice the same way, so I'll only talk about the voices for now.

Russian and Chinese: you're best bet is to download a real speak solo direct voice from freedom scientific. They have other languages too, about 20 of them.

Arabic and other languages not available in real speak or jaws, your best bet is an apple product with voiceover. I primarily use voiceover now instead of jaws because I work with about 6 languages a day, but if you're wanting to stick with JAWS and use 2 or 3 languages per day, you should be fine.

Like I said, if anybody wants to contact me further about specific language help, please feel free.
Hope this answered some of y'all's questions, sorry it's long. :-)
Laurel
On Aug 24, 2013, at 11:59 AM, Anna Givens wrote:

> Hey Laurel, can u answer these questions on the list?  I, and a couple others, have been wondering about JAWS and foreign language.  If u could answer these questions on here that would be helpful to me, and then whatever other french stuff you guys want to discuss, u can do it off-list.  Would u mind?
> 
> Anna E Givens
> 
> On Aug 24, 2013, at 11:41 AM, Laurel and Stockard <laurel.stockard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey Jules. I majored in French in college and will have my degree in it come December, when I officially get my diploma. I've used both JAWS and voiceover in French and can help you out. If you wanna email me off list I can help you set up a French keyboard, and generally I can help you with anything related to French. My email is laurel.stockard at gmail.com
>> Seriously, I'm happy to help you out in any way that I can. :-)
>> Laurel
>> On Aug 24, 2013, at 9:16 AM, Jewel wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear all,
>>> I  just started French class and had a few questions about using
>>> French with JAWS. Really, it's two questions. The first is: How do I
>>> type accents that aren't in the Insert + F4 list, such as grave accent
>>> and the one with the ^ over the letter? With Insert + F4, I can type
>>> the more common ones, such as é or ç, but it doesn't have the grave
>>> accent (the accent that goes in a negative slope instead of a positive
>>> one) and the ^ accent. Does anyone know what keystrokes will bring up
>>> those accents or if there is a way to add them to the list for Insert
>>> + F4?
>>> My second question is about the French JAWS voice. My disability
>>> service office is really awesome and has gone through the French
>>> textbook and all of the handouts and set the French words to be read
>>> with the French voice. However, I have a problem with the speed of the
>>> French voice. I  have the JAWS voice set to somewhere around 40, but
>>> that's much too fast for a beginning French student! Is there a way to
>>> set just the speed of a language so that the French voice speaks
>>> slower than the English voice, or do I have to just go and change the
>>> verbocity each time I  open a French document?
>>> So, hopefully someone who has taken foreign language classes can
>>> answer these questions! I'm already enjoying French class, and got a
>>> 96 on my first quiz.
>>> ~Jewel
>>> P.S.- Welcome back to school, everyone!
>>> 
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