[NJTechDiv] JAWS September Update

[Andy]

A new JAWS update has been released for September.  Highlights of this update are multiline Braille sport (if you have a Monarch or Dot Pad), improved AI for FS Companion and Picture Smart, and new scripts for the BARD Express app.  I'm excited that FS Companion is now able to answer questions about Google Workspace!  Here's a list of changes:

Enhancements in JAWS 2025.2508.120 (September 2025)
The following is a list of improvements made between the July 2025 release and the September 2025 update.

Support for Multi-Line Braille Displays
JAWS now fully supports multi-line Braille output to compatible Braille displays. This is a major leap forward in Braille access, enabling users to interact with complex content more naturally and efficiently than ever before.

View multiple lines and even entire paragraphs simultaneously rather than having to constantly pan the display line by line.
Get a better representation of the structured layout in a document or web page, especially when viewing tables, charts, or spreadsheets.
An enhanced Structured Mode in Word documents, web pages, and other rich text environments for showing control type indicators across multiple lines and not limiting them to the line containing the cursor.
Currently, JAWS supports the Monarch from American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and the Dot Pad from Dot Inc. Note that to use JAWS multi-line functionality on the Monarch, you must be running firmware version 1.3 or higher.

Two Distinct Modes Depending on Reading Context

Wrapped Mode: Ideal for reading documents and web pages, with text flowing naturally across lines. Great for reading books, articles, or emails when you just want to continuously read.
Cropped Mode: Best for structured content like tables and spreadsheets. This mode keeps things aligned so columns, rows, and layout stay true as you move from line to line.
To select a reading mode, use the Select Braille View dialog (ALT+INSERT+V).

Cropped Mode is also used exclusively in Excel, or when focus moves into a table in Word documents, Google Docs, and on web pages. This allows for the proper display of column and row data along with their coordinates in spreadsheets and tables. A column separator represented by DOTS 4-5-6-8 is also displayed to help easily identify the separation between columns. Specific to Excel, cell titles remain at the top while any monitor cells defined in JAWS Quick Settings persist at the bottom for easy reference.

Split Braille Extended for Multi-Line Use

The Freedom Scientific Split Braille feature lets users show content on a Braille display from two different locations. When Split Braille is active, the Braille display is split into two regions. One region contains the text at the cursor, while the other region contains the split content based on a selected view.

Split Braille now works with multi-line displays. This enables users to take advantage of different views including buffered text, annotations, text attributes, as well as application specific views like the chat history in Teams. Similar to reading modes, split views are activated through the Select Braille View dialog. From this dialog, you can also select Options to customize various settings including the number of lines used to represent the split data and whether the split region is displayed at the bottom, top, or beneath the active line.

Learn more about JAWS multi-line Braille support in FSCast Episode 261 <https://blog.freedomscientific.com/fscast-261-an-in-depth-look-at-multiline-braille-support-in-jaws-and-an-ai-user-survey-by-the-afb/>.

AI Features
Both Picture Smart AI and FSCompanion now use updated models which offer faster response times as well as improve picture descriptions and answers to user queries.
FSCompanion can now answer questions specific to using Google Workspace applications (Chrome, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Gmail).
Addressed instances on some web pages where JAWS closed unexpectedly when using the AI Labeler to assign labels to certain elements.
Aria and Web
Addressed issues with JAWS not reading table column and row headers containing the aria-labelledby attribute in some instances.
JAWS no longer runs header and cell content together when using ALT+WINDOWS+ARROW keys to read entire rows or columns in a table.
Aria labels assigned to table rows now read as expected when navigating with TAB or SHIFT+TAB.
To reduce verbosity, JAWS no longer says “has flows from” or “has flows to” by default after reading a line on certain web pages and when viewing files in Visual Studio Code such as the released notes.
Addressed an issue where you could not navigate to combo boxes on certain web pages using the Virtual Cursor.
JAWS no longer speaks extra information when focus moves to a list box on a web page and the Virtual Cursor is active.
If focus is on an element with a state like collapsed or expanded and you position the mouse over a different element with no state like a link, JAWS mouse echo no longer incorrectly announces the state of the currently focused element and only speaks the information for the element under the mouse.
JAWS now remains at the correct location on a page even if the focus was positioned using a mouse.
Google Suite
Added a new Quick Settings option, List Detection, which lets you choose whether or not JAWS alerts you when entering and exiting lists in Google Docs.
In the JAWS Quick Settings for Google Docs, you can now specify changes to table title reading verbosity apply only to the currently selected table in a Google Docs document.
Office Apps
If the mouse is used to move focus to Outlook, Teams, or Google Docs, the mouse pointer is no longer automatically positioned in the top left corner of the screen as it is assumed interactions will be done with the mouse. The mouse is only positioned outside of the work area if a method other than the mouse is used to set focus.
If a new meeting time is proposed for a calendar appointment in Outlook, JAWS now reads the new time when viewing the appointment details.
Renamed several of the table title reading options in the JAWS Quick Settings for Word and Excel to make them clearer.
You can now use CTRL+SHIFT+N to create a new folder in the PowerPoint Save or Save As dialogs. This keystroke still reads speaker’s notes when focused in the main window.
JAWS now reads as expected in the Search recent file by name edit box when opening a file in Excel.
JAWS no longer speaks the cut, copy, or paste messages twice when using these commands in Excel.
Zoom
Pressing HOME or END in the participants list for a Zoom meeting now moves to the top or bottom of the list as expected with JAWS running.
JAWS once again automatically announces the value when adjusting the speaker and microphone sliders in the Zoom audio settings.
JAWS now announces the correct state when toggling the Mute/Unmute and Video On/Off buttons.
Braille
The Liblouis Braille translator used by JAWS and Fusion has been updated to version 3.34.0.
In Excel, if you want to edit a cell from a Braille display, you must press a Cursor Router twice quickly above the cell to move focus to the Formula bar so you can edit its contents.
Settings changed through the Options screen of the Select Braille View dialog box now immediately take affect without the need to ALT+TAB away and back to the application.
Changing Braille translation input and output to Computer Braille in Settings Center now saves correctly in the default settings file.
When pressing G CHORD+DOT 7 from a Braille display keyboard to toggle Braille translation settings, addressed an issue where the current setting was not being retained in Chrome when switching focus with ALT+TAB.
Added the latest Braille display drivers from Selvas BLV.
Other
Pressing CTRL+F in the Results Viewer now Opens the JAWS Find dialog similar to web pages. This allows you to quickly locate content, such as searching for specific text from a file you have recognized using the Convenient OCR feature.
Added updated scripts for the BARD Express application from the National Library Service in the United States.
JAWS mouse echo now correctly reads Taskbar icons when moving to them after reading web page content.
In a standard Windows Open dialog box, addressed an issue where JAWS was not reading selections in the combo box that displays after pressing BACKSLASH in the File Name edit field.
After pressing NUM PAD 5 twice quickly to set JAWS to announce the phonetic value of characters when navigating with LEFT or RIGHT ARROW, addressed an issue where the phonetic value of the current character was not spoken as expected in Notepad.
With JAWS Unified Keyboard Processing enabled, the ESC key is no longer sent twice when used to close certain Windows features like Clipboard History.
Improved JAWS reading text containing Greek symbols.
When using JAWS in Swedish, numbers ending with 30 are now spoken correctly.
A black screen is no longer displayed when closing the NWEA Secure Testing Browser with JAWS running.

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