[Trainer-talk] JAWS 16/Newly Branded Editions

[David Goldfield]

I often send emails to coworkers with various a.t. announcements.  I 
sent the following to them and decided to repost it here, in case it's 
of interest to JAWS trainers.
Freedom Scientific has released the first of a series of podcasts where
they will be discussing and demonstrating new features which we’ll see
in version 16 of their JAWS screen reader. Since JAWS is one of the
screen readers installed where I work, this is important for me to know
about as I would prefer to learn about what’s being added as soon as I can.
This first podcast discussed how JAWS is being rebranded with new names
for one of their editions. Previously, we’ve had two separate editions
of JAWS. One edition was known as JAWS Professional. JAWS Professional
worked on both home and professional editions of Windows, such as
Windows 7 Home Premium as well as windows 7 Professional. JAWS Pro also
included the ability to log onto remote systems with programs like
Citrix and Terminal Services. The other edition of JAWS was known as
JAWS Standard. JAWS Standard was a couple of hundred dollars cheaper
with cheaper software maintenance agreements and it only supported home
editions of Windows. This means that if you purchased JAWS Standard and
upgraded to a professional version of windows, your screen reader
wouldn’t work unless you upgraded your JAWS license to JAWS Pro, a
process which probably confused and infuriated more than a few JAWS users.
Now, JAWS Standard is being rebranded with the new name of JAWS Home
User Edition. For the most part, there will be no differences between
the two versions of JAWS, as both versions will work on all versions of
Windows. JAWS Home Edition will still be a bit cheaper, with cheaper
SMAs. FS is marketing JAWS Home User Edition for “noncommercial use”
and JAWS Professional for organizations such as schools, agencies and
other work sites. If you use your own computer on the job or in school,
FS is allowing users to use JAWS Home User Edition but schools and other
organizations are still required to use JAWS Professional. Home users
who are using JAWS Professional will be permitted to essentially
downgrade their license, allowing for cheaper software maintenance
agreements.
As more podcasts are released with more features being demonstrated,
I’ll share summaries of them with you.

-- 

         David Goldfield
     Assistive Technology Specialist

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