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What’s new in JAWS 2022?

Navy background with Sight and Sound logo. Main heading: What's new in JAWS 2022. Other text: Join special guests from Vispero to find out what JAWS has in store. 3rd November at 20.00. Icon is a shark with a wifi symbol next to it.

JAWS 2022 is here and this week, we spoke to Eric Damery, Jan Bloem and Mohammed Laachir from Vispero, to find out what the update has in store for users.

Install

JAWS will now let customers know that a new major release is available. You can download and install the major update, in this case version 2022, assuming that your serial number is authorised and that you have a valid software maintenance agreement. If you are not sure, give our

Once the software is installed, it will automatically MIGRATE YOUR SETTINGS into the new version. For the first time, this migration of settings also includes Braille display configurations and settings, meaning you can use these right away.

Sound splitting

Mohammed brought us through one of the new features he has been personally involved in bringing out – the sound splitter. This is a very interesting and useful feature, which has been requested for quite a while. If you’re in a webinar and you need to do something else, you’ll have both your webinar and JAWS talking at the same time, which can be difficult to manage.

In JAWS 2022, you can now split the sound by pressing:

  1. Insert and spacebar
  2. V – volume
  3. B – balance
  4. Then left arrow key – you will have JAWS in your left year and everything else in your right. Use the right arrow key to reverse that.
  5. Restore settings by pressing JAWS key with space, followed by V for volume, B for balance and up arrow.

Mohammed noted that there have been issues with certain Bluetooth headsets and recommended some fixes, including using an external microphone or using a USB headset. Freedom Scientific have a blog on this topic, outlining which headsets have been tested and work well, as well as more detailed instructions on using the sound splitter.

MS Office 365

You may have noticed that JAWS 2022 is more responsive in MS Outlook than it was in previous versions. Now, if you’re using Outlook with Office 365, everything runs quicker.

ElBraille / Multiple Languages

If you’re using the ElBraille, which uses a Braille keyboard for input, you can use multiple languages and set up both Braille and voice profiles. This wasn’t easy to do with previous versions of JAWS but JAWS 2022 allows you to change Braille input on the keyboard to a different language and the Braille will follow.

You can watch the webinar with Vispero in full here: https://youtu.be/GKbjaXd3xpA and you’ll find more training videos and blogs on Freedom Scientific’s website at www.freedomscientific.com/training.