The Freedom Scientific Training Department uses an accessible online conference room for web-based training. This page will help you understand how the online training room is laid out, keyboard accessible commands, and more.
The webinar training room has several different parts:
The two most commonly used areas of the online training room are the browser window (F6) and the chat text entry area (F8).
There are keyboard commands that allow you to move quickly to several of these areas within the conference room. There are other keyboard commands available to JAWS users when scripts are loaded. JAWS keys are referenced with (JAWS) in the description. The following table lists each command and gives a brief description of the command:
| Description | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| Browser window | F6 |
| User list (tree view) | F7 |
| Chat text entry area | F8 |
| Chat text history area | F9 |
| Announce Action Keys Status (JAWS) | INSERT+WINDOWS Key+S |
| Address bar of browser | ALT+A |
| Disable talk key | ALT+D |
| Say who is speaking | ALT+E |
| Talk key, global/local | ALT+G |
| Talk key lock | ALT+L |
| Microphone volume | ALT+I |
| Pause recording | ALT+P |
| Mute sound in conference room | ALT+Q |
| Start/stop recording | ALT+R |
| Speaker volume | ALT+S |
| Go back one Web page | ALT+LEFT ARROW |
| Go forward one Web page | ALT+RIGHT ARROW |
| Font style and size for chat text entry (JAWS) | CTRL+SHIFT+F |
| Font color for chat text entry (JAWS) | CTRL+SHIFT+C |
| Hot key help (JAWS) | INSERT+H |
| Windows keys help (JAWS) | INSERT+W |
| Screen sensitive help (JAWS) | INSERT+F1 |
Press and hold either CTRL key to talk. When you press the CTRL key to begin talking, an audible beep sounds. This sound indicates you can now begin talking. A yellow talk bubble also appears next to your name in the Users List tree view. After you are finished talking, simply release the CTRL key.
Most of the time during a presentation the moderator will have the microphone locked. To ask questions during the presentation, use the chat window to type your question. When the moderator finishes the presentation, the questions in the chat window will be answered in the order they were received.
Press ALT+L to lock the talk key and begin talking. When you are finished talking, press ALT+L a second time to unlock the talk key. Whether pressing the CTRL key or locking the talk key, either command can also be used globally.
When you enter the conference room for the very first time, the talk key is set to "global" meaning that you can press it from anywhere on your system to talk. For example, if you are checking your e-mail or taking notes during the Webinar, you can press the CTRL key to talk from either application.
To temporarily toggle the setting of the talk key from "global" to "application only," press ALT+G. When you toggle this setting from "global" to "application only," then the talk key can only be used while you are in the conference room. When you toggle this setting to "global," then you can use the talk key to talk from any application on your system. The default setting is "global."
You may encounter instances where you want to temporarily disable the talk key during a Webinar. To temporarily disable the talk key, press ALT+D. This keystroke is a toggle. To re-enable the talk key, press ALT+D a second time.
This is also a very handy keystroke for JAWS users. It allows you to use the CTRL keys for JAWS without having to make changes in the Configure Talk Key dialog box.
Since the CTRL keys are used to silence speech with JAWS, this causes a "bleep" sound each time you tell JAWS to be quiet. Because of this, you may want to customize the talk key to suit your needs. If you would like to be able to press the left CTRL key to talk while you use the right CTRL key to perform other Windows commands, you can change this setting using the Configure Talk Key dialog box. Likewise, you can also use this dialog box to change the global key setting for both the talk key and the lock talk key command. Any changes you make using the Configure Talk Key dialog box remain in effect when you exit the conference room, close the Web Conference client, and return at a later time.
To set the left CTRL key as the talk key, leaving the right CTRL key to be the silence JAWS key and perform other Windows commands, do the following:
NOTE: You also use this combo box to change the talk key to a key other than CTRL.
NOTE: A second dialog box is displayed when you make changes to the talk key. This dialog box advises you that you need to close the Web client and re-enter the conference room for the changes to take effect.
To mute the sound in the conference room, press ALT+Q. This only mutes the sound in the conference room but allows other sounds to function normally.
To adjust the volume of your speakers, press ALT+S to move to the speaker volume slider. Use the ARROW Keys to adjust the volume. Press PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN to adjust the volume setting by larger amounts.
To adjust the microphone volume, press ALT+I to move to the microphone volume slider. Use the ARROW Keys to adjust the volume. Press PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN to adjust the volume setting by larger amounts.
In the Options menu there is also a choice for Speech Options. This opens a dialog box with check boxes where you can choose to have the conference room announce speech messages to you in certain situations. The available check boxes include the following:
If you check all of these check boxes be aware that you may end up with hearing too much speech during the training sessions.
Archived recordings provide Webinar participants with a method to review lessons held previously. They also allow students the ability to participate in the learning process at a time of their own choosing. This is great for people who cannot attend one or more lessons due to conflicts in their schedule, time-zone differences, and more. This section gives several tips on navigation in the browser window in which the recordings are presented.
The recording is presented in an Internet Explorer window comprised of four sections. Pressing the keystroke F6 cycles through the following areas:
When you listen to a Webinar archive, to play or pause:
While the recording is stopped, you can also rewind or skip forward.
You can read the present time and the remaining time in the archive with the virtual cursor.
When you finish with the archive press ALT+F4 to close the browser window.
Last revised 2009-09-30