The Freedom Scientific Webinar Training Room

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.

Webinar Training Room Description and Layout

The webinar training room has several different parts:

Title bar, row one of screen
Menu bar, row two of screen
Address bar of browser, row three, ALT+A
Browser window, left side of screen, F6
Chat text history area, top right side of screen, F9
Toolbar, between chat history (above) and chat text entry area (below) which contains:

Graphic icon for emoticons
Font style and size for chat text entry, (JAWS) CTRL+SHIFT+F
Font color for chat text entry, (JAWS) CTRL+SHIFT+C

Chat text entry area, middle right of screen, F8
User list (tree view), below chat text entry area on right of screen, F7
Speaker volume, below user list, ALT+F File menu, Speaker Settings
Microphone volume, below speaker slider bar, ALT+F File Menu, Microphone Settings
Status bar, last row of screen

The two most commonly used areas of the online training room are the browser window (F6) and the chat text entry area (F8).

Navigation in the Different Parts of the Training Room

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:

Keystrokes for the Webinar Conference Software
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+F File menu, Microphone Settings
Pause recording	ALT+P
Mute sound in conference room	ALT+Q
Start/stop recording	ALT+R
Speaker volume	ALT+F File menu, Speaker Settings
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

Talking in a Webinar

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.

Locking the Talk Key

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.

Global vs. Application Only

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."

Disabling the Talk Key

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.

Customizing the Talk Key

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:

Press the ALT key to activate the menu.
Press N to open the Options menu.
Press DOWN ARROW until you reach the Configure Talk Key menu item. Press ENTER to open the Configure Talk Key dialog box.
When the Configure Talk Key dialog box opens, the focus is on the Single Key Mode radio button. This button is checked by default, so press TAB to move to the next control.
The focus is now in the combo box that lets you select the talk key. Use the arrow keys to navigate to either the left CTRL or right CTRL item.

NOTE: You also use this combo box to change the talk key to a key other than CTRL.

Press TAB to move to the Key Mode group of radio buttons. By default, the first time you enter the conference room, the Global radio button is checked. If you want to change this setting, use the arrow keys to check the Application Only radio button. Choosing the Application Only radio button means you will only be able to use the talk key while the focus is within the conference room.
Press TAB to move to the OK button. Press the SPACEBAR to activate the button and close the Configure Talk Key dialog box.

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.

Muting Conference Room Sound

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.

Adjusting Speaker Volume

To adjust the volume of your speakers, press ALT+F in the conference room to open the File menu, and then choose Speaker Settings.

Adjusting Microphone Volume

To adjust the microphone volume, press ALT+F to open the File menu, and then choose Microphone Settings.

Speech Options

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:

Use Accessible Text Chat - this makes a blinking PC cursor available in the chat text history area. This is OK for reading the text in the chat history, however the JAWS virtual cursor reads better in this window than the PC cursor.
Read Public Text Chat - this causes a SAPI synthesizer to read everything aloud that gets entered into the chat history window. My experience with it is that you cannot interrupt it.
Read private text chat
Say who enters room
Say who leaves room
Say when status changes
Read desktop sharing buttons

If you check all of these check boxes be aware that you may end up with hearing too much speech during the training sessions.

Archives and Recordings of Webinars

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 in IE8 and three sections in IE9. Pressing the keystroke F6 cycles through the following areas:

Address bar
Internet Explorer toolbar (in IE8 and earlier)
Main frame of two frames on the page, where the recorded Web pages or screens for lessons are shown visually
Right frame, where the Flash MP3 player controls, time elapsed, time remaining, and recorded text chat appear

Play or Pause Recording

When you listen to a Webinar archive, to play or pause:

Method A

Press INSERT+F7 to open the JAWS list of links.
In the list of links, press ENTER on the link “Press to play or pause or use the forward slash key on your keyboard.”

Method B

Press B to move to the play/pause button. It is not labeled, but JAWS tells you it is button zero.
If you want to label the button yourself, press INSERT+CTRL+TAB and give it the name “play/pause.” Do not put the word button as part of the name or you will hear “button” twice, since JAWS announces the word “button” for the control type.
Press ENTER on the button to play or pause the recording.

Rewind or Fast Forward the Recording

While the recording is stopped, you can also rewind or skip forward.

First, make sure you are in the correct frame. Press F6 to move to the second frame on the page. The first frame in the list is the page where the documentation is. The second frame in the list is where the flash player controls are.
Rewind, press the COMMA key (hold it down for fast rewind)
Move forward, press the PERIOD key (hold it down for fast forward)

Read Present and Remaining Time in the Recording

You can read the present time and the remaining time in the archive with the virtual cursor.

Press B until you move to the first button on the page. That is the play or pause button of the Flash player control.
Press DOWN ARROW. This is the line showing the present time in the recording in minutes and seconds.
Press DOWN ARROW two more times. This is the line showing the remaining time in minutes and seconds.

When you finish with the archive press ALT+F4 to close the browser window.

Last revised 2011-07-19