[Athen] Blackboard Collaborate and JAWS?

[Teresa Haven]

Hi, Todd.  I had to research this a few months ago, and it's not as straightforward as we might hope.  A JAWS user can get fairly decent access to Collaborate, BUT the user has to make sure of a few things or the two programs won't play together at all:

1)      Find out what bit version of Windows is in use - 32 or 64.

2)      Make sure that JAWS is the same bit version as Windows.

3)      Make sure that Java is the same bit version as Windows, is up to date, and Java Access Bridge is installed.
If all 3 products are running the same bit version, there's a decent chance that the user will be able to at least participate in the Collaborate session, even if he or she doesn't have complete control of the Collaborate environment.  If any of the products are a mismatch, JAWS will stop talking when you enter the Collaborate session, so I advise some advance testing.  I was finally able to get it to work, but it took me several checks of my product versions and a few reboots before they all started playing together.

Hope this helps,
Teresa

Teresa Haven, Ph.D.
Accessibility Analyst, Northern Arizona University
Co-Chair, AHEAD Standing Committee on Technology



From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Weissenberger, Todd M
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 2:06 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Blackboard Collaborate and JAWS?

Does anyone have good insight on how well Blackboard Collaborate works with JAWS?  We have a program that uses Collaborate, and a JAWS user who will be participating.

Thanks,
Todd

T.M. Weissenberger
Web Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology Services
University of Iowa

319-384-3323

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