JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion 2023 - Final update released
08 Dec 
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The final planned update for JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion version 2023 has been released. The majority of the changes were to backport several 2024 enhancements related to JAWS and web navigation interactions.
Changes in JAWS
2023.2311.34
ARIA
and Web
- Addressed an issue where JAWS
was not announcing the start or end of tab panels.
- When pressing the AT key in a
Google Docs file to display the @mentions menu, resolved an issue where
JAWS was not indicating the menu had opened.
- When moving into a group of
tabs on a web page, resolved an issue where JAWS was too verbose when the
first tab gained focus.
- JAWS now supports the “strong,”
“emphasis,” “insertion,” and “deletion” ARIA roles.
- Resolved an issue where JAWS
would unexpectedly activate Forms Mode in some situations on elements that
were not form controls.
- If HTML entity codes (&)
were used in an aria-label for a role of "group" or
"radiogroup," addressed an issue where selecting options was not
working as expected.
- For edit fields on web pages
containing placeholder text, resolved an issue where this text was not
being announced when moving focus to the edit field.
- Resolved an issue where JAWS
was ignoring the aria-roledescription attribute on textarea elements.
- If an ARIA live region is
inside a table, removed extraneous messages that were spoken when the
region updated.
- If multiple elements include an
aria-describedby attribute, addressed an issue where the items were not
read in the expected order by JAWS.
- Resolved an issue where
headings containing expanded buttons were not being announced by JAWS when
navigating with H or SHIFT+H.
- JAWS now indicates if a check
box is read-only in both speech and Braille.
- When navigating a toolbar in a
web app and focus moves to a check box, resolved an issue where JAWS would
unexpectedly exit Forms Mode.
- Resolved issues using the ALT+INSERT+D command
to jump to elements that include the aria-details attribute.
- If you tab from an edit field
to a group of radio buttons with Forms Mode active, addressed an issue
where the label for the radio button group was not automatically
announced.
- JAWS now provides additional
info about menu items when using INSERT+TAB.
- Resolved an issue where JAWS
was not reading all of the info for slider controls when using INSERT+UP ARROW.
- Addressed issues in some web
apps where JAWS was not indicating submenus. This includes menu navigation
bars as well as items that use the aria-haspopup attribute.
- Resolved an issue where the
Virtual Cursor was not automatically activating when moving to a document
inside of an application region.
- In Chromium-based browsers,
addressed an issue where JAWS table navigation was not working as expected
if aria-colindex values in a row were not contiguous.
- Resolved an issue with tables
that use the aria-rowcount="-1" attribute where the table was
not scrolling to show additional content when navigating with JAWS.
- Resolved an issue in Chrome
where pressing PAGE
DOWN was not visually scrolling the page with JAWS
running.
- Addressed an issue with form
fields on certain websites not being read by JAWS.
- Resolved an issue in Google
Calendar where content in various edit fields was not being announced.
- When composing a new message in
Gmail, addressed issues with excessive speech in the To and CC fields.
- In Google Sheets, resolved an
issue where JAWS was speaking the Google Sheets document page title while
navigating the list of sheets in the current workbook.
Office
Apps
- Resolved issues with reading
protected documents in Word.
- When pressing ENTER on a
link in an Outlook message, addressed an issue where the wrong link was
sometimes activated.
- Resolved an issue with JAWS not
reading correctly in the Outlook Calendar when using ALT+PAGE UP or ALT+PAGE DOWN.
- Resolved an issue in Excel
where JAWS and Fusion mouse echo was not reading column and row headers or
sheet names.
- Resolved an issue where JAWS
was only speaking partial file names when navigating the recent files list
in Excel.
- Resolved issues with
LibreOffice Writer becoming unresponsive when used with JAWS.
JAWS
Application Fixes
- Removed some redundant and
unnecessary categories from Message Center.
- Addressed an issue where
pressing ENTER on
a link in the Results Viewer was not opening the specific page in the
default web browser as expected. Results Viewer is used for certain JAWS
features such as the Clipboard Viewer (INSERT+SPACEBAR, C), Speech History
(INSERT+SPACEBAR,
H), and Research It (INSERT+SPACEBAR, R).
- When choosing the Create Summary button
from the Skim Reading dialog (CTRL+INSERT+SHIFT+DOWN
ARROW), resolved an issue where the Skim Reading summary
was incomplete.
- After running Picture Smart on
an image file, resolved an issue where an erroneous message was being
displayed at the top of the results.
- Resolved an issue where custom
scripts could not be assigned to the APPLICATIONS key with unified
keyboard processing enabled.
- Resolved an issue where
keystrokes would no longer work as expected after canceling a Windows
logout, shutdown, or reboot with Unified Keyboard Processing enabled.
- Addressed an issue in the
Spanish version of JAWS where pressing ALT was not
activating ribbons with Unified Keyboard Processing enabled.
Other
Fixes
- In WhatsApp, resolved an issue
where replies to messages were being cut off during reading.
- In WhatsApp, resolved an issue
where JAWS was not correctly reading the time at the end of messages.
Also, removed extra characters that were appearing in speech and Braille
when using ALT+1 through 9 to review
the most recent messages.
- When pressing ALT+S in a
WhatsApp conversation for status information, resolved an issue where the
contact’s name was not announced.
- Addressed an issue where the
window title was not automatically announced in some instances when an
application gained focus.
- If you’ve created virtual
desktops using CTRL+WINDOWS+D,
JAWS now indicates when you move between desktops using CTRL+WINDOWS+LEFT or Right ARROW.
- Corrected the Keyboard Help
message for the WINDOWS+SPACEBAR keystroke
which changes the Windows input language and keyboard layout.
- When routing the JAWS Cursor to
the PC Cursor location in Notepad for Windows 11, resolved an issue where
the JAWS Cursor was positioned one character to the left.
- Addressed an issue where JAWS
was not reading as expected in the non-elevated Windows Terminal.
Changes
in ZoomText 2023.2311.20
ZoomText
Improvements
- Resolved an issue where
configuration files assigned to hotkeys CAPS LOCK+ number
row keys 1 through 0 were not
migrated after upgrading from one major ZoomText release to another.
- Resolved an issue where
ZoomText would speak despite being muted when starting the ZoomText Camera
feature with CTRL+CAPS
LOCK+C.
- Resolved an issue where
ZoomText would sometimes move the magnified view to the current pointer
position, instead of bringing the mouse pointer into the magnified view
when moved.
- Resolved an issue where
keyboard echo was not working when typing in Excel.
- Resolved an issue that caused
ZoomText to automatically start when a User Account Control (UAC) message
in Windows appeared. This was observed when ZoomText was not running, but
it was configured to automatically start in Program preferences.
- Resolved an issue where Message
Center would close after selecting Settings in the Message Center dialog
box.
AppReader
- Resolved an issue where
AppReader was not reading or highlighting text when used with Notepad.
This occurred on systems running Windows 11.
- Resolved an issue where the
magnified view was corrupted after changing zoom levels while running and
then closing Text View.
Firefox/Thunderbird
- Resolved an issue with Firefox
where it would crash when navigating in forms on some web pages.
- Resolved an issue with
Thunderbird where navigating with arrow keys caused the application to
crash. This was observed with both ZoomText and Fusion.
DOWNLOAD LINKS
JAWS
https://jaws2023.vfo.digital/2023.2311.34.400/2FB9B5F6-B5F1-46AF-A5D1-458EC7FAA6EF/J2023.2311.34.400-Offline-arm64.exe
Fusion
https://fusion2023.vfo.digital/2023.2311.4.400/65D7B7EE-64D5-4660-BA72-FBB17A217B64/F2023.2311.4.400-Offline-x64.exe
ZoomText
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