JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a screen reader software developed for people whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for most popular computer applications on Windows PCs.
Thanks to a generous donation, JAWS is available free to all university faculty, staff, and students with a valid @uwec.edu email address. JAWS can be installed on both university and personal machines. Note that JAWS is only available on Windows PCs.
Installing on University Computers
Please follow the instructions for installing software on office computers.
Installing on Personally Owned Windows Computer
- Go to the Freedom Scientific web portal and enter your uwec.edu email address. You will need to create an account with Freedom Scientific. Follow the instructions provided to create and verify your account.
- Once logged into the Freedom Scientific user portal, choose Add JAWS to activate your JAWS license.
- Click Activate this computer. You may activate JAWS on up to three machines.
- Click OK on the download notification popup. This will begin a download of the JAWS installer.
- Run the JAWS installer and follow on-screen instructions.
Additional Resources
Use the following resources to guide you through using JAWS.
- JAWS Screen Reader documentation – the official documentation portal, which includes a quick-start guide, detailed keystroke and command guides, help documentation, and more.
- Getting Started with JAWS – basic training lessons on using JAWS.
- JAWS Training for Teachers and AT Instructors – online self-paced training course.