JAWS Scripts For Skype 4.x User's Guide
Doug Lee
Last revised May, 2009

This document explains how to use Skype 4.x with the JAWS Scripts For Skype. This document applies specifically to the Skype 4.1 beta release of May 27, 2009, which contains more accessibility features than available in previous Skype 4 beta versions. The document is laid out such that major sections are level 2 headers and subsections are level 3 headers. JAWS users can thus navigate quickly among sections with the h command and by typing header level numbers.

Table of Contents

Configuring Skype 4.0 For Use With JAWS

The following steps should be taken before Skype 4 can work effectively with JAWS and these scripts:

  1. Change to Classic Windows format: JAWS will not see the menu bar if you use the default "Skype" window format instead of the old "Classic Windows" format. To change this:
  2. Enable accessibility features: Some Skype 4 versions provide one or two options to improve accessibility. To turn these on:
  3. Enable Compact view: Seasoned Skype 3 users may want to turn on the Compact view, which puts chats, now called "conversations", into separate windows so they can be reached via Alt+Tab. To enable this view:

JAWS Script Features

The JAWS scripts provide the following features over what Skype itself provides:

How To Do Various Things In Skype 4 With the Scripts Running

Here are some quick tips on how to do specific things in Skype 4 when the scripts are running: These instructions are based on Skype 4.1 beta as released on May 27, 2009. JAWS users can jump from item to item using the letter i.

Open a new conversation (like a chat in Skype 3)
Press the Applications key on a contact entry in the Contact list, then choose Send IM. If you have configured Skype to open a conversation on Enter, rather than starting a call, Enter should work just as well here. Ctrl+1 will focus the contact list.
Return to a conversation that's already open
Press Ctrl+2 for the Conversation list, find the conversation you want, press the Applications key, and choose Send IM. Again, Enter can be configured to do this as well. If you are using Default view, where conversations appear in the main Skype window, you can press Space on a conversation list entry to display the conversation without leaving the conversation list. This makes Alt+numbers and Alt+arrows work without changing focus.
Check the time at a contact's location
Open or find the conversation as above, then use Ctrl+6 to read the profile area. The time is included there. Note that the time is not shown in the Contact list, even visually, as it was in Skype 3.x.
Call someone in your contact list
From the Contact or Conversation list, arrow to the contact of interest, pop up the Context menu by pressing the Applications key, and select Call. Enter can be configured to start a call or start a text conversation, so depending on your personal preference, Enter may work here as well.. Note that starting a call will put the conversation in the Live Conversations list rather than the Conversation list. By the way, when a call is active, that person's entry in your contact list will be gone; it literally moves from Contacts to the Live Conversations list. It will move back when the call ends.
Call the person you're typing with in a conversation
Tab to the Call button and press Space.
Call a phone number that is not in your contact list
Choose "Call Phones" from the View menu. When the Call Phones page opens, type the number and press Enter.
Hang up a call
Use Ctrl+3 to move focus to the Live Conversations list, select the call, and use the Context menu to select End Call. The person's entry will migrate back to the Contacts list after a few seconds. If you have configured hot keys, a hot key such as Alt+PgDn can also be used to end a call.
Play a voicemail
Find the voicemail's entry in the conversation message list for that person, route JAWS to PC, move down a line or two to find the "Play" button, and click it. Note that JAWS will not say "button" but will just say "play." The Play button immediately follows the voicemail's duration on the same line.
Stop a playing voicemail
Same as above, but the button will be called "Stop" when the voicemail is already playing.
Accept an incoming file transfer
Use Ctrl+5 to get to the message list in the conversation of interest. Scroll to the line in that list that names the file being sent. RouteJAWSToPC and go down a line or so to find the "Save as" button. It will not say "button," but left-click it with the JAWS LeftMouseButton command. This procedure should improve when better accessibility is provided for file transfers.
Change your mood text
In the main Skype window, tab until you hear the words "mood message" and either your current mood text or a message like, "Add video or write a message here for your friends to see." Press Space there to open an edit box, even though JAWS may not have said "button" or "link." Type your message and press Enter to leave the edit box.
Use the Skype directory
Choose "Directory" from the View menu in the main Skype window to open the Directory page. This area of Skype remains in need of accessibility improvements however.
Use the "Shop" feature of Skype
Choose "Shop" from the View menu in the main Skype window to open the "Shop" page. You may then need to press Tab once to get JAWS to recognize the page as an HTML environment.

New Since 3.x

This is a summary of things that will be new to seasoned Skype 3.x users. This is far from a complete list.

Obsolete Script Commands

The following features of the JAWS scripts for Skype 3 will not work in Skype 4 and may never be revived, at least in the same form, due either to being obsolete or to there being insufficient means to implement them again. Typing most of these commands will now pass the keystrokes to Skype, as these keystrokes are no longer assigned to JAWS scripts.

Known Issues With Skype 4 and Skype 4 Scripts

This is the master list of known issues to date. At present I am formatting this as a bullet list for easier reading with JAWS, though visually it would look better as a table. When an item says, "Referred to Skype for fixing," that means there is an official bug report for that issue on file at Skype that is already scheduled to be addressed.