It seems incredible but the JAWS scripts for Zoom have been available now for seven years; they were first released in 2019, before the Pandemic when the conferencing and meetings app became very widely used. What’s more incredible is that the intention of build 1of the scripts was to stop JAWS announcing key information when conferences were in progress, rather than giving it.
Times have certainly changed since then. Not only does Zoom have a huge user base, but more features have been included, many of which you may never use. From an accessibility standpoint, while many elements are as accessible as they always were, the interface is cluttered and not particularly easy to work with, especially within busy meetings.
The Zoom scripts have tried to keep pace with these changes with some success. But whenever there is an update to JAWS, Zoom or the scripts themselves, there is always some kind of problem raised by a user. This is expected. The time has come to try to get Zoom back into our control. We can’t change the interface but we can change the ways in which JAWS is handling it and provide more shortcut keys to get to where we need to be.
A new major release of the scripts will be available in early October. Development of these scripts began in July of this year. This will include many changes to try to give some greater accessibility overall and to diagnose what may be happening under specific conditions. Below, you will find a detailed description of what has changed. However, it is important to state that this will be a chargeable product upgrade. Before we get to any of that, let’s give some context which you may not have appreciated.
When you install any Hartgen Consultancy product, no matter what it is, the License Agreement states that you are entitled to receive support for one year. That’s all. That has always been the case since the company was formed. Now in point of fact, anyone who purchased the scripts back in 2019 or other years is still receiving support and updates. That is generous by anyone’s standards. We have been happy to do this because for several years the scripts did not require too much maintenance. That is certainly not the case today.
Points to note.
1. Anyone who has purchased the scripts during 2025 will automatically be transferred to the new release. However, prior to that date, an activation key will cost £30 which is $42 US approximately. So the price has not changed since 2019.
2. Does that mean your existing scripts will stop working? Of course not. Even if you re-install the older scripts later, the activations will still function, at least for a year. You just will not receive support or updates.
3. Build 90 will be the final version running under the older system.
What Has Changed in Zoom Scripts 2.0?
1. The primary purpose of the change is to ensure JAWS can handle some Zoom controls in a way which gives you updated information. What does that actually mean? Let’s break it down with an example:
A. You are in the Participants List of a meeting.
B. You are moving through the list to determine who has a hand raised. You know this due to an abbreviation spoken or audio cue.
C. Someone else raises a hand.
D. You cannot find the newly raised hand in the list unless you press Tab then Shift+Tab. This is because the information from the screen needs to be captured by JAWS again.
This has been corrected. Particularly when using JAWS 2025, currently there is often some difficulty when you press Insert+Up Arrow to read the current line, because JAWS is unsure as to its location. The new code is far better at reporting focus irrespective of where you are located within Zoom. But to get back to our original example, you should find that if you stay within the list, moving through participants should be far more accurate in terms of reporting what is true.
2. We know that the scripts provide many benefits when in the Participants List so as to keep meetings flowing quickly and smoothly. But they have never been too good when within a Webinar rather than a meeting. We have invested in the Webinars platform so as to address these and other issues moving forward. So you should find that you can enjoy the same level of functionality within the webinar platform Attendees list.
3. When moving through the content of edit fields with Left and Right Arrow keys, JAWS will now not in most cases report focus multiple times such as repeatedly stating the focused character.
4. A keystroke is provided to start a new meeting automatically, saving multiple presses of the Tab key.
5. Efforts have been made to reduce the level of spoken output JAWS speaks automatically (or sent to Braille) as you move through various Zoom components, including when Zoom is launched. Examples might be, “loading, loading, 10 results, all files”. It is considerably improved. The revised documentation will also provide additional ways in which you can tame JAWS so as not to be so chatty.
6. Some people have been reporting that JAWS is not speaking all alerts as they arrive, such as messages received. This could be due to a number of factors. There are a number of settings within the scripts so as to only output certain types of messages, and it could be that you have incorrectly applied them or you are not sure what you have applied.
It could be that Zoom is not sending the alert through to JAWS, or a difficulty with the way the scripts are working. The truth is that we really do not know. So the scripts contain a log facility which you can start and stop as appropriate.
When started, information is sent to a text file which tells us what the original alert was and whether JAWS spoke it. It will also telll us precisely what JAWS said.
The log also gives information concerning all of the scripts-specific settings you have applied.
This logging is completely under your control. It is also not shared with Hartgen Consultancy unless you choose to do that. Logs can be viewed and removed.
Full instructions for using this will be in the documentation.
7. The activation procedure for the new scripts works in exactly the same way as our Leasey product introduced this year. In the event that an activation fails, an activation key can be sent to you by Email.
8. All scripts have been moved to our new server as used by our Leasey product, meaning that updates are faster to apply with reliable activations.
9. An item on the Hotkey Help screen allows you to see when your subscription for the scripts is due. For example, pressing Enter on the appropriate link may say, “Subscription due on September 3 2026”.
10. The documentation for the scripts has been considerably expanded.
In conclusion, we very much hope that the overhaul of these scripts will allow better handling of what has become a fairly challenging application to manage. It also should allow better diagnosing of problems moving forward.
The scripts can be purchased from our original Zoom Scripts product page or below.
Please enter your JAWS or Fusion serial number here.