This page includes information for:
Please also consult the page regarding writing in Hebrew and Greek using your keyboard.
JAWS Screen Reader and Biblical Languages
Please note: If you are using an older version of JAWS and have experienced difficulty with display of Hebrew, an upgrade would be beneficial at this time. JAWS 2019 provides support for Hebrew read aloud. the downloadable table on this page provides braille support for all characters needed to view pointed Hebrew and polytonic Greek as taught in biblical studies programs. No screen reader is configured out of the box for support of pointed Hebrew with accents or polytonic Greek as transcribed in American textbooks.
In the JAWS screen reader, the display of characters in braille is controlled through the use of braille tables, files that instruct the program regarding the relationship of computer characters and braille dots.
Download the table: right-click to download. After downloading it, right-click the downloaded file in your computer and unzip it. Make sure you know where it is unzipped.
Note: In order to access this file, you need to be able to see and work with system-level program files. These files are hidden by default. Additionally, you need to be able to identify the correct file by its extension (the .jbt part). The following steps will make this possible.
- Open the control panel and go to folder options. (If you are in Windows 7 and your control panel is arranged by category, click on appearance and then on folder options.
- Go to the view tab.
- In the tree view,
- Check “show hidden files and folders.” In Windows 7 this automatically turns off “don’t show hidden files and folders.” In XP, you must uncheck this box.
- Uncheck “hide extensions for known filetypes.”
- Uncheck “hide protected operating system files.”
Note: Screen readers may announce that a checked item is “on” and an unchecked item is “off.”
Note: After implementing these changes, it will be possible to delete important files that Windows needs in order to function correctly. If you do not trust yourself in this area, reverse these changes after setting up the JAWS table. If you leave the changes in place, be very careful what you delete.
Instructions for Installing the Table
- Go to the start menu and explore JAWS to locate and open the program folder.
- Copy the downloaded bib_studies.jbt into the JAWS program folder.
- In the JAWS window, open file and go to braille options.
- Go to the advanced button and press enter.
- Open general, translation.
- Check biblical studies and make primary.Uncheck US English – Unified. (This is included as part of biblical studies.)
- Set braille translation mode to computer braille.
- Press ok.
- Restart JAWS.
Troubleshooting Problems with Display of Hebrew and Greek
In general it is better to use the Windows 7 polytonic Greek keyboard for input rather than the Logos Greek keyboard on Windows 64 bit systems.
If you have installed a working version of JAWS and Hebrew characters are still not displaying correctly in MicroSoft Word, do the following:
- Press F2, go to Settings Center, open Text Processing/General.
- Make sure that the following are all checked:
- detect languaged
- generalize dialect
- enhanced edit support
- Finally, be sure that caps lock is off when typing in Hebrew.
The display of characters in Hebrew and Greek may also be negatively affected by the use of fonts that don’t support Unicode characters. A number of Unicode fonts are available. To display Greek characters, a font which supports precomposed diacritics may be needed. I have used Cardo, Gentium, and Ariel Unicode, all of which support both Greek with precomposed diacritics and Hebrew. If you are technically inclined, do some research and try some fonts. BibleWorks fonts, e.g. BWHebb do not support Unicode, and the BW keyboards will generate gibberish with JAWS.
A final note regarding the display of Hebrew characters in braille using JAWS: when Hebrew is inverted for display in braille, some of the characters are displayed with slight variances from what we would expect in hardcopy (e.g. dagheshes to the right instead of to the left of their consonants, shin and sin displayed as two sets of dot patterns, etc. These variances are caused by Unicode problems–the characters in question are created by the compiling of two characters into one; and in the inversion the characters are broken into their separate components.
NVDA Screen Reader
The NVDA screen reader currently supports modern Hebrew and Greek only, in other words no vowels or diacritics. NVDA cannot be individually customized like JAWS. It is possible to purchase a synthetic voice that will read Hebrew aloud with NVDA.
Iphone and IPAD
For IPhone and IPAD users, Voiceover in IOS 8 and later supports Hebrew. To enable this, go to settings/general/accessibility/voiceover/speech, and double tap Add New Language. On this screen, double tap Hebrew. The voice Carmit will be added. If you wish to switch to the premium version of this voice, double tap More Info, Hebrew, Israel. On this screen, choose Enhanced Quality.
Mac and Biblical Languages
For Mac users, OS X Yosemite and later provide Voiceover support for Hebrew. Braille display of Hebrew provides some support for vowel pointing but does not support the sheva or daghesh. If you study Biblical Hebrew, you will need to understand these characters. There are several options available for handling this situation.
Whether you are sighted or blind, there are aspects of writing Hebrew on the Mac that you will want to take into account. Please see writing in Hebrew on the Mac for more information.
If you are a Mac user who is blind and you wish to learn Biblical languages, you are welcome to contact me to discuss strategies.