Lync (Skype for Business) and JAWS

Category: Geeks r Us

Post 1 by hopeburnsblue (http://hopeburnsblue.deviantart.com) on Monday, 01-Feb-2016 22:14:57

Hi,

I just started at State Farm--hurrah!--and am getting all my ducks in a row access-wise. I'm super excited! I was doing a Web search on Lync and JAWS, because it seems compatible to a point, but I'd like to simplify the way it interfaces, if at all possible. Well, one of the few documents that popped up was a topic from our very own boards (linked here). I wanted to reply to that thread, but it's been locked, so I wanted to repost and see if anyone's made any breakthrough discoveries with this program. I know that in regular Skype, I've been able to turn on Accessibility Mode and make the menus appear more compact, but in Lync there doesn't appear to be such an option. Anyone have any pointers?

Thanks so much,
Mel

Post 2 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 02-Feb-2016 11:32:21

Do you have the scripts installed for Skype?

Post 3 by Strange Fascination (Newborn Zoner) on Friday, 12-Feb-2016 20:29:22

If you can, I'd recommend using NVDA when using Lync 2013/Skype for Business 2015. There's this really annoying bug in Lync that makes screen readers think a menu has popped up, every time a new message comes in, whether Lync has focus or not. The result is, no matter what you happen to be doing at the time, your screen reader will lose focus. The JAWS scripts only fix this issue when Lync is in focus, but for some reason, the latest version of NVDA doesn't have this issue. Where I work, my team likes to have group conversations, and sometimes they can be quite active. Imagine how frustrating it can be to try to read a document in another application, while constantly losing focus whenever a new message comes in. Just my thoughts.

Post 4 by forereel (Just posting.) on Friday, 12-Feb-2016 20:42:30

You can just simply turn that notification off under settings.
Say you don't want them to show in your system tray.

Post 5 by hopeburnsblue (http://hopeburnsblue.deviantart.com) on Saturday, 01-Oct-2016 22:45:13

Sorry I'm so tardy here! We do have scripts installed, yes, and that focus problem you guys mentioned is incredibly annoying! I have to keep some form of notification, though, because another associate may message me about a claim I'm in or whatever, need to transfer someone to me or vice-versa, need me to unlock it, need to share an update, etc. I sure do wish Microsoft would fix that bug, though. It really jacks with my efficiency.