Management System

The VRS System page is divided into multiple containers called regions. These do not appear visually on the page, but are used to enclose various parts of the page. Sometimes, on large forms, each form section is its own region. In JAWS, you move through regions with “R” and Shift+R”. You can get a list of regions with “JAWS Key+CTRL+R”. Some regions that are important are:

• LeftNavigation Menu Navigation Region, contains the navigation menu.
• Main Region, contains the main contents of the page after you choose something in the menu from the Left Navigation Menu region, it is the main working area. It usually starts with a heading for wherever you are working and the region label is the same as the heading, for example, Home, or Client
• Bread crumb Navigation Region, this is a trail through an activity. For example, if looking at a search, once results are displayed, you can use the Search link inside the breadcrumb region to go back a step in the process and refine your results
• System Bar, This is the top region and has the sign out link, Help, and Global Search field.

Hints for the Left navigation menu

• First letter navigation will not move through menu choices.
• You will need to be in Forms Mode for the menu to work. The best way to achieve this is to use R and Shift R in JAWS to get to the Left Navigation Region, then tab into the menu. Now use the four arrows to work with the menu.
• Use right arrow to open anything that says “Submenu”
• One unique case is the search options. We are attempting to get this fixed, but as of this writing in February 2024, The Quick, Standard, and Advanced Search options you will see are not marked as sub-menus. However, these should not be activated, instead, right arrow on the type of search you want to reveal categories. It is a submenu within a submenu.
• Note that if you are arrowing through something that you’ve opened, if you arrow back onto that menu choice, for example “Tracking Inbox”, the submenu will close.

Hints for Dropdowns

• Always use Alt+Shift+Down Arrow on a dropdown. Failing to do so will cause your focus to jump somewhere on the page; we are actively trying to fix this with Tyler.
  • If you lose focus, the quickest way to get back is to move by combo box with C or Shift+C or to navigate by region.
• Most screen reader users have been taught to hit the first letter of what you are looking for in a dropdown repeatedly to get to what you want to choose. In VRS System dropdowns, doing this has the effect of clearing all the results. It is better, if you know what you want, to type the first few letters of it, for example, in a county dropdown, typing “wape” or “wap” then arrowing down will get you Wapello County. Just typing “W” once will get you any county that has “W” anywhere in its name, a subsequent “W” would clear the entire box.
  • If muscle memory gets the better of you and you type multiples of a letter, clearing the dropdown, just hit Backspace a few times. The results will reappear and you can either arrow through them or type part of the name you want.

Hints for selecting multiple values

• Areas like language, race, or services let you select multiple values. VRS System handles this through groups of checkboxes that expand and collapse.

• When working on a form, if you see a “Search”, link, then activate it. Tab out of the Search Edit Box that gains focus and check boxes accordingly.

• Check all of the desired options.

• Using Links List or Shift+Tab, navigate back to the “Done” button, which is near the top of this list of items. This saves your choices.

• As you tab back down the form, you will see the items you checked written in plain text.

  Helpful JAWS keystrokes,

Note you can combine these with Shift to move in reverse. Also, adding CTRL+JAWS Key will give you a list of the corresponding item

• CTRL+F6, if you are lost in toolbars or generally don’t think you are on the meat of the web page, pressing this will route you back into the page contents.
• A, Radio Button
• B, Button
• C, combo box or dropdown
• E, Edit Field
• F, Form Field regardless of Type
• R, Region
• T, Table
• U, Unvisited Link
• V, Visited Link
• X, Checkbox