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Using Outlook Calendar with JAWS for Windows

Note: There is a back button > located at the bottom of this tutorial to return to the Accessibility Zone.
Note: This tutorial is for MS Outlook, not Outlook Express.

Introduction to the Accessible Calendar for the Blind

The Outlook Calendar is a time-management tool, displaying your appointments, events, and meetings.  The following tutorial outlines how to navigate the Outlook Calendar and how to use the main functions of the calendar using JAWS for Windows screen reader.  This tutorial supports MS Outlook 2003 and higher, with JFW 6.0 and higher.  

General Overview.

Access the Outlook Calendar from the Outlook folder list.   
Note: the keystroke to access the Outlook folder list  is Control Y. 

Once the Outlook folder list is open, press the letter C to move focus to the calendar folder.  Then press Tab to move to the OK button and press Enter.   The Calendar will open on today's date.  

Left arrow to move to the previous day.

Hold the left arrow key down briefly to move back through the days in the calendar.  

To go directly to a specific date press Control G.  This brings up an edit box where you will type the desired date, then press Enter.   
Note: You can use the date format of your choice. For example if searching for Canada Day, you can type July 1, jul 1, or 07 01.  The "go to date" function is useful to find out the day of a given date, or to plan appointments.  Include the year if you want to move outside of the current year.    
You can also type the word "today", in the Control G edit field, to return focus to today's date. As you move left and right through the calendar JAWS will announce the day, the date and the month.  If there is no appointmnet on each day, JAWS will say, "no appointment".  If there is an appointment JAWS will announce the number of appointments listed for that day. 
Note: If JAWS is not announcing all of these: (day, date, month, and appointment), you should check your settings.  For information about ideal settings, see the section below on trouble shooting and settings.  To access the details of an appointment press Tab.  If there is more than one appointment on a given day, press Tab until you arrive at the desired appointment title.  Once you have moved the focus to an appointment, pressing Enter will open the appointment information associated with that appointment.    

Note: You can also press the Applications key to open the informaition details of an appointment, instead of Enter. After you have pressed the Applications key, Arrow Down to "open", and then press Enter.
This may be necessary with earlier versions of Outlook.

To move from the calendar to another Outlook folder such as the in box, access the Outlook folder list by pressing Control Y.

Using Outlook Calendar to set appointments

The keystroke to begin setting an appointment is Control Shift A. You can use this keystroke to set appointments from any Outlook folder including the Inbox and the Calendar.
There is also the menu command to begin setting a new appointment found within the file menu under "new".

Once we begin to set an appointment several information tabs will appear.  Filling in these tabs will define the appointment.  
For example, the first tab is the "subject" field.  This is an edit box where we will type an appropriate subject title for the appointment.  
Pressing Tab will move through the informaition tabs.  The next tab is the location tab.  We can type a location such as doctor's office or room number etc.  
Press Tab again to move to the next information tab.  This tab is called label.  We will arrow up and down to select the most appropriate lable for the appointment.  Some labels include: important, personal, etc.  It is not critical to choose an option in this information tab.  
Move to the next information tab by pressing Tab.  This is where we fill in the "start date" of the appointment.  By default there will be a date filled in already.  The default date is the date which presently has focus on the calendar.   
Press Tab once more to move to the "start time".  Arrow up and down to set the start time of the appointment.     
Press Tab again to move to the "end date".  Unless your appointment lasts longer than one day, such as a vacation, for example, we will leave this date as is.  It will, by default, be the same as the "start date". 
The next Tab is the "end time".  Set the end time by arrowing down or arrowing up to the desired end time of the appointment.  
The next tab is a check box to indicate whether the appointment is "all day".  If it is an all day event such as a birthday, press the Spacebar to check this box.   
The next 2 tabs are for remeinder information.  Press Tab to move to these Reminder tabs.   

Note: pressing Shift Tab will move back through the information tabs in case you need to review the information you have entered.  

Creating recurring appointments such as birthdays or monthly events

Want to mark your calendar with birthdays, anniversaries,  weekly or monthly events? 

Simply create an appointment as described above, then follow these steps:  
Access the “action” menu located along the menu bar and then
Arrow down to “New recurring appointment” and press Enter.  A series of information tabs will appear.  Press Tab to move through the information tabs and fill in the details of the recurring event. One of the information tabs will be for the occurance pattern (dayily, weekly, monthly, yearly).
for annual events such as birthdays, arrow down to yearly.  It is important to set an end date of the recurring appointment, otherwise, for some reason the recurring event will not be set.   One of the tabs is labelled “range of recurrence”.  Arrow down to the selection titled, ”end by”, as opposed to “no end”.  One of the tabs is labelled “end after occurances”.  Give this a value such as 10 by typing 10 in this edit field, for example. This will set the occurance to appear ten times. That is to say, for the next 10 calendar years.  Finally, Tab to the okay button and press Enter The recurring event will now be set for the duration you have assigned.   

Using Outlook Calendar to create meeting invitations  

The keystroke to begin setting a meeting request is Ctrl Shift Q.  There is also the menu command to begin setting a new meeting found within the file menu under "new".
Creating a meeting invitation is much the same as creating an appointment (see above).  The main difference is that we are inviting others to the appointment.  Thus, the first information tab is titled "to", much like sending an email.  In fact this edit field works exactly the same way and uses the same contact list as when we send email.  
To begin creating an Outlook meeting request from within the Outlook Calendar press Control Shift Q.   A series of information tabs will appear. 
The first information tab is an edit field where we will type the recipiants names or email addresses separated by semi colons in the same manner as sending email.   Move to the subsequent information tabs by pressing Tab.  These are much the same as with setting an appointment (see above).    To send the meeting request, press Alt S.  This will also set the meeting to your Outlook Calendar.   If the meeting request recipiant uses MS Outlook, they will know that they have received a meeting request because the words "meeting request will be included in the subject field.
To accept a meeting request, simply press Alt C. 
There is also a menu item to accept meeting invitations found within the "actions" menu along the menu bar.  Arrow down to "accept" and press Enter.