Speak Numbers Separated by Dashes as Single Digits and Single Digit Threshold example

Introduction

There are two settings in JAWS that specify the circumstances in which JAWS should speak single digits instead of speaking the number itself. In JAWS Settings Center these settings are children of the Text Processing -> Number And Date Processing -> Speak Single Digits item in the settings tree. These settings are as follows.

• If Number Contains

  • Select a threshold value so that number strings are read as individual digits. This is useful when reading long number strings such as telephone numbers, serial numbers, and part numbers. This rule applies under the following conditions: the number string is not preceded by or followed by an alpha character, and it does not contain a dash, colon, decimal, or slash to separate the digits similar to telephone, time, or date formatting. To override the dash exception of this rule, select the If Number Contains Dashes check box. Other combo box values are Six or More Digits, Seven or More Digits, Eight or More Digits, and Controlled by Synthesizer, which allows the current synthesizer to determine how numbers are read. Use this item in conjunction with the Number Processing combo box. When reading a number string, JAWS first considers the value for the Number Processing combo box, and then the If Number Contains combo box.

  • Saved as SingleDigitThreshold in the options section of the JCF file.

  • This setting is an integer.

  • The default value of this setting is 5.

• If Number contains Dashes

  • When selected, numbers that contain dashes without spaces are read as individual digits. Telephone number formatting, where a dash is preceded by and followed by a digit, is an example of this type of number string. This check box is used in conjunction with the Number Processing combo box. This means that JAWS processes numbers based on the current selection in the Number Processing combo box. This check box is selected by default.

  • Saved as SpeakNumbersSepByDashesAsDigits in the options section of the JCF file.

  • This setting is an integer.

  • Valid values for this setting are 0 or 1.

  • The default value of this setting is 1.

When the Controlled by JAWS Number Processing feature was first introduced, these settings were ignored. This issue has been resolved.

The Examples section of this document can be used to confirm that everything is working as expected.

Examples

Numbers spoken as the numbers themselves

The following numbers should be spoken as the numbers themselves, assuming the settings are both set to the default values.

• 1

• 11

• 111

• 1,111

• 11,111

Numbers spoken as single digits

The following numbers should be spoken as single digits.

• 111,111

• 1,234,567.89

• 1,234,567,890.098

In the following examples, the numbers separated by dashes should be spoken as single digits. Note that in the second example phone number, the number that is between the open parenthesis and the close parenthesis should be spoken as the number while the rest of the phone number should be spoken as single digits.

• 12-34

• Phone numbers in the United States can be written in several different ways; 123-456-7890 is one possible format; (123) 456-7890 is another possible format.

Delimited lists of numbers spoken as the numbers themselves

The following delimited lists of numbers should be spoken as delimited lists of numbers instead of being spoken as single digits.

• 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100
• 10.5,20.5,30.5,40.5,50.5,60.5,70.5,80.5,90.5,100.5
• 10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.90.100

Delimited lists of numbers with some spoken as single digits

In the following delimited lists of numbers, the numbers that have more than five digits should be spoken as single digits while the rest of the numbers are spoken as numbers.

• 10.100.1000.10000.100000.1000000
• 20.200.2000.20000.200000.2000000
• 90.900.9000.90000.900000.9000000