Instructional Support

Navigating D2L with JAWS

Guide to Navigating Content

The following is a brief guide on how to navigate through D2L’s online course content and the materials provided by your instructor.

Tip: D2L is separated virtually by 2 main regions; the Navigation Region, containing buttons and links that will take you to various areas of D2L, and the Main Region, where the bulk of the content will be displayed. Note that the number of regions on a page can vary depending on what page the user is on. To navigate by regions, press “R”.

Tip: Understand that many facets of D2L, function as links. As such, a common route of navigating D2L is by using the Links List (Insert+F7).

Logging In

After logging in, you will be on your D2L My Home page.

  1. Press (Insert+F7) to bring up the links list.
  2. Use the “Down Arrow” to navigate to the correct course, listed here as a link. (Alternatively, press the first letter of the desired course.)
  3. Press “Enter” to go to Course Home page.

From the Course Home page:

Tip: On the Course home page, it’s a good idea to read the News which may contain important information from your instructor.

  1. Press H to navigate to the News section heading,
  2. Next, arrow down to get to the Expand/Collapse News button. If necessary, press the spacebar to expand the News section and read the courses news.

All of the course content information can be found from the Content page. To get there:

  1. Press (Insert+F7) to bring up the links list.
  2. Press C to navigate to Content.
  3. Press Enter to move to the Content page.

Understanding the Content Page:

In its most fundamental set up, D2L presents learning materials in the structure of modules (think of a chapter) and topics (which are links to pages in the chapter). The topics of a module are presented in a list. There are several different types of content that instructors utilize, ranging from internal materials, like web pages, videos, powerpoints, quizzes, discussions, dropbox assignments, to links to outside materials, such as to websites, youtube videos, and publisher content. Regardless of what materials a course utilizes, understand that they are all accessed through links.

It can be a good idea to start at the Table of Contents which is on the Content page. To get there,

  1. Press (Insert+F7) to bring up the links list.
  2. Press C until you hear “Content Browser, Table of Contents”
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Then Arrow down to see all of the modules in the course. Alternately, you may use the links list and press the first letter or number of the desired module.
  5. Press Enter to load that module. JAWS won’t say anything, but the main region has changed.
  6. Press R to navigate to the Main Region.
  7. Press H to go to the module heading.
  8. Press H again for the Module Topics.
    The heading will also announce the number of topics (content/links), for example, “heading level 2, module 1 topics, list of 22 topics.”
  9. Press the Down Arrow to find the desired topic.
  10. Press Enter to load the topic page.

From the Topic page:

  1. Press H to move to the topic heading level 1.
  2. Press Down Arrow to read the topic page. (There will be some navigation buttons before you get to the page text.).
To proceed to the next Topic in the Module:

Press B to navigate to the Next Page button.

Tip: The topic page is displayed in a web frame on the page. Some users may find this cumbersome. To view the content in a separate window, void of all D2L buttons and links, press (Insert+Control+B) for the buttons list, and search for the “View Content in New Window” button. When you are done with this new window, press Ctrl W to close the window and return to the original page.

To return to the Table of Contents
  1. Press (Insert+F7) to bring up the links list.
  2. Press C to navigate to Content.
  3. Press Enter to move to the Content page.
  4. Press (Insert+F7) to bring up the links list.
  5. Press C until you hear “Content Browser, Table of Contents”