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Jaws Goes to Sea

By Amy Bower
Friday, July 18th, 2014

One Ocean Insight blog reader remarked recently that he found it so funny that there was an oceanographer that used Jaws! I had never made that connection myself, perhaps because what I study is not what most people think of as oceanography. What do you think of when someone says “oceanography”? According to my unscientific survey, what comes to mind for most people are the charismatic megafauna, such as whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions. Those of a certain generation may think of Jacques Cousteau, or Lloyd Bridges. In fact, the study of the oceans is a multi-disciplinary endeavor involving chemistry, geology and physics as well as biology. There is also an important branch of the science where engineers develop innovative sensors and underwater vehicles for making new measurements. I’m what is usually called a physical oceanographer, which means I study the physical behavior of the oceans. In particular, I look at where currents are and what makes them move the way they do. So that’s why I didn’t catch the irony about Jaws. But I digress – back to “Jaws goes to Sea”.

For the uninitiated, Jaws is what is called a computer screen reader. The word Jaws actually stands for Job Access With Speech, and it was developed to give blind people access to computers and therefore a whole array of positions in the workplace. Jaws is a Microsoft Windows application that runs in the background on my computer all the time. Everything I type, including this blog, is spoken outloud as I go along. And when I want to read back what I’ve written, or read my e-mail, a report or spreadsheet, I press a certain key combination and voila, I hear the text or numbers read aloud. I even use Jaws to write computer programs. There are quite human-sounding voices now, but I still use a rather robotic sounding one—I find it’s faster and easier to understand. Without Jaws, I would need to rely on a human reader for almost everything I do at work. When I meet with blind or visually impaired students, I emphasize over and over how important it is for them to become skilled with computers and a screen reader like Jaws. Computers are windows to the world, and screen readers have lifted the shade for those with vision problems.

Here I include a few sound clips of Jaws from my computer here on the ship. First, I’ll have Jaws read part of this blog at a relatively slow speed.

http://web.whoi.edu/oceaninsight/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/07/JawsSlow.mp3

Then I’ll have it read at the speed I typically read e-mails.

http://web.whoi.edu/oceaninsight/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/07/JawsFast.mp3

Finally, I’ll have it read some snippets from a computer program that I wrote today to make maps of our cruise track, at a speed I would use when editing the program.

http://web.whoi.edu/oceaninsight/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/07/JawsReadingComputerProgram.mp3

Categories : OSNAP Cruise Log, With audio clips

About Amy Bower

Amy Bower is a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She has been chasing ocean currents in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans for over 25 years, primarily by releasing acoustically tracked floats far below the sea surface. Legally blind since her mid-20s, Amy uses adaptive technology to continue her research. Her latest project, Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic, kicks off this summer with a series of research cruises to Iceland.

Related Links

Amy Bower’s Personal Site
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
OSNAP
Future Reflections  “Testing the Current”

Recent Posts

  • An Exciting Day of Science for Perkins Outreach and WHOI
  • A Multi-sensory Iceland Visit
  • It’s a Small World After All
  • OSNAP Float Field Phase Draws to a Close
  • Sound for Science

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