Hi All,

How do we find the keyboard layout in Windows, using Jaws or NVDA?

People who work in multiple languages usually go into the control 
panel's Language settings to set up a keyboard layout for each of their 
languages. then they cycle through the layouts with a hotkey, usually 
left alt+shift. So my keyboard layout is set to English by default, but 
when I tap ctrl+shift, I go into Spanish, and when I hit the hotkey 
again, I go back to English. the beauty of using an alternate keyboard 
layout is that typing accents is easy: apostrophe followed by A 
automatically becomes a-acute.

Jaws and NVDA both tell me which language I'm toggling into when I hit 
my keyboard hotkey. Sometimes I toggle it by accident. In those cases, 
the screen reader doesn't always tell me because I press another key 
immediately after, cutting off speech, so I don't realize I'm in a 
different layout until I press a key that doesn't give me the expected 
feedback.

since I work only in two languages, it's not a big deal for me, but 
other people work in three or more, so having quick access to the 
keyboard layout is handy. does anyone know how to make the screen reader 
announce this information or where to find it quickly?

Btw, this question came up on a list for blind interpreters and 
translators after someone's sighted colleague mentioned this information 
is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Ciao


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