Rachel, the following is from one of our Computer Science students who
is blind, and who uses Blackboard all the time for all his classes.
 
Ken Spector wrote:
     Here at ICARE there is some assistive software in the works that
will provide Jaws users with a set of useful hotkeys for navigation of
Black Board.  Until that is released however, there are some things I
have found useful when working with the system that may prove true for
you as well.
One thing I have noticed is that the information displayed in response
to your menu selections is usually shown at the bottom of the screen.
This can be inconvenient if you are tabbing through it all from the top
down, yet if you skip to the bottom of the page using ctrl+end, and tab
backward you can often save yourself a lot of time and energy.  
     I have also found the Jaws Vertual Find useful at times.  CTRL+f
will allow you to search through the text on the screen if you know what
it is you are searching for.
      Remember, if you discover that the frame you are looking at does
not contain the information you seek, it is possible to skip to the next
frame without hearing the rest of the current frame.
     I have worked successfully with Black Board using Jaws and would be
willing to answer any questions that come up for you if I am able.
Have a good semester,
Ken Spector