How to Setup JAWS to Autodetect Language

JAWS 2025 includes an automatic language-switching feature that helps users navigate multilingual content without manually adjusting language settings. This article explains how to configure JAWS to detect and switch languages, its benefits, and when manual adjustments may still be necessary.

Video Guide

Accessing JAWS Settings Center

To enable automatic language detection, follow these steps:

1. Open JAWS 2025 and navigate to the Utilities menu.
2. Select Settings Center, where various customization options are available.
3. Search for Text Processing settings.
4. Locate the Language Processing section, which contains options for automatic language detection.

Configuring Automatic Language Detection

Users can adjust how this screen reader detects language within the Language Processing settings.

• The default setting, based on document and webpage markup, allows JAWS to rely on metadata from the document or webpage.
• The alternative setting, based on text content, lets JAWS analyze the text itself to determine the language.

Users may prefer the “based on text” setting for more dynamic language switching. Additionally, they can modify how the screen reader reads numbers, which helps with multilingual numeric formats.

Testing JAWS with Multilingual Text

From our companion video, linked above, once configured, JAWS was able to read text in multiple languages within the same document or webpage. In the demonstration:

1. JAWS read the English text correctly.
2. It initially mispronounced the Spanish text because it did not recognize the language correctly.
3. When the user manually sets the proofing language to Spanish, JAWS reads it properly.

This test shows that while automatic language switching often works, users may still need to adjust settings manually in some cases.

Benefits of Automatic Language Detection

Automatic language switching improves accessibility by allowing users to read content in multiple languages without interruptions. It ensures smoother interaction with multilingual web pages and eliminates the need to manually change the proofing language for every document.

When Manual Adjustment is Necessary

Despite automatic switching, users may still need to manually select the proofing language in cases where:

• The document lacks proper language markup.
• JAWS fails to detect short sections of foreign text.
• Formatting issues interfere with language recognition.

Setting the proofing language manually within Microsoft Word or other applications ensures accurate pronunciation.

JAWS 2025 enhances accessibility with its automatic language detection feature, allowing users to navigate multilingual content more efficiently. By adjusting language processing settings, users can improve how JAWS reads mixed-language text. Although the feature works well in many cases, manual adjustments may still be necessary.

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