Many people do not know that there are differences between WORD commands and JAWS talking software commands. Microsoft Word has thousands of it own built in keystroke commands that have nothing to do with JAWS. If you just want to become a faster computer user with keystrokes and never use JAWS, you can.
This wonderful keystroke feature in WORD, Excel, PowerPoint or any Microsoft product, also gives blind students the ability to go to any computer with memorized steps and no talking software, open WORD (or another program) and do what ever they need, according to their memory of steps, because the keystrokes are already built into the program. It allows sighted people to move just as quickly instead of taking their mouse and trying to figure out where a certain option is in a particular menu.
However, JAWS and WORD together are incredibly powerful. When you are in WORD doing those commands and you want to have JAWS read both characters and words, you hit INSERT+2 and cycle through all the options. If you want JAWS to read the whole page to you, you hit CTRL+HOME and then hit INSERT+DOWN ARROW and JAWS reads the whole page.
These lessons all based on keystrokes, can be found at www.Yourtechvision.com
WAC 392-172A-01035:
(n) Visual impairment including blindness
means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely
affects a student's educational performance. The term includes both
partial sight and blindness.