Using Emoji.

What Is Emoji?

Emoji characters are graphical images which are used in electronic messages and on webpages. They exist in various genres, including facial expressions, animals, common objects, the weather, and so on. They have become increasingly popular as a result of their use on portable phones and similar devices.

If someone posts Emoji characters on social media for example, JAWS is able to announce them. This makes it very easy for you to understand the true meaning of the person's intentions. Leasey provides you with a list of Emoji you can use anywhere you like, particularly on social media. You can bring into view a list of Emoji signs, divided into 15 categories. Pressing Enter on any item will insert it into the text edit area. It's very easy!

The 15 categories are:

1. Smileys - Happy and Affectionate.
2. Smileys - Thinking, Sad and Unwell.
3. Hearts and Emotion Symbols.
4. Hands and Gestures.
5. People and Accessibility.
6. Family and Relationships.
7. Animals - Common and Mammals.
8. Animals - Birds, Sea and Small Creatures.
9. Plants, Weather and Sky.
10. Food and Drink.
11. Activities, Games and Sports.
12. Music, Entertainment and Celebration.
13. Technology, Office and Study.
14. Travel, Places and Transport.
15. Fantasy, Objects and Symbols.

Please note: As we understand it, the JAWS support for emoji has not been updated for some time. Therefore, if you enter an emoji into your text, what JAWS says may not match up exactly with what you intended. JAWS may speak it correctly, it may speak an approximation of it, or it may not speak it at all. We have tried hard to avoid signs where JAWS does not speak at all. That is disappointing because many emoji people use as language in 2026 could not be inserted into this tool. Indeed we had to remove an entire modern category because of this issue. But you should find all the signs we have used are accurate.

In order to use Emoji:

• Place the cursor in the area where you would like to insert Emoji.

Step 1. Press the Leasey Key then Control+Shift+E.

• You are now in a list of Emoji. You can either navigate the list with the Up or Down Arrow keys, type the first letter or two of the item you want (such as "SM" for "Smiley Face"), or type numbers 1 through to 15. Typing any of these numbers will take you to each of the 15 categories.

Step 2. When the desired item is located, press Enter to insert the sign.

Keystroke Summary.

Leasey Key then Control+Shift+E: Opens the list of Emoji.

Up Arrow and Down Arrow: Move through the Emoji list.

1 through 15: Move to one of the Emoji categories.

Enter: Inserts the selected Emoji.