I'd still like to try the forward/reverse jog buttons & a rotary pot or 3 way switch just to compare accuracy, however I can't seem to find much info on how to do that.
Reading the state of a switch is dirt simple. Just call digitalRead() with the pin the the switch is wired (properly) to. If digitalRead() returns HIGH, and that means pressed, well, that might be important. Or, it might not. Or, HIGH could mean not pressed. And that might, or might not be important.
If you haven't figured it out yet, HOW you connect the switch is important. You haven't told us that yet, or asked how to connect them.
Whether the state of the switch is important, or not, depends on why you connected the switch. If the switch is to SELECT speed, then the fact that it is pressed means that the you want to SET the speed to some specific value.
If every time you press the switch, you want to INCREASE (or DECREASE) the speed, then the fact that the switch IS pressed is NOT enough information to determine whether to change the speed. You need to compare the current state to the previous state, and make a change only when the state has changed (to pressed).
The state change detection example could be useful reading.