Empowering lives through non-visual access to technology. NV Access is an Australian non-profit. We develop NVDA, a free, open source screen reader for Windows. #NVDA, #NVDAsr, #A11y, #Accessibility
In-Process 30th April 2025
Our lates In-Process blog is out: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-30th-april-2025/
Featuring
- The NVDA 2025.1 Beta
- What’s New in 2025.1
- Updated NVDA Expert Certification 2025
- Gene Empowers New Zealand
- Changes for Developers
- NVDA Add-ons and API Breaking Changes
#NVDA #NVDAsr #Blog #News #Newsletter #ScreenReader #Blind #Accessibility #Update #Changes
NVDA 2025.1 Beta 3 is now available!
NVDA 2025.1 Beta 3 is now available for testing. As well as all the NVDA 2025.1 updates, beta3 adds:
- Updates to translations
- Disallow new Remote Access session in Secure Mode
- Update Remote Access interface
- Add unassigned command for Remote Access settings
- SAPI 4 bug fixes
Read the full release notes (including all the 2025.1 features & fixes) & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta3/
#NVDA #NVDAsr #Update #Beta #FLOSS #FOSS #PreRelease #News #Testing #Test #FreeSoftware #ScreenReader
In-Process blog is out
Our In-Process blog is out! Featuring:
- Update on NVDA 2025.1
- Planning for CSUN
- What's on the web
- Reading paragraphs in Braille
And bonus history of the Pilcrow! (Ok I was interested)
https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-27th-february-2025/
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Blog #News #Newsletter #Typography #CSUNATC
Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!
Hi everyone,
We're taking a well-earned break until the middle of January. We'll endeavour to respond to any direct messages or public queries as soon as possible. In the meantime, have a happy & safe time while we’re on leave. Enjoy Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or just time with loved ones!
New NV Access email list
We have been asked about it for years, and we are pleased to confirm that we have finally setup an official NV Access mailing list. You can subscribe to receive:
- Our fortnightly In-Process blog
- NV Access organisational updates
- NVDA Release announcements (Stable, and / or beta)
- Good news stories
- Job listings
If you just received an email from us, then we've had your email address from previously and believed you were interested.
If you didn't get our "Greetings from NV Access" email today and would LIKE to subscribe to any of the above, please do go to: http://eepurl.com/iuVyjo (We'll aim to get that form onto nvaccess.org in the new year).
If you did get the Greetings email and wish to change what you receive or unsubscribe, please do use the links in the message.
Our In-Process blog is out
This International Day of People with Disabilities, we want to highlight our amazing community and how you live the theme of this year's #IDPwD "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future"
We have just put out a blog post; every piece talks about how you, our community are empowered to take on leadership in your lives, your work, and your screen reader, NVDA - check it out here:
NVDA 2024.4 released
NVDA 2024.4 is now available Featuring many improvements in Microsoft Office, braille & document formatting. We encourage all users to update. There's more than will fit here so please check out the full details & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4/
Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER.
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Release #News #NewVersion #Update
NVDA with braille user survey
One of the themes which came through from the NVDA Satisfaction Survey earlier this year, was to improve Braille support. To help us target the most needed improvements, we have created a short survey. If you use NVDA with braille at least some of the time, please consider completing this survey.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKAo14uwbUPCLcI7ukCFcqrfCS1_Kg_iauo5o_vyKeEnxifA/viewform
Please also share with anyone else who may be interested. #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Braille #Accessibility #A11y #Survey #CommunityInput
NVDA 2024.4 Beta 4 is now available for download & testing.
Changes introduced in Beta 4:
- Fixed the visual layout of NVDA’s Braille Settings page.
- Fixed an issue causing text not related to shortcut keys to appear in the Commands Quick Reference.
- Updates to translations.
Full information and dowload at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta4/
NVDA 2024.4 Beta 3 is now available!
Changes introduced in Beta 3:
Updated LibLouis Braille translator to 3.31.0.
- Fixed translation of numbers in Spanish Braille.
- New Braille tables:
- Thai grade 1
- Greek international Braille (single-cell accented letters)
- Renamed tables:
- “Thai 6 dot” was renamed to “Thai grade 0” for consistency reasons.
- The existing “Greek international braille” table was renamed to “Greek international braille (2-cell accented letters)” to clarify the distinction between the two Greek systems.
Updates to translations.
Read more and download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta3/
Continuing my trend of being a bit late posting - NVDA 2024.4 Beta 2 is now available: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta2/
Changes introduced in Beta 2:
- The stability of NVDA’s Poedit support has been improved with the side effect that the minimum required version of Poedit is now version 3.5.
- NVDA no longer freezes while checking for add-on updates.
- Updates to translations.
Note that "NVDA is no longer as sluggish when arrowing up and down through large files in VS Code." is listed on the release announcement as a new update - this was included in Beta 1 and inadvertently carried over to the Beta 2 announcement.
NVDA 2024.4 Beta 2 is now available
NVDA 2024.4 Beta 2 is now available. Changes from Beta 1:
- The stability of NVDA’s Poedit support has been improved with the side effect that the minimum required version of Poedit is now version 3.5.
- NVDA is no longer as sluggish when arrowing up & down through large files in VS Code.
- NVDA no longer freezes while checking for add-on updates.
- Updates to translations.
Please go to https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta2/ for the full what's new & to download.
#NVDA #NVDAsr #Beta #FOSS #ScreenReader
NVDA 2024.4 Beta now available
(Sorry I was a bit slow posting here - nothing new for those who have seen the beta announcement elsewhere this week - although one thing I'll try differently here and would appreciate feedback on - instead of making a completely new post for every subsequent beta - I'll make the announcements replies to this post. Please do let me know what you think of that or how you find it)
Beta1 of NVDA 2024.4 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome you to download the beta and provide feedback using our issue reporting process.
Read the full details and download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta1/
Highlights This release includes a number of improvements in Microsoft Office, braille, and document formatting.
In Word or Excel, it is now possible to double-press the comment gesture to read the comment or note in a browsable dialog. You can now
NVDA 2024.3 Released
Good morning everyone,
NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.3 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version. Highlights below; the full information and download links available from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3/
Highlights The Add-on Store will now notify you if any add-on updates are available on NVDA startup.
There are now options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output. This can be useful when reading characters that are unknown to a particular speech synthesizer or braille table and which have a compatible alternative, like the bold and italic characters commonly used on social media. It also allows reading of equations in the Microsoft Word equation editor.
Help Tech Activator Pro braille displays are now supported.
Unassigned commands have been added to scroll the mouse wheel vertically and horizontally.
There are several bug fixes, part
Thanks so much for pinning this - and for all the responses we've got! We are closing the survey today, so can remove the pinned post now.
Of course, we are always happy for feedback, so if anyone does have additional feedback they would like to give, please don't hesitate to write to [email protected]
Kind regards
Quentin
NVDA 2024.3 Release Candidate now available
The Release Candidate (RC) of NVDA 2024.3 is now available for download and testing.
We encourage all users to download this RC and provide feedback.
Unless any critical bugs are found, this will be identical to the final 2024.3 release.
Read more & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3rc1/
Highlights of NVDA 2024.3:
The Add-on Store will now notify you if any add-on updates are available on NVDA startup.
There are now options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output. This can be useful when reading characters that are unknown to a particular speech synthesizer or braille table and which have a compatible alternative, like the bold and italic characters commonly used on social media. It also allows reading of equations in the Microsoft Word equation editor.
Help Tech Activator Pro braille displays are now supported.
Unassigned commands have been added to scroll the mouse wheel vertically and horizontally.
There are several bug fixes, particular
Shout out to a moderator - an NVDA Certified Expert Moderator :)
Shout out today to one of our illustrious moderators @rumster - who recently acquired NVDA Expert Certification!
I must admit I am not sure of all the other mods so apologies if I've missed anyone else out there :)
NVDA Expert Certification is an online exam you can sit, which tests your knowledge of the NVDA screen reader. The exam is free for anyone to sit, with a cost if you wish to purchase the certification - purchasing gets you a certificate you can print, a badge you can put on your email or other online presence, and a warm, fuzzy feeling from helping us continue to provide NVDA for free to anyone, anywhere in the world!
If interested, find out more at: https://certification.nvaccess.org/ - and in any case, know that we have a wonderful, knowledgeable and supportive community here, so thank you!
NVDA 2024.3 Beta 6 now available
Hi everyone,
NVDA 2024.3 Beta 6 is now available! Since Beta 5 the main change is that we fixed a bug with Unicode character normalization - and we updated some more translations. Do please download and test it and keep letting us know of any issues! Read the full details on NVDA 2024.3 and the new beta here: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3beta6/
NVDA 2024.3 Beta 3 Now available
Beta3 of NVDA 2024.3 is now available for download & testing. Changes from Beta2 include Add-on update notifications no longer appear when running the NVDA installer & updates to translations. Read more & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3beta3/
Highlights of 2024.3 include notification of add-on updates, Unicode normalisation options, Help Tech Activator Pro display support, mouse wheel scrolling commands, bug fixes for emoji panel & browsers
#Beta #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #PreRelease #FOSS
NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2024
NV Access is pleased to invite you to participate in the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2024.
At NV Access we are always interested in understanding the satisfaction of our NVDA users.
Plus, we like to understand clearly what is important to you and also identify what we can do more effectively.
As in previous years, it is a simple, 3-question survey. It is open to NVDA users and testers around the world. We encourage everyone to complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2024. You can find the survey at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKimQWY1UGBfZkg2a8cpgo790DjyUefRy0GCKNdqXYUwMmYQ/viewform
As with last year, the survey is on Google Forms however you do not need to have a Google account to submit the form.
Completing the survey questions will assist us with improving the NVDA user experience. Please do participate, and share with others, thank you!
NVDA 2024.2 Released
NV Access are very pleased to announce the release of NVDA 2024.2! Please download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-2/
Highlights include Sound Split, numerous new keystrokes, new Braille mode & other features, updates to eSpeak, LibLouis & other dependencies & programs.
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #A11y #Accessibility #New #Release #FOSS #Update #NewVersion
I have also not encountered the credentials going stale issue. It might be worth clearing your browser cache (remember when we had to do that to fix ANYTHING? I have barely needed to do that in the last year or so, but it comes up occasionally).
Re navigating, the list of posts works ok - you can press H to jump from one post to the next. When you actually go into a post, the UI breaks down a bit. Mostly because (for me at least), n doesn't seem to work to jump to the next non-linked text where it should (as in the body of motobojo's post, or any replies). The "Skip to content" button also doesn't seem to work - it comes up as the first item on the page, but you can't activate it?
Latest In-Process blog post is available now
This week's In-Process is out, featuring all you need to know about copying text in Word, using Browse mode in Word, getting help in NVDA, and a special thanks to our friends at ISCB! All online now: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-6th-may-2024/
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Microsoft #MicrosoftOffice #Office365 #Office #Keyboard
NVDA 2024.1 released
NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.
Highlights
- “on-demand” speech mode
- Native selection mode in Firefox
- Bulk actions in the Add-on Store Many more updates and fixes. Please see the release announcement for all the info and download links: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1-released/
We're going to be there all week. We are presenting in "Orange County 1-2" at 2:20pm on Thursday 21st March.
NVDA 2024.1 Beta 7 is now available
Beta7 of NVDA 2024.1 is now available for download and testing. Changes from the previous beta include:
- When copying text in Microsoft Word with NVDA’s browse mode enabled, formatting is now also included
- Updates to documentation, Native selection mode, errors when session is locked / unlocked and translations.
Read more & download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1beta7/
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Beta #News
Uh, thanks?
We try to prioritise features and fixes that will have the most positive impact on the largest number of users. Not all features are used by every user, but there's usually SOMETHING for everyone in each release.
I'm glad it sounds like we got some things in there for you this time around anyway!
Is it this one: "Added an experimental option to leverage the UIA notification support in Windows Terminal to report new or changed text in the terminal, resulting in improved stability and responsivity. (#13781) Consult the user guide for limitations of this experimental option."
We don't normally link directly to updated files in the what's new, it's really just to let you know what is new so you can try it out when you download the update. The easiest way is to open the user guide from the help menu - in this way, if you are using NVDA in a language other than English, you will also get the updated translation (if it is there yet).
To get to the file without downloading the beta, it's a little roundabout, but you can go to the linked issue, and from there to the PR ("seanbudd closed this as completed in #14047 on Oct 25, 2022": https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/pull/14047 From there, go to files, and you will find the user guide as one of them, and you can view the file, which links me here: https://github.com/leonardder/nvda/blob/f6f6563b6872ec82b095ef9a930606b8d10e7f27/user_docs/en/userGuide.t2t
The raw file doesn't have neat little links but if you search for "Windows terminal", there aren't too many other references.
If you run the new version / beta / alpha etc, you can pull up the user guide for that version from the help menu. The info in the release announcement / on the what's new page is more designed to show you what has changed. Maybe I'm not quite understanding what you are after though?
You can use it now with NVDA 2023.2 Beta 1 which is currently available: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2023-2beta1/
Can any other screen reader users give me some pointers or a tutorial on how to use track changes and comments in (https://fosstodon.org/@libreoffice) with NVDA and the keyboard? My edit
I must admit I haven't looked into using track changes on Libre Office lately. I did find the Libre Office keystrokes here: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/swriter/04/01020000.html What I was going to say was that The Document Foundation (makes of Libre Office) have hired Michael Weghorn as a developer focusing on accessibility of Libre office: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2023/07/04/welcome-michael-weghorn-new-developer-at-tdf/ We've worked with Michael for awhile now, although only when he was available to donate some time. Hopefully this will mean great things for Libre Office accessibility moving forward!