Welcome to NV Access
NV Access is based in Melbourne, Australia. We are a non-profit organisation that was created in March 2007. Our main purpose is to support projects and initiatives that provide free and open source software solutions that enable people who are blind and vision impaired to access technology. These projects are also open-source which allows the community to collaboratively create software that meets users needs more quickly.
We do not believe that accessibility should be an extra cost for the end user; and people who are blind and vision impaired should be able to use any type of technology for the same cost as their sighted peers. These include computers, mobile phones, PDAs, GPS systems and so on.
The main project that we are currently supporting is NVDA, a free and open source screen reader. You can visit our Projects page for more information and for a direct link to the NVDA home page.
News
NVDA Presentation at CSUN 2009
The Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, hosted by California State University, Northridge (and thus usually known simply as the CSUN conference), is perhaps the world's largest conference on assistive technology. Thanks to the generocity and support of the Mozilla Foundation, Mick attended CSUN 2007 and both Mick and I attended CSUN 2008. We gained a great deal from these conferences, as th ...
Microsoft provides grant to improve NVDA
Microsoft has recently decided to support NV Access and the NVDA screen reader project by providing funding and support that will allow NV Access to improve NVDA in two key areas:
- Allowing NVDA to support Microsoft's UI Automation API in Windows 7 (the next Microsoft Windows Operating System); and
- Improving NVDA's support for Microsoft Internet Explorer and other related applications.
Supporting UI Automation means that NVDA gains access to applications ...
Annual Report 2007-2008 and Website updates
Annual Report 2007-2008
I am happy to announce that the Annual Report for 2007-2008 is now available in the Annual Reports section of the web site.
This is our first Annual Report, as NV Access was created only in March 2007. In the report you will find a President's report, a treasurer's report and finance statements from April 2007 to June 2008.
Website updates
Over the last few months we have been making some changes to the NV Access website which shou ...
Another grant from the Mozilla Foundation
In December 2007, NV Access was approved for another grant from the Mozilla Foundation in order to hire James Teh (one of the core NVDA developers) on a full-time basis. James was previously working for an IT company and could only contribute to NVDA in his spare time after work and on weekends. This grant from the Mozilla Foundation will enable him to leave his current employment and dedicate all his working hours to improvin ...
Mozilla Foundation Grant to improve web access in NVDA
In early July, NV Access received a grant for a total of US$10000 from the Mozilla Foundation to support a re-write of the current web access code for NVDA.
This grant will also allow the programmers to conduct research into determining the most appropriate design and method for NVDA to access web content. It will also enable NVDA to fully support Mozilla FireFox and its implementation of IAccessible2.
For the NVDA user, the i ...
NVDA version 0.5 is released
NVDA, or NonVisual Desktop Access, is the first completely free and open-source screen reader for the Windows Operating System. The NVDA project developers have just released version 0.5 of the NVDA screen reader. The release can be downloaded as an installer or a portable ZIP file that can be extracted and run from your hard drive or a USB memory key. To read more about this release of NVDA or to download a copy, go to the [http://www.nvda-project.org NVDA Proj ...
Where Is NV Access Now And Where Are We Headed?
NV Access was created very recently, and at this point we have limited resources to support projects. We do not yet have a physical office and we are all volunteers working from home, working on our own equipment.
Our main goal for the rest of the year is to apply for funding from Australian philanthropic organisations and also to apply for project specific grants from international organisations such as the Mozilla Foundation.
If you would like to contribute ...
Sponsors
The Mozilla Foundation
Since our inception in early 2007, NV Access has recieved generous financial support from the Mozilla Foundation in the form of both grants and sponsorships:
- March 2007: Full sponsorship of Michael Curran to attend the 2007 CSUN conference in Los Angeles
- July 2007: Grant of US$10,000 for the NVDA project to improve its web access code
- December 2007: Grant of AU$92,000 to hire James Teh to work on NVDA on a full-time basis
- March 2008: Full sponsorship for Michael Curran and James Teh to attend the 2008 CSUN conference in Los Angeles
Capital Accessibility LLC
Capital Accessibility provides NV Access with the use of their conference phone bridge facility as it is needed. It is mainly used for monthly committee meetings and sometimes for other meetings as necessary.
Donations
To date, NV Access has received a total of AU$14,898.00 in donations. We would like to extend special thanks to all the individuals who have donated to support our projects.
