The end of the year is here, and we’ve tried to fill this edition with a few treats for you before we have a break! Let’s start with NVDA 2021.3 news:
NVDA 2021.3.1
NVDA 2021.3 has been very positively received, which is great!
But wait, there’s more!
An issue was found in Humanware’s Braille HID implementation. This caused problems for users of their Braille displays. The good news is we’ve been able to put in place a workaround from our side. NVDA now prioritises the original driver where it exists, over HID. NVDA 2021.3.1 is now available and is a recommended update for all users.
NVDA 2021.3 introduces support for the new HID Braille specification. This specification aims to standardise support for Braille Displays without needing individual drivers. There are updates to eSpeak-NG and LibLouis, including new Russian and Tshivenda tables. Error sounds can be enabled in stable builds of NVDA via a new advanced settings option. Say all in Word now scrolls the view to keep the current position visible. There are lots of improvements when using Office with UIA. One UIA fix is that Outlook now ignores more types of layout tables in messages.
Important notes:
Due to an update to our security certificate, a small number of users get an error when NVDA 2021.2 or earlier check for updates. NVDA now asks Windows to update security certificates, which will prevent this error in future. Affected users will need to download this update manually. Regular readers of In-Process will have seen our previous posts on this issue. If you were affected but have since updated to the beta or RC releases, or 2021.3, then those will have fixed the issue. They will also prompt you to update to the final NVDA 2021.3.1 soon, if they haven’t already.
Bhavya interview
Our interview series (Part 1 and Part 2) with Bhavya Shah has been extremely popular. We are now very pleased to present the third and final installment of this series. Bhavya Shah, from India to the USA (Part 3)
Bhavya’s contributions to not only NVDA, but the community as a whole are very much appreciated. There are a whole range of ways that Bhavya has helped improve NVDA and its users. Contributing isn’t just about writing code! There are a lot of non-technical ways of being a part of the community. We are very pleased to see that through Bhavya’s involvement, his hard work has come back to repay him as well!
Congratulations on everything you have done so far Bhavya! And all the very best for everything you are embarking on. We look forward to following your progress. I am sure we will see many more inspirational things from you in the future! In fact, one more thing Bhavya has been doing, is mentoring a student from Ethiopia. This week, we learnt that his mentoree has been offered a scholarship to Duke University in the USA. Congratulations once again Bhavya!
Read or listen to Part 1, Part 2 and Bhavya Shah, from India to the USA (Part 3)
Thanks to Xero
This week we’d like to give a shout out to Xero. Their support for NV Access helps us reach our vision and mission to continue to provide NVDA for free to anyone around the world. Their focus on accessibility works towards the goal we share of providing everyone around the world access to technology for education and employment.
Find out more about Xero at: https://www.xero.com/
Christmas leave
The NV Access team would like to thank all our users, supporters, contributors and friends for all your support during 2021. We’d like to wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas, New Year, and indeed all of 2022!
The team are all taking leave at various times between now and late January. If you need to contact us, please do be patient. We will get back to you, but there may be a delay in replying compared to other times.
In the meantime, if you have a question about NVDA, The NVDA users email list is a great place for advice and support.
Be sure to check out our “Get Help” page for more resources. These include:
- The NVDA User Guide
- Training material and telephone support in the NV Access shop
- And a range of Email groups in local languages
If you encounter an issue and you are comfortable writing it up, then do please head over to The NV Access GitHub page to do that.
Otherwise, if you’d like to reach us and it isn’t urgent, do please write to us and we will get back to you!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!
NVDA Christmas bauble (Purple with NVDA logo and sunburst)