Author Archives: NV Access

1. In-Process 25th March 2025

   March 25, 2025 7:46 pm Comments Off on In-Process 25th March 2025

   Welcome to another In-Process blog, whether you are joining us on the web, or via email, we’ve got a lot in this edition!

   1. CSUN ATC 2025
   2. Thorium Reader
   3. NVDA 2025.1 Update
   4. Open-Source
   5. RH Voice Update

   It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the NV Access team – let’s jump straight into the big trip, to the USA:

   CSUN ATC 2025

   The annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference was an amazing week in Anaheim, California. Our presentation was a hit – we had a full room, and unfortunately, they had to turn people away! We got lots of interesting questions, particularly around interest in the upcoming features Gerald talked about on the 2025 roadmap. While CSUN don’t record sessions, you can still get all the information from our session from Our CSUN Presentation page.

   We also had a lot of extremely productive meetings, met people involved in lots of exciting work, such as these students working on developing an affordable braille display for Africa. The keynote by Gabby Giffords and speech pathologist Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse was particularly inspiring. Although not recorded, here is a video conversation between Gabby Giffords and Dr Fabi Hirsch Kruse about her recovery, and aphasia.

   Following his roadmap presentation, Gerald kept the “road” theme going after the conference by taking a road trip through Death Valley to Las Vegas. He took many photos of some beautiful scenery, such as this one:

   

   View looking out across Death Valley, California.

   Thorium Reader

   Thorium Reader is an ePub reader which is ePub 3 compliant and cross platform. Furthermore, as announced in this recent NVDA user group post by DAISY CIO George Kerscher Ph.D., Thorium and NVDA scored 100% compatibility in testing!

   Useful for reading eBooks from many sources, one use we would particularly recommend, is for reading the NVDA Training modules.

   Our training material comes in a zip file which includes four formats:

   • Web page (HTML)
   • Microsoft Word (DOCX)
   • ePub
   • Plain text (TXT)

   While the content is identical and can be read on a range of devices, if reading the ePub version on PC, we recommend using Thorium Reader.

   The current version of Thorium is 3.1 which is available from the Thorium web page.

   Thorium 3.2 is due out soon, and this version will include a new bookmark feature. To use this:

   In an EPUB file where you want to place a bookmark, press NVDA Key+enter. NVDA says “activate“. This synchronizes the virtual buffer with the DOM.

   Next, press ctrl+b to create a bookmark. Thorium will insert an auto generated label.

   You can also press ctrl+shift+b. Thorium will take you to the label of the bookmark so you can put in a meaningful name. Go into edit mode, select all (control+a), then delete it (delete), and type in the new label. Press tab to save.

   Direct links to the first pre-release version incorporating the new bookmark feature are available from the user group post. The latest nightly builds can also be downloaded from Thorium’s GitHub page.

   They have also made a video of the new bookmark feature.

   NVDA 2025.1 update

   Speaking of pre-release versions, we know you are keen for news on NVDA 2025.1! We haven’t forgotten you, and it is coming. We’ve been busy incorporating NVDA Remote and other things (and being away at CSUN).

   This is a big update. By big, I mean the 2025.1 milestone on GitHub encompasses 555 issues! By comparison, the NVDA 2024.4 milestone had 100 issues. The last .1 release, NVDA 2024.1 closed 358 issues. In fact, this is the largest single release we have ever done in terms of number of issues closed by the release. The biggest release to date was NVDA 2019.3, which closed 514 issues. NVDA 2019.3 was the release where we rewrote quite a lot of code as we moved NVDA from Python 2 to Python 3. We are nearly ready to put out a 2025.1 beta, so thank you for your patience. Remember, you can sign up to be notified by email when we do release that beta.

   Open-Source

   Something which came through strongly at CSUN, and in other conversations recently, is how important community is. NVDA has an amazingly supportive community behind it. This includes all of you! Whether you are a user, developer, supporter, donor, teacher, employer, accessibility specialist and more (and if I missed you, I do apologise). One of the reasons we have such a large community is through being open-source. That means the source code for NVDA is available for anyone to contribute to – or look at, and one thing one of our developers, Sean, does each CSUN, is make a point to thank some of our prolific developers for their contributions. You can find that, and all the information from our slides, on our CSUN page.

   Someone asked recently what governments think about open-source? In short, they love it – the software is free, so they can put their budget to training and support of the users instead of initial purchase of licenses or yearly updates. And most governments now push an “Open-source first” strategy, meaning they will only go to a closed source solution if there isn’t a suitable open-source option. We have a large section on our corporate and Government page which links directly to various government policies for further reading. If an employer, organisation or company you know has any questions about NVDA, please do get in touch, we are always happy to answer any questions and work with IT departments to make NVDA available to more users.

   RHVoice Update

   Finally, another open-source project we’d like to give a shout out to is RHVoice. A popular synthesizer option for NVDA. RHVoice currently supports 21 languages, and one of their main contributors is Zvonimir, who also contributes to translations for NVDA. Spanish is new and we felt that was worth a shout out. They have also just announced support for Ecuadorian as well (available soon). Here is a list of the existing languages available now in RHVoice:

   • Albanian
   • Croatian
   • Czech
   • Ecuadorian
   • English
   • Esperanto
   • Georgian
   • Kyrgyz
   • Macedonian
   • Nepali
   • Polish
   • Portuguese (Brazil)
   • Russian
   • Serbian
   • Setswana
   • Slovak
   • Spanish
   • Tatar
   • Turkmen
   • Ukrainian
   • Uzbek
   • Southern Vietnamese

   NVDA works with and incorporates several other open-source projects, eSpeak-NG and LibLouis are two of the most well known. Components such as MathCat, and indeed everything in the add-on store, provide invaluable support for students and other users with open-source code. What is your favourite open-source project (aside from NVDA?) Since March 21 was Open-Source Day, do give them a shout out on social media, and tag us as well 😊.

   Did you like our CSUN presentation? Have you tried Thorium or RHVoice or do you have another favourite open-source project? Do join in the conversation on the largest open-source social network, and let us know what you think!

2. In-Process 8th March 2025

   March 8, 2025 6:51 pm Comments Off on In-Process 8th March 2025

   Hi everyone, and welcome to an early In-Process! We’re busy packing and getting ready for CSUN next week so we wanted to put out In-Process this week to keep you going until we’re back from the USA! This time around:

   1. CSUN 2025
   2. NVDA 2025.1
   3. Harun: Fast and Local in Türkiye
   4. Thanks to Airbnb
   5. New Donor Badge
   6. Speech and Braille Viewers

   CSUN 2025

   

   The 40th annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference is on March 10 – 14 in Anaheim, California. We are looking forward to seeing friends, industry colleagues, users, new technology and more over the next week! We’ll be sure to bring you news and pictures from the event.

   We have uploaded our presentation to the official CVENT app. We have also created our own CSUN page here which includes extra detail, links and information.

   NVDA 2025.1

   A quick note to let you know that the NVDA 2025.1 Beta will be out soon, but not before CSUN. We didn’t want to try to rush it right before the event and when much of the team would be away for the week. More new features have made their way to alpha builds this week. So, if you would like to try out a pre-release version to see what is coming, they are available. Be aware that these are NOT recommended for most users, and we do not make any guarantees about them. Do ensure you have a copy of NVDA 2024.4.2 handy if you do try the alpha. And of course, do please report any issues you find on GitHub.

   Harun: Fast and Local in Türkiye

   This week, we bring you a testimonial from Harun, one of our enthusiastic users in Türkiye. Harun has been an NVDA user for a number of years. He really appreciates how fast and portable NVDA is. NVDA is also localised in Turkish, and well over 50 other languages too.

   You can read Harun’s story here. We also created a video to go with it, using NVDA to read the text out. We have done this before, but not often, and we’re curious what you think? Of course, where we have a recorded interview with someone, we will use that. But where we don’t – do you like having the YouTube video, or would you rather simply read the text? (Even with the video, we will still include the text, as we have in this case).

   Thanks to Airbnb

   This time around, we’d like to give a big shoutout to Airbnb. In February 2025, NV Access were awarded an Airbnb Community Fund grant. The Airbnb Community Fund will distribute $100 million to communities by the end of 2030, and in 2025, the Fund’s fifth year, over 160 organizations across 30+countries will receive donations totaling more than $8.5 million USD. As in previous years, hosts helped direct a majority of the donations to organizations supporting and strengthening communities around the world, including NV Access!

   Thank you Airbnb and the #AirbnbCommunityFund!

   And while we’re thanking corporate sponsors, we would also like to thank Code Rabbit. Code Rabbit generously sponsor us on GitHub. GitHub sponsorship is one option for those looking to support our work. You can also donate directly, or via your employer through Benevity.

   New Donor Badge

   Whichever way you donate to NVDA, if you’d like to share your support with others to encourage them to donate as well, you can! We have updated our donor badge for 2025! The donor badge was a suggestion from CSUN back in 2023 and has been a huge hit ever since. Do collect your badge today – and we look forward to collecting new suggestions shortly at CSUN 2025!

   

   Speech Viewer

   NVDA’s speech viewer is a very handy tool for sighted users. A tutor can follow along with an NVDA user, testers, or those wanting to copy what NVDA speaks can also make use of it. You can turn on the Speech viewer in NVDA’s tools menu:

   1. Press NVDA+n to open the NVDA menu
   2. Press “t” for tools
   3. Press “s” for Speech Viewer

   The Speech Viewer appears on screen, and over the top of other windows so it will stay visible. Press NVDA+n, t, s to turn the speech viewer off again. The Window is listed as the last window in the alt+tab list, so you can also press alt+shift+tab to get to it. By navigating to the Speech Viewer window, you can select and copy text if needed. You can also press tab to a “Show speech viewer on startup” checkbox. When enabled, it will show the speech viewer when NVDA starts. This saves needing to start it manually each time.

   Similarly, NVDA has a Braille Viewer. This is handy for checking the output of Braille as this can be different to the speech output. Press NVDA+n, then t, then b. The Braille viewer is very similar to the Speech Viewer. Visually the Braille viewer only shows one line and is wider. It presents the line in a visual representation of Braille, above the printed text. There is a checkbox to Show Braille Viewer on Startup, which works the same as for the speech viewer. There is also an option to Hover for cell routing. When enabled, hovering the mouse over a braille cell will enable trigger the “route to braille cell” command for that cell. This is often used to move the caret or trigger the action for a control. This can be useful for testing NVDA is able to correctly reverse map a from braille cell. To prevent unintentionally routing to cells, the command is delayed. The mouse must hover until the cell turns green. The cell will start as a light yellow colour, transition to orange, then suddenly become green.

   That’s all for this week. Please do come and see us if you will be at CSUN, and we look forward to bringing you more news when we are back!

3. Harun, Fast & Local in Türkiye

   March 7, 2025 1:08 pm Comments Off on Harun, Fast & Local in Türkiye

   NVDA user Harun sent us his experience with NVDA, which we were excited to share with you. You can find the testimonial in text below, or read by NVDA using Microsoft David at 75% in the video. Please do let us know what you think of having NVDA read the text for the video?

   “Hello, I’m Harun from Turkey! When I first heard about NVDA, I was reluctant to try something new. After a few years, I realized it was time for a new screen reader. And yes! In fact, this is exactly the time I met NVDA!

   

   When I saw its loader, I was surprised at how light it was. I remember when I installed it on my computer, I was quite surprised by its small size and therefore its very fast operation. Then I started taking a closer look at NVDA, it’s one of my favourite aspects of it; was that its entire interface was localized. This helped me a lot in getting to know NVDA. Another thing I like about him: Having a user guide. It is possible to find answers to all questions about NVDA there. Moreover, in your own language! As I got to know NVDA, I realized that it appealed to me and that NVDA was actually what I had been looking for for years.

   

   One of the many things I like about it is that you can create a portable copy, either from an installer or from your installed NVDA. While doing this, you can also copy the settings of your installed NVDA to your portable NVDA. Isn’t this a wonderful thing? Take it anywhere and just connect the USB to the computer you’ll be at for a few minutes and run your NVDA via USB without having to redo all the settings! Not to mention the magnificence of being simple, user-friendly, understandable and especially being an open-source project.

   In addition to developers, users can support with their ideas. Or when we experience an error, we can report it to NV Access via social media or open an issue on GitHub. In this way, we can see that problems are eliminated more quickly. Or we can see a feature we want very much in NVDA, if the conditions are suitable. For me, NVDA is much more than a screen reader. I would like to thank the entire NV Access staff for connecting us with NVDA! I would also like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to share all these thoughts.

   

   Finally, I would like to end my article by calling out to developers who update their operating systems and software: Please remember that when you update your software, people who do not see them are also using them! Support and support the accessibility of screen readers!”

   Thank you so much Harun. It is wonderful to hear from users and particularly to hear how NVDA has helped make your life easier. If you would like to help ensure we can continue to provide NVDA for free to anyone, anywhere in the world, please consider donating.

4. In-Process 15th November 2024

   November 15, 2024 8:35 pm Comments Off on In-Process 15th November 2024

   Welcome to a jam packed In-Process. We have a release, a survey, several expos, an award finalist and more add-on info. Let’s dive in:

   1. NVDA 2024.4.1 Released
   2. NVDA Contributor Documentation Survey
   3. Out and about with NV Access
   4. Emma a Change Making Finalist!
   5. Add-on Compatibility Process

   NVDA 2024.4.1 Released

   NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.4.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

   NVDA 2024.4.1 is a patch release to fix a bug when saving speech symbol dictionaries. Pressing the Close button in the Symbol Pronunciation dialog will now save the symbols dictionary and close the dialog.

   This is available for users on the stable channel, and for users on the Beta / Release Candidate channel.

   NVDA Contributor Documentation Survey

   Following the generous input from our Braille users, we are seeking more feedback. This time we would be very appreciative to hear from users who do or would like to contribute to NVDA. Your insights will help us understand the strengths and weaknesses of our contributor documentation, and we will use these insights to make targeted improvements. There are many ways you can contribute to NVDA. These include:

   • Translation (UI and user guide)
   • Core NVDA software development
   • Add-on software development
   • Testing NVDA
   • Submitting GitHub issues
   • Triaging GitHub issues

   If you are interested, please complete the survey here.

   This survey should take around 5 minutes to complete.

   Out and about with NV Access

   Last week, James and Quentin took a trip to Adelaide, known as the “city of churches”. There, we attended Tech Fest, Australia’s largest blindness technology expo. This was presented by “See Differently with the Royal Society for the Blind”. We had a great time meeting users, prospective users, AT professionals and RSB staff. We had some inspiring and positive conversations and came away very enthusiastic. It was also great to be among the only people in a room full of expensive gadgets able to say that our product is FREE. It is hard to over-emphasise how important that is for people, even in a country where assistive technology is often funded. We spoke with one user who had an expensive assistive technology program initially purchased, but then the funding was not extended to cover the update for the following year. It is one thing to have technology initially funded, but it is crucial to have ongoing access to your technology or users will be left out in the dark. That is where NVDA often makes a huge difference. Users never need to worry about whether they can get funding for the latest version of NVDA. They can rely on the fact that NVDA will continue to be available to them, for free. If you have funding available, you may be able to use it to purchase our NVDA training material in order to get you up and running, and for telephone support to keep you going. Many people find the NVDA Productivity Bundle best meets their needs and is one simple purchase when it is funded. (Funding will depend on your location and circumstances; NV Access is not able to advise on what funding may be available to you).

   

   Next Tuesday, Quentin and Sascha are at SVRC’s Tech Expo in Melbourne, Australia. Statewide Vision Resource Centre is based at Donvale; they work with students throughout Victoria. SVRC Tech Expo is always a great opportunity to meet with our users in education and their families. We look forward to seeing you there if you can make it. We will be presenting a session on the latest additions and improvements to NVDA (including NVDA 2024.4.1).

   Emma a Change Making Finalist!

   Earlier this year we highlighted our newest NV Access board member, Emma Bennison (https://www.nvaccess.org/post/meet-our-newest-board-member-emma-bennison/ ). And we are not the only ones to notice her outstanding efforts for the community! The Disability Leadership Institute has just announced Emma as a finalist in the “Change Making” category of the National Awards for Disability Leadership 2024.

   
   Quote from Emma Bennison when she spoke with us earlier this year.

   The Change Making Award celebrates individuals or organisations who have achieved greater equality of disabled people by changing policy, programs, or legislation. Recipients will be announced on International Day of People with Disability, Tuesday, December 3rd, starting at 9 AM.

   For a full list of finalists and their bios, visit the Disability Leadership Institute webpage.

   Add-on Compatibility Process

   Last fortnight, we addressed some common misconceptions about NVDA’s stability and its add-on ecosystem. We highlighted the steps we take to ensure a smooth and reliable experience for all our users. In this post, we’ll delve deeper into the add-on compatibility process, explaining why it’s essential for maintaining a healthy NVDA environment.

   Add-on Compatibility: A Preventative Measure, not a Problem

   We understand that the add-on compatibility process can sometimes seem like an unnecessary hurdle. However, it is designed to prevent problems, not cause them. By requiring add-on developers to confirm compatibility with each new version of NVDA, we safeguard users from potentially disruptive issues that could arise from using outdated or incompatible add-ons.

   Contrary to the perception that many add-ons break with each NVDA update, the actual numbers paint a very different picture. In the past year, less than 2% of add-ons required updates to maintain compatibility with the latest version of NVDA. The remainder of the add-ons worked out of the box without any changes required.

   The Importance of Metadata Updates

   When we have to introduce changes to NVDA’s API, we ask add-on developers to update their add-on’s metadata. This metadata includes information about the add-ons compatibility with specific NVDA versions. This metadata is an additional protection for users. As only the add-on developer can update this compatibility information, it encourages the person most familiar with the add-on (the developer) to test the add-on and confirm that it works with the latest NVDA version.

   NV Access telegraphs API changes so that developers know months in advance whether their add-on is at risk of requiring updates. NVDA’s API is powerful, enabling add-on authors full access to all of the features of Python. Add-ons targeting an older NVDA API could result in undesired consequences. This could be anything from the add-on simply not working, right up to your computer crashing or restarting randomly and losing work.

   Manual Override: Proceed with Caution

   NVDA provides a mechanism for users to manually override the compatibility check and run add-ons that are not officially marked as compatible. If you are an experienced user of NVDA and confident in being able to restart NVDA in safe mode with add-ons disabled, this override allows you to continue to use all your familiar add-ons without having to wait for add-on authors to update the compatibility metadata.

   If you are not an experienced user of NVDA we advise against using this option, unless you understand the potential risks involved). Instead, we would encourage you to reach out to add-on authors directly. You can find contact details in the “Other details” section of the add-on store entry for an add-on. We also recommend participating in the user group and other user forums to seek advice from other users. We have a very vibrant, helpful community who are always happy to share advice.

   The compatibility process, while seemingly strict, is a crucial part of achieving our goal of a healthy and stable add-on ecosystem.

   That is all for this week. We’ll be back near the end of the month with more news, info and tips. In the meantime, do take our new survey, update to the latest release and continue the conversation in the user group!

5. In-Process 31st October 2024

   October 31, 2024 7:17 pm Comments Off on In-Process 31st October 2024

   It’s that spooky time of year for all those who celebrate Halloween. And it’s also Diwali for our Indian friends. Whether you participate in either of these or not, there is something we definitely all DO celebrate here at NV Access. NEW RELEASE TIME! And we’ve got a bumper issue for you this week with all the news on the latest version:

   1. NVDA 2024.4 Released
   2. Important Note
   3. Does this release break add-ons?
   4. Emphasising stability
   5. Benefits for users and developers
   6. Reporting font attributes

   NVDA 2024.4 Released

   

   NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.4 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

   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 use the review cursor selection command to select text in PowerPoint. NVDA also no longer brailles garbage characters when showing row or column header text in tables in Word when using the object model.

   NVDA can now be configured to report font attributes in speech and braille separately.

   A new setting has been added to configure the timeout to perform a multiple press gesture, such as the report time/date command.

   You can now configure how NVDA shows text formatting in braille, and set NVDA to show the start of paragraphs in braille. NVDA can now speak the character at the cursor when performing a braille cursor routing action. Cursor routing reliability has been improved, and support for routing keys in PowerPoint has been added. All lines of cells will now be used when using a multi-line braille display via HID braille. NVDA is no longer unstable after restarting NVDA during an automatic Braille Bluetooth scan.

   The minimum required version of Poedit that works with NVDA is now version 3.5.

   eSpeak NG has been updated, adding support for the Faroese and Xextan languages.

   LibLouis has been updated, adding new Braille tables for Thai and Greek international braille with single-cell accented letters.

   There have also been a number of fixes, including to mouse tracking in Firefox, and the on-demand speech mode.

   Download NVDA 2024.4 from the release announcement now.

   Or read back through some of the 2024.4 improvements we’ve covered previously: a Data Validation fix in Excel, the new Braille improvements, and a fix in the Commands Quick Reference!

   Important 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. Updating software can change files which are in use. This can lead to instability and strange behaviour which is resolved by rebooting. This is the first thing to try if you do notice anything odd after updating.

   Does this release break add-ons?

   No, only the .1 release (2023.1, 2024.1, 2025.1, etc) are add-on compatibility-breaking releases. Any add-ons which work with NVDA 2024.1, 2024.2 or 2024.3 should work exactly the same with NVDA 2024.4.

   Our next major release, NVDA 2025.1 is on the way, due in the new year. In preparation, we want to share some info about NVDA’s stability and add-on compatibility. We’ve heard your concerns, through the survey earlier this year and your direct feedback. We want to provide a clear picture of the meticulous steps we take to ensure a smooth and reliable experience for all our users.

   Emphasising stability

   We understand that some users and developers have expressed concerns about NVDA and its add-ons experiencing instability, particularly with our annual .1 releases. We appreciate this feedback and want to emphasise that NVDA has an exceptionally strong track record of stability. We aim to deliver a screen reader that you can depend on day in and day out.

   NVDA follows a well-defined release schedule to provide users with regular updates and improvements. We release minor updates (e.g., 2024.2, 2024.3.1) throughout the year to address bugs and introduce enhancements. Our annual major releases (e.g., 2024.1, 2025.1) are where we introduce significant new features which may make changes to NVDA’s internal workings (known as the API).

   The .1 release: A controlled environment for change

   We understand the importance of maintaining compatibility between NVDA and its vast ecosystem of add-ons. To minimise disruption, we restrict any potential add-on breaking changes to our annual .1 releases.

   Months before each .1 release, sometimes up to a year in advance, we document any planned API changes. These are shared with our dedicated community of add-on developers. This gives developers ample time to update their add-ons and ensure compatibility with the new version of NVDA.

   An abundance of caution to ensure stability

   It’s important to note that the vast majority of add-ons require no changes to work with each .1 release. Of the very small remainder, they generally require only minor compatibility tweaks. NVDA marking add-ons as incompatible until they have been tested may seem like overkill, but it comes from an abundance of caution. Before this way of managing add-ons, they could potentially break with any release and with no warning.

   Users can manually override the compatibility check if they wish. We advise caution when doing this. However, for an add-on the community is confident works, the compatibility override is a simple way to keep using the add-on before an official update is available.

   Benefits for users and developers

   Our approach to stability and add-on compatibility offers significant advantages:

   Stability: By being overly cautious with add-on compatibility, it ensures users have a screen-reader which is robust, works continuously and errs on the side of stability.

   Predictability: Users and developers know exactly when to expect potential changes. By limiting API changes to the .1 release, we minimise unexpected disruptions to the user experience. This also reduces the need for more frequent add-on updates (unless the author wishes to).

   Staying up to date: The .1 release gives the ecosystem an opportunity to update dependencies for security. This prevents NVDA and its add-ons from stagnating or falling behind.

   At NV Access, we are dedicated to providing a stable, reliable, and feature-rich screen reading experience for all our users and go to great lengths to ensure that NVDA and its add-ons work harmoniously together.

   Stay tuned for future posts where we’ll delve deeper into specific aspects of NVDA’s development!

   Reporting font attributes

   

   One new option in NVDA 2024.4 is “NVDA can now be configured to report font attributes in speech and braille separately.” The “Font attributes” option is in NVDA’s document formatting settings. This option has changed from a checkbox to a drop-down list. In the list, you can choose between “Off, Speech, Braille, Speech and Braille”. This means you have more flexibility in how NVDA reports font attributes such as bold or underline. Press NVDA+control+d to open NVDA’s document formatting settings. Then tab to “Font attributes” if you would like to change this.

   That’s all this week. Do try out NVDA 2024.4 and share your thoughts in the community.

   Happy Halloween and Happy Diwali from NV Access

   

6. In-Process 23rd October 2024

   October 23, 2024 10:02 am Comments Off on In-Process 23rd October 2024

   Over the past fortnight we had a fantastic response to our braille survey, thank you! We already have some learnings to share with you! Plus, we’re nearly ready for NVDA 2024.4, are you? We’ve also been out in the community and have more travelling to do! And let’s learn about data validation in Excel.

   1. Braille Survey Results: Improving Braille Support in NVDA
   2. Elston Changemakers
   3. NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate
   4. NV Access All-Hands
   5. Data Validation Improvements in Excel

   Braille Survey Results: Improving Braille Support in NVDA

   In our recent braille users survey we asked you, our dedicated community of users, for feedback on your experience of using braille with NVDA. We’re thrilled to report that, in less than a fortnight, over 100 of you responded with detailed feedback! These results have provided us with extremely helpful insights into how NVDA users work with braille. More importantly, they’ve given us suggestions on how we can improve the experience. Here’s what we learned:

   Braille use in NVDA – The stats

   95% of respondents to the survey use NVDA either daily or weekly, with 28% of users using speech more than braille. This reaffirms the critical role that braille in NVDA plays in supporting the blind and vision impaired community. Many of you use NVDA as part of a broader assistive technology ecosystem. 50% of respondents reported also using JAWS or VoiceOver. This illustrates how the use of NVDA often complements your use of other screen readers. We are proud to be part of this ecosystem of tools that enhance accessibility for everyone.

   Positive feedback and room for growth

   We’re happy to report that the majority of respondents had a favourable view of braille support in NVDA. Only 17% expressed concerns. While this is a strong indicator that we’re heading in the right direction, we’re committed to improving. Our aim for next year is to bring that percentage down significantly by addressing the issues you have raised.

   You spoke, we listened – Actionable fixes

   One of the key messages from your feedback is that performance matters. This is especially true in productivity applications like Microsoft Word. You reported recurring performance issues while using braille with Office. We have made it our priority to dig into this problem and develop a solution. We understand how crucial it is to have seamless integration between NVDA and Office. Improving this experience will be at the top of our list.

   We have also fast-tracked finding solutions to a number of other frustrating braille issues you highlighted. These improvements will make their way into NVDA soon, and we can’t wait for you to experience the enhanced support. Your input directly shaped these changes, and we’ll continue listening to ensure NVDA serves you in the best way possible.

   What’s next for braille in NVDA?

   This survey was just the beginning. Your feedback has given us a clear roadmap for how to improve NVDA’s braille support. We commit to sharing updates on these developments throughout the next year. While we’re confident we are tackling the most pressing issues, we know that there’s always room for improvement and innovation. Your contributions, both through surveys like this one and GitHub issues, are crucial to our progress.

   As always, we encourage you to reach out to us with further thoughts, suggestions, or to report any problems. Every improvement starts with you – our committed users.

   Elston Changemakers

   Earlier this year, founders of NV Access, Mick and Jamie, were part of the panel discussion at the Elston Changemakers event. Elston is a longtime supporter of NV Access, as well as of empowering communities.

   “The Change Makers events shine a light on the transformative work being undertaken in communities right now. They’re not fundraisers. They’re forums that bring together charities, researchers and people who are interested in making a positive impact through giving.

   At our most recent forum, we focused on the people who are creating new ways for disability to be turned into ability.”

   You can watch the full video and listen to the fascinating discussion on Elston’s site.

   

   Jamie and Mick in the Elston Changemakers panel

   Look out for snippets from the event on our socials!

   NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate

   NVDA 2024.4 is almost here. As mentioned last In-Process the NVDA 2024.4 release candidate is out now and we encourage everyone to try it out. Remember you can run the downloaded file, then choose “Continue running”. This lets you test out the new features without installing over your existing copy. Unless any significant issues are found, this is the last stage before the final NVDA 2024.4 release, likely in the next week or so. It did get pushed back slightly due to the All-Hands meeting (below), and several of us being out of the office this week.

   NV Access All-Hands

   Last week, the NV Access team got together in person to brainstorm and plan. Being spread across several states, we don’t get to all meet in person very often, but it’s very helpful to take the time to catch up when we can. If you contacted us over the last week or so and didn’t get a prompt response, that is likely why. We do thank you for your patience, and we’ll get back to you shortly if we haven’t already. It’s great to be back in the office, reinvigorated and ready to keep improving NVDA!

   

   The NV Access staff gathered together

   Data Validation Improvements in Excel

   We’ve been talking lately about a lot of the amazing work which has gone into braille support in 2024.4 and beyond. As a counterpoint, I thought I’d pull out one point which is not specifically braille related. This fix in NVDA 2024.4 resolves a bug which has annoyed a lot of our Excel users: Data validation lists. Data validation lists let you specify the permissible values for a cell. Consider a spreadsheet of work tasks where this cell has the name of the employee who completed the task. Rather than making the user type the name in manually each time, a drop-down list can present a list of employees to choose from. Recently, reading such a list hasn’t been working so well, but we’re pleased to report that this now works again in NVDA 2024.4. But how do you make such a list? Let’s try it out:

   1. In Excel, choose the cell you’d like your list in
   2. Press alt+a for Data, then v for data validation, then enter to open the data validation dialog
   3. Press tab to allow which lets you select what kind of data is allowed in this cell (you could select whole number for instance, to allow only numbers such as 4 or 18, but not 12.37)
   4. Use the down arrow to select List
   5. Press tab to Source
   6. Using a named range is the best method as it is more future proof, but you can also type a set of values separated by commas, such as:

      Barbara, David, Emily, John, Rebecca

   7. Press enter

   Now when the focus moves to this cell, NVDA will report “Submenu, B2” (in this case, our list is in cell B2). Press alt+down arrow to open the list, then use the arrow keys to move through the options. Press enter to choose an option to populate the cell with.

   If you’d like to learn more about Data Validation and using Excel with NVDA, we can help! You may find our “Microsoft Excel with NVDA” training module useful. If you are interested, it is available from the NVDA shop.

   That’s all for this week, do try out the NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate and quickly let us know of any issues. We’ll be back with more details on NVDA 2024.4 once it has been released!

7. In-Process 9th October 2024

   October 9, 2024 4:11 pm Comments Off on In-Process 9th October 2024

   This time around, we wanted to put the spotlight on Braille. We have a very enthusiastic community of Braille users, and we wanted to share where we’re at, what we’ve added recently, and importantly – to ask for your help prioritising where to go next. Let’s dive in!

   1. Survey – What should we prioritise?
   2. Recent Braille Improvements
   3. Upcoming Braille improvements
   4. NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate now out

   Survey – what should we prioritise?

   One of the themes which came through from the NVDA Satisfaction Survey earlier this year, was to improve Braille support. Many of the comments were quite general, such as “I would like better Braille support” and “Braille could be improved”. So, we would like to follow up on those comments by asking for more detailed feedback on exactly how you would like to see Braille support improved?

   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 short NVDA Braille Users Survey. Please do fill in the brief survey and pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested!

   

   Recent Braille Improvements

   While we are looking forward to what improvements you would like to see in NVDA’s braille support going forward, we thought we would share some key braille improvements from the past year which you can enjoy in NVDA right now. It is important to note, that every one of these issues started its journey as a GitHub Issue. If there is anything you would like to see improved in NVDA, the most efficient way, is to create a clear, concise and detailed issue on GitHub explaining the steps to reproduce the problem, what happens, what you think SHOULD happen, and details about your setup (for instance if something isn’t displaying correctly, then knowing which display and Braille table you are using is important). The exact information which is useful will vary between issues and whether something is a bug (a feature not working as it should) or a feature request (adding something new NVDA has never had support for before). If you get stuck writing an issue, you can always ask for help in the NVDA user email group or write to us directly.

   So, let’s have a look at some of the Braille highlights this year. These have included Unicode normalisation, custom Braille tables, “Display Speech Output” mode, and many updates, fixes, new tables and display support!

   NVDA 2024.3

   • Options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output
   • Support for Help Tech Activator Pro displays
   • New Braille tables for Cyrillic Serbian, Yiddish, several ancient languages, Turkish, and the International Phonetic Alphabet
   • The fallback braille input table is now equal to the fallback output table, which is Unified English Braille Code grade 1
   • NVDA will no longer cut off speech and braille when reviewing kaomojis and symbols in the emoji panel
   • Support for custom braille tables has been added

   NVDA 2024.2

   • New braille mode called “display speech output”
   • Support was also added for the BrailleEdgeS2 and BrailleEdgeS3 displays
   • New Belarusian and Ukrainian Braille tables, a Lao table, and a Spanish table for reading Greek texts
   • Updated gestures for BrailleSense devices to avoid conflicts with characters of the French braille table

   NVDA 2024.1

   • New Thai, Filipino and Romanian braille tables
   • Support for Bluetooth Low Energy HID Braille displays
   • Multi line braille displays will no longer crash the BRLTTY driver and are treated as one continuous display
   • More objects which contain useful text are detected, and text content is displayed in braille
   • Contracted braille input works properly again
   • Braille is now updated when moving the navigator object between table cells in more situations
   • The result of reporting current focus, current navigator object, and current selection commands is now shown in braille
   • The Albatross braille driver no longer handles a Esp32 microcontroller as an Albatross display
   • In Excel with UIA disabled, braille is updated, and the active cell content is spoken, when control+y, control+z or alt+backspace is pressed
   • In Word with UIA disabled braille is updated when control+v, control+x, control+y, control+z, alt+backspace, backspace or control+backspace is pressed. It is also updated with UIA enabled, when typing text and braille is tethered to review and review follows caret

   Upcoming Braille improvements

   What have we got in the pipeline? Great question! Currently available in the 2024.4 release candidate, you can find:

   NVDA 2024.4:

   • Fixes for Braille display of column headers in Word
   • NVDA can now report font attributes in speech and braille separately
   • Custom text formatting attributes in Braille
   • NVDA can display the start of paragraphs in Braille
   • NVDA can now speak the character at the cursor when performing a braille cursor routing action (plus improved routing reliability and PowerPoint support)
   • All lines of cells will now be used when using a multi-line braille display via HID braille
   • Fixed crash when restarting NVDA during an automatic Braille Bluetooth scan
   • New Braille tables for Thai and Greek international braille & fix for numbers in Spanish
   • Fixed error panning forward in empty edit controls

   And in NVDA 2025.1 so far, we already have some Braille improvements ready to go (subject to change):

   • Support for the Dot Pad tactile graphics device from Dot Inc as a multiline braille display
   • Braille is no longer dysfunctional when activating ‘say all’ with an associated configuration profile
   • In LibreOffice, the current checkbox state (checked/unchecked) is now also reported in braille, not just speech

   NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate now out

   The Release Candidate (RC) of NVDA 2024.4 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 2024.4 release.

   Full information and download at the NVDA 2024.4 Release Candidate announcement.

   That’s all for this week. Please do complete the NVDA Braille Users Survey and try out the NVDA 2024.4 release candidate. Do try some of those new Braille features and let us know what you think!

8. In-Process 20th September 2024

   September 20, 2024 8:33 pm Comments Off on In-Process 20th September 2024

   Welcome back! We’ve got several releases and other news for you this time around, let’s get into it:

   1. NVDA 2024.3.1 Released
   2. Mykael makes it happen in Brazil
   3. RACQ Road Ahead article
   4. NVDA 2024.4 Beta 4
   5. Which reference is right for me?

   NVDA 2024.3.1 Released

   NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.3.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

   NVDA 2024.3.1 is a patch release to fix a bug with the automatic add-on update notification. When automatically checking for add-on updates, NVDA no longer freezes on poor connections. We encourage all users of NVDA 2024.3 and earlier to update to NVDA 2024.3.1. Find the full details and download from the NVDA 2024.3.1 release announcement.

   Mykael makes it happen in Brazil

   We love hearing wonderful success stories from our users. This week, we are very pleased to present to you Mykael, who is busy making it happen in Brazil!

   Thanks so much for sharing your story Mykael!

   

   If you would like to share how you are using NVDA, like Mykael did, we’d love to hear from you! Please do drop us a line at info@nvaccess.org

   RACQ Road Ahead article

   NV Access is very pleased that RACQ’s “Road Ahead” Magazine interviewed us for an article on NVDA, “Revolutionising accessibility through a global community“. RACQ noted: “A Brisbane-based not-for-profit organisation is behind a global movement breaking down barriers for blind people.”

   Read the full article on RACQ’s digital Spring 2024 “Road Ahead” magazine.

   NVDA 2024.4 Beta 4

   Beta4 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.

   Changes introduced in NVDA 2024.4 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

   Since the last In-Process we also had Beta 3, and that included:

   • 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

   Which reference is right for me?

   One of the fixes in NVDA 2024.4 Beta 4 was to some of the text in the Commands Quick Reference. It prompted me to explore just what different types of documentation are there for NVDA? And which is right for you? Let’s have a quick look at the top 5!

   1. Switching from Jaws to NVDA
      If you are coming from using another screen reader, then the Switching from Jaws to NVDA guide or the Switching from Window-Eyes to NVDA guide are both excellent resources to help you get up to speed with NVDA. They include answers to a lot of the “I know how to do XYZ with Jaws, how do I do the same task with NVDA?” type questions.
   2. NVDA Quick Start Guide
      Part of the NVDA User Guide, the Quick Start Guide is for anyone and aims to get you up and running with NVDA as quickly as possible, whether you have used a screen reader previously or not. It includes a lot of the key features and keystrokes which you’ll want to know on day 1.
   3. Training Modules
      The Basic Training for NVDA training module is available in a range of formats. It is in-depth, describing each new feature and how to use it, then giving you a practical step-by-step activity to complete using the feature. Review activities test your knowledge that little bit more before you continue.
   4. User Guide
      The user guide covers every feature in NVDA. It gives you the keystrokes, but does not explain the full purpose of each feature in detail like the training material. Available from NVDA’s help menu and online.
   5. Commands Quick Reference
      Derived from the keystrokes in the user guide, the commands quick reference is a less detailed list of the keystrokes in NVDA. Handy for when you know how to use a feature, but just can’t remember a particular keystroke. For instance, I know that you can jump between text paragraphs with NVDA (from reading In-Process), but I can’t remember the keystrokes? They’re listed in several places, one of which is the Commands Quick Reference. https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-19th-july-2024/#paragraphs

   That’s all for this week. We’ll be back as we get closer to the release of NVDA 2024.4

9. Mykael makes it happen in Brazil

   September 18, 2024 2:32 pm Comments Off on Mykael makes it happen in Brazil

   Recently, NVDA user Mykael reached out to us to share his story. We love sharing stories like this. Helping people achieve independence is why we are so passionate about NVDA. This story encapsulates it eloquently and succinctly too. Here is Mykael in his own words:

   Hello! My name is Mykael, and I have physical and visual disabilities. I am Brazilian. I started using NVDA in 2012 while searching for a way to adapt well to the computer. By 2013, I had already received permission to bring a USB drive to the classroom and use the school computer with NVDA to read study materials. Before NVDA, I was forced to write in Braille, which took longer to correct, and if I made something wrong, there was no way to correct it. After the arrival of NVDA, my colleagues helped me by dictating the content, and teachers could instantly see the result.

   Since then, NVDA has become my main screen reader. I completed my studies in 2018, and, in 2022, I started my first job at a telephone company. There, NVDA is the main reader among all blind people. And I thank you for this incredible work. Since last year, I have contributed monthly so that the reader continues to grow and develop. I love NVDA!

   

   I feel part of NV access, being able to donate monthly and contribute to the screen reader that changed my life. I think what I like most about NVDA is the fact that it is free and accessible to everyone in every way. I’ve been an NVDA user since 2012, and seeing how much it has evolved is very satisfying. I say that software changed my life, because only we know how difficult it is to get a job, and companies rarely want to pay for software licenses.

   Thank you, Mykael! We are so glad that NVDA has been a small part of your journey to employment! Simple things like having access to a portable copy of the software can make such an enormous difference to people. Not having license keys or restrictions to worry about makes it so much easier for people to use NVDA anywhere. NVDA is extremely popular in the workplace. It allows people to easily use the same screen reader at work and at home. There is no financial burden on the employee or workplace, and NVDA is regularly updated. We know that many employers need certain information to install any new software. To meet this demand, we have answers to a range of questions we commonly get asked on our corporate and government page.

   If you share Mykael’s passion for NVDA and are in a position to donate, we would love to have your support. As a registered charity, donations over $2 in Australia are tax deductible. Plus, we have a neat badge you can use online to show your support.

10. In-Process 5th September 2024

    September 5, 2024 1:38 pm Comments Off on In-Process 5th September 2024

    Can you believe we are now 2/3 of the way through 2024! That being the case, I best not hold you up, let’s dive into the blog for this fortnight:

    NVDA 2024.3 Released

    NVDA 2024.4 Beta

    SPEVI Conference 2025

    Creating a Portable Copy

    NVDA 2024.3

    NVDA 2024.3 has been out for a fortnight now. How are you finding it? We’ve had lots of positive feedback so far. Being notified of add-on updates is a hugely popular feature. A number of In-Process readers have been testing out the mouse wheel scrolling commands covered last time around. It’s great to see people testing out new features! Even if you don’t end up using something, knowing it exists is really beneficial, as you never know when it might come in handy.

    If you haven’t tried out NVDA 2024.3, please do read the download announcement here, where you can also download the latest version.

    NVDA 2024.4 Beta

    Hot on the heels of the release of NVDA 2024.3, we’re now into the beta cycle of NVDA 2024.4 with Beta 2 available. We will cover the features next time around, but for now, I wanted to highlight how the beta versions work. As you download and run or even install the beta, it behaves exactly like any production version of NVDA. There are, however, three main differences you should be aware of:

    • There may be bugs. We do, of course, make every effort to ensure every build of NVDA is as stable as possible. Beta versions are still pre-release versions, however, so there may be bugs. If you use a beta version, do be familiar with how to get back to a stable version of NVDA should you need to.
    • If you install a beta version of NVDA, it opts you into NVDA’s beta channel. NVDA will then only receive update notifications for beta and release candidate (RC) builds. The beta/RC channel will always keep you up to date with the latest NVDA version. The last RC in a release cycle is identical to the final stable release. So, users who had installed the NVDA 2024.3 Release Candidate would NOT have been offered NVDA 2024.3 (the stable version) when it came out. But the NVDA 2024.3 RC 1 they were running is identical in all but version name to NVDA 2024.3 (stable). Users running the 2024.3 Release Candidate would, however, have been prompted to update to NVDA 2024.4 Beta 1 when it came out, without needing to read about it here in In-Process or on social media. To return to the stable release channel, upgrade manually to the latest stable build.
    • Alpha and Beta versions of NVDA WILL beep when an error is written to the log. This is different to Release Candidate and stable builds of NVDA which do not by default. There is an option in the advanced settings to “Play a sound for logged errors”. This can be enabled for stable builds or only for alpha / beta builds. The reason for this is that alpha and beta versions are specifically aimed at testing. Although not every error causes NVDA to crash and become unusable, we DO want to know about them. We encourage anyone encountering errors (or anything not working as it should) in NVDA to ensure there is an issue on our GitHub issue tracker.

    SPEVI Conference 2025

    We are excited to share that NV Access will be at the SPEVI conference in January 2025!

    The South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (SPEVI) Inc. is the major professional association for educators of students with vision impairments in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific region. SPEVI acts as the professional body in matters pertaining to the education and support of persons who are blind, have low vision, deaf-blindness, or additional disabilities. SPEVI membership is open to educators, professionals and parent groups who support and promote education for persons with vision impairment.

    The SPEVI conference will be held in Brisbane from January 13-15. Full details at https://www.speviconference.net/

    Creating a Portable Copy

    One new change in NVDA 2024.3 is “By default, a new folder will be created when making a portable copy. A warning message will inform you if you try writing to a non-empty directory.”

    This is a welcome change, but first, what is a portable copy and when might you use one?

    One way of testing a beta build of NVDA if you don’t want to install it, is to create a portable copy of it. Creating a portable copy is also a great way to copy your NVDA settings from one machine to another. It can also enable running NVDA on a public machine you can’t get access to install NVDA on.

    Portable copies of NVDA work just like installed copies. It loads quickly and you can save any settings you change. The User Guide lists the restrictions of portable copies. These include that you can’t have NVDA start automatically. Portable copies of NVDA will not work on secure screens (such as the logon screen) or programs with administrator privileges. You also can’t use audio ducking, touch screen input or features such as browse mode or speak typed characters in Windows Store apps.

    

    To create a portable copy:

    1. Press NVDA+n to open the NVDA menu.
    2. Press t to open the tools menu.
    3. Press c or down arrow to “Create portable copy” and press enter.
    4. Type the folder to create the portable copy OR tab to the “Browse” button, press enter and use the file open dialog which appears to select a folder.
    5. Press tab to “Create a new folder for the portable copy”. This is selected by default and will create a folder called “NVDA” under the folder specified. Press spacebar to UNCHECK this if you do NOT want NVDA to create a new folder.
    6. Press tab to Copy current user configuration. This is not enabled by default. When enabled, it will copy the configuration from the currently running copy of NVDA to the new portable copy.
    7. Press tab to “Start the new portable copy after creation”. This is not enabled by default. When enabled, it will automatically exit the current copy of NVDA and start the portable copy once created.
    8. Press tab to the “Continue” button and press enter to start the creation.
    9. While the new copy is created, a message reads “Please wait while a portable copy of NVDA is created”.
    10. Once done NVDA reports “Successfully created a portable copy of NVDA at “ (and then lists the folder the new copy was created in).
    11. Press enter to acknowledge the message. If you selected the option to start the new version, NVDA will exit and then the new copy will start.

    The new option should greatly cut down the risk of creating a copy of NVDA into a folder which already has other files in it. If needed, you can rename the folder later or copy it onto a memory stick to use elsewhere. From the portable copy, you can “Install” NVDA on another machine. When you do that, there is an option to copy the configuration from the portable copy. Be sure to allow this if copying your configuration from one machine to another.

    That’s all for this week. Please do install NVDA 2024.3, and if you want to test out what is coming soon in 2024.4, do try out the beta!