This week we continue our look at the new features of NVDA 2020.4, introduce our newest team member and more!
NVDA 2020.4
It’s been a couple of weeks since the release of NVDA 2020.4 and people are enjoying the new features. If you missed reading about them, you can find all the info in The NVDA 2020.4 Release Announcement. That page also includes a link to the full What’s new in NVDA 2020.4.
One of the new features of 2020.4 is a new command line switch. Specifically, we added --copy-portable-config. This parameter allows you to automatically copy the provided configuration to the user account when silently installing NVDA.
Silently installing NVDA is a way of installing it without needing to interact with it to set it up. Who needs to silently install NVDA? Often organisations who want to roll it out to numerous computers across their networks. NVDA has a number of command line options which are useful in various situations. More information is in the Command Line Options section of the User Guide.
There are numerous benefits to making NVDA available in your organisation. Not least of which, it doesn’t cost you anything, and can make any PC useable by any blind user. Not needing to worry about license keys is of course another great upside of using NVDA, plus, it means that users of that network can use the same screenreading software at home without any personal cost.
For those using NVDA in a corporate environment, please see our Corporate and Government page which answers many of the questions we frequently get asked. And of course if there is anything not covered there, please do email us.
Welcome to Sean!
Our little team has grown. NV Access is very pleased to welcome our newest team member: Sean! We asked Sean to share a little about himself:
“Hello! I’m a recent computer science honours graduate with several years of industry experience at both small and large organisations and an interest in the field of computer vision. While studying computer vision subjects in my honours year, I was inspired by a peer who was researching accessibility related computer vision projects. At the same time, I was involved with a student union campaign to improve accessibility on campus, such as providing image descriptions with student union materials. I started to investigate applications where I could make a difference to improve accessibility, with an eventual hope of becoming a researcher into the field. As a result, I became interested in applying for this role at NV Access. In general, I am passionate about open-source software – so it’s exciting for me to be able to work on such a project and collaborate with this community. I’ve spent the past few years programming for a small software firm, and a brief internship at a larger international software company. In my spare time I like cooking and doing outdoors sports such as bouldering and hiking. I currently live in Melbourne, Australia.”
Thanks Sean, and a very warm welcome to the team!
Microsoft Ability Summit
The Microsoft Ability Summit is “A two-day, free digital event experience that brings together people with disabilities, allies, and accessibility professionals to Imagine, Build, Include, and Empower the future of disability inclusion and accessibility”.
Wednesday, May 5 from 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM, US Pacific Time
Thursday, May 6 from 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM, US Pacific Time
The 2021 Microsoft Ability Summit will feature:
- Keynotes from Microsoft executives and notable members of the disability community
- Expert panels featuring exciting projects and innovations
- Demos of the latest accessibility features in Office, Windows, Xbox, and more
- All sessions will be recorded and available post-event so no matter what time zone you are in, you can access the content at a time that works for you!
That’s all for this week. Please do join in the conversation in the NVDA Chat group and share what you like about NVDA 2020.4 (or what could be improved – we can’t fix issues we don’t know about). Until then, stay safe and healthy!