We start with breaking news today: We’re hiring!
NV Access seeking software engineer
We’re Hiring text in purple with sunburst decorations
NV Access is seeking a Software Engineer. The position is 100% remote, work from Home. It is, however, Australia based – you must be classed as “An Australian Resident for tax purposes”. A great opportunity for a junior to mid-level software engineer. Use your Python / C++ skills to empower blind and vision-impaired people globally through technology. Applications from members of the blind and vision impaired software development community are encouraged. Please see our job posting for more information and to apply.
Math Cat
Earlier this year, at the CSUN AT conference, we attended a presentation on screen readers and maths. It was called “What grade did your screen-reader get in Arithmetic?”. The presenters were Mary Stores and Brian Richwine from Indiana University Bloomington. The presentation looked at many different setups across platforms. It was very pleasing to hear that the best way to read maths was found to be NVDA and MathCat.
MathCat is an NVDA add-on written by Neil Soiffer. MathCAT generates speech and braille from MathML. There are three navigation modes which use the same commands as MathPlayer. In addition, the navigation node is indicated on a braille display. Both Nemeth and UEB technical are supported.
CSUN have taken down their 2023 conference resources already. However the team presented at the “Accessing Higher Ground” conference late last year. The resources from that conference are still available
Sharing Casting Call Videos
A few months ago, we invited people to send in videos of themselves using NVDA. We had a fantastic response to this appeal. We’re excited to start sharing some of these videos with you! Over the next couple of months we will post a new video each week on our social media channels. You can follow these on our YouTube channel, Mastodon, Facebook and Instagram (did you know we have an Instagram presence?!)
The first video features someone whose work will be familiar to our French speaking users. Bachir has been a proud NVDA user since way back in 2009. He helped translate NVDA to French from 2010 to 2020 and currently moderates the French email users list.
You can find Bachir’s video on our YouTube channel here.
Thank you Bachir for your great contribution to the NVDA community and for sharing your experience. And thank you to everyone who has contributed videos! If you haven’t but feel motivated to after watching Bachir, it is not too late! Upload your video to your favourite file sharing site (like Dropbox, OneDrive or Google drive). Then, send us the details in an email to info@nvaccess.org.
As we post this, you can also now find our second video on the same social media channels. The subject will be familiar to members of the NVDA Users email list!
Intopia Assistive Technology Survey 2023, Australia and New Zealand
For our users in Australia and New Zealand, Intopia are running their second Assistive Technology Survey for users in Australia and New Zealand. The survey was due to have concluded by now, but they have had a great response and have kept it open for a little while longer. If you are in New Zealand or Australia and would like to participate, they’d love your input! Please allow 10 – 15 minutes or longer to complete the survey.
Reading the battery level
If you use a laptop, one thing you need to be aware of is your battery level. Just like on your phone, it’s important to know this so you don’t find yourself without charge right when you need it.
Windows puts an icon in the notification area which a mouse user can hover over to find out the information.
NVDA has a keystroke: NVDA+shift+b, which will report the laptop is charging or not, and what the level is. It may also report the estimated time remaining. NVDA will also report the change when the power cable is plugged in or unplugged.
My laptop was on charge overnight so when I press NVDA+shift+b, NVDA reports “98% charging battery“. If I unplug the power cable, NVDA reports “AC Disconnected, 98%“. If I now press NVDA+shift+b, NVDA says: “98% AC disconnected“. And when I plug the power cable back in, NVDA reads: “Charging battery 98%“.
Windows may also give an estimate of the amount of time remaining before the battery goes flat. This is based on how much energy you are drawing as you use the PC, and how long it has been unplugged for. The longer you use it while it is unplugged, the more accurate the estimate will be. This information won’t be available immediately upon unplugging AC power. Having had the the laptop unplugged for a little while as I work, when I now press NVDA+shift+b, NVDA reports “86%, 2 hours and 10 minutes remaining, AC Disconnected”.
That’s all for this week. Please share our job advertisement to anyone who may be interested. If you work with maths, do try out the latest MathCat. Otherwise, enjoy our videos on social media (or submit your own), and we’ll be back soon!