NVAccess

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 3 is now available for testing. As well as all the NVDA 2025.1 updates, beta3 adds:

• Updates to translations
• Disallow new Remote Access session in Secure Mode
• Update Remote Access interface
• Add unassigned command for Remote Access settings
• SAPI 4 bug fixes

Read the full release notes (including all the 2025.1 features & fixes) & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta3/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #Update #Beta #FLOSS #FOSS #PreRelease #News #Testing #Test #FreeSoftware #ScreenReader

Our In-Process blog is out! Featuring:

• Update on NVDA 2025.1
• Planning for CSUN
• What's on the web
• Reading paragraphs in Braille

And bonus history of the Pilcrow! (Ok I was interested)

https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-27th-february-2025/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Blog #News #Newsletter #Typography #CSUNATC

Hi everyone,

We're taking a well-earned break until the middle of January. We'll endeavour to respond to any direct messages or public queries as soon as possible. In the meantime, have a happy & safe time while we’re on leave. Enjoy Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or just time with loved ones!

We have been asked about it for years, and we are pleased to confirm that we have finally setup an official NV Access mailing list. You can subscribe to receive:

• Our fortnightly In-Process blog
• NV Access organisational updates
• NVDA Release announcements (Stable, and / or beta)
• Good news stories
• Job listings

If you just received an email from us, then we've had your email address from previously and believed you were interested.

If you didn't get our "Greetings from NV Access" email today and would LIKE to subscribe to any of the above, please do go to: http://eepurl.com/iuVyjo (We'll aim to get that form onto nvaccess.org in the new year).

If you did get the Greetings email and wish to change what you receive or unsubscribe, please do use the links in the message.

This International Day of People with Disabilities, we want to highlight our amazing community and how you live the theme of this year's #IDPwD "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future"

We have just put out a blog post; every piece talks about how you, our community are empowered to take on leadership in your lives, your work, and your screen reader, NVDA - check it out here:

https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-3rd-december-2024/

NVDA 2024.4 is now available Featuring many improvements in Microsoft Office, braille & document formatting. We encourage all users to update. There's more than will fit here so please check out the full details & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4/

Please 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.

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Release #News #NewVersion #Update

One of the themes which came through from the NVDA Satisfaction Survey earlier this year, was to improve Braille support. 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 survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKAo14uwbUPCLcI7ukCFcqrfCS1_Kg_iauo5o_vyKeEnxifA/viewform

Please also share with anyone else who may be interested. #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Braille #Accessibility #A11y #Survey #CommunityInput

NVDA 2024.4 Beta 2 is now available. Changes from Beta 1:

• The stability of NVDA’s Poedit support has been improved with the side effect that the minimum required version of Poedit is now version 3.5.

• NVDA is no longer as sluggish when arrowing up & down through large files in VS Code.

• NVDA no longer freezes while checking for add-on updates.

• Updates to translations.

Please go to https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta2/ for the full what's new & to download.

#NVDA #NVDAsr #Beta #FOSS #ScreenReader

(Sorry I was a bit slow posting here - nothing new for those who have seen the beta announcement elsewhere this week - although one thing I'll try differently here and would appreciate feedback on - instead of making a completely new post for every subsequent beta - I'll make the announcements replies to this post. Please do let me know what you think of that or how you find it)

Beta1 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.

Read the full details and download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4beta1/

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.

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

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

Good morning everyone,

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.3 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version. Highlights below; the full information and download links available from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3/

Highlights The Add-on Store will now notify you if any add-on updates are available on NVDA startup.

There are now options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output. This can be useful when reading characters that are unknown to a particular speech synthesizer or braille table and which have a compatible alternative, like the bold and italic characters commonly used on social media. It also allows reading of equations in the Microsoft Word equation editor.

Help Tech Activator Pro braille displays are now supported.

Unassigned commands have been added to scroll the mouse wheel vertically and horizontally.

There are several bug fixes, particularly for the Windows 11 Emoji Panel and Clipboard history. For web browsers, there are fixes for reporting error messages, figures, captions, table labels and checkbox/radio button menu items.

LibLouis has been updated, adding new Braille tables for Cyrillic Serbian, Yiddish, several ancient languages, Turkish, and the International Phonetic Alphabet. eSpeak has been updated, adding support for the Karakalpak language. Unicode CLDR has also been updated.

The Release Candidate (RC) of NVDA 2024.3 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 2024.3 release.

Read more & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3rc1/

Highlights of NVDA 2024.3:

The Add-on Store will now notify you if any add-on updates are available on NVDA startup.

There are now options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output. This can be useful when reading characters that are unknown to a particular speech synthesizer or braille table and which have a compatible alternative, like the bold and italic characters commonly used on social media. It also allows reading of equations in the Microsoft Word equation editor.

Help Tech Activator Pro braille displays are now supported.

Unassigned commands have been added to scroll the mouse wheel vertically and horizontally.

There are several bug fixes, particularly for the Windows 11 Emoji Panel and Clipboard history. For web browsers, there are fixes for reporting error messages, figures, captions, table labels and checkbox/radio button menu items.

LibLouis has been updated, adding new Braille tables for Cyrillic Serbian, Yiddish, several ancient languages, Turkish, and the International Phonetic Alphabet. eSpeak has been updated, adding support for the Karakalpak language. Unicode CLDR has also been updated.

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Beta #PreRelease #FOSS #A11y

Shout out today to one of our illustrious moderators @rumster - who recently acquired NVDA Expert Certification!

I must admit I am not sure of all the other mods so apologies if I've missed anyone else out there :)

NVDA Expert Certification is an online exam you can sit, which tests your knowledge of the NVDA screen reader. The exam is free for anyone to sit, with a cost if you wish to purchase the certification - purchasing gets you a certificate you can print, a badge you can put on your email or other online presence, and a warm, fuzzy feeling from helping us continue to provide NVDA for free to anyone, anywhere in the world!

If interested, find out more at: https://certification.nvaccess.org/ - and in any case, know that we have a wonderful, knowledgeable and supportive community here, so thank you!