NVDA: Free Screen Reader for Windows James Teh & Michael Curran - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

NVDA: Free Screen Reader for Windows

James Teh & Michael Curran Directors, NV Access Limited Lead developers of NVDA

Who is NV Access?

• Australian non-profit organisation
• Develops the NVDA screen reader
• Funded through grants, contracts and

donations

• Received support from Mozilla, Adobe,

Yahoo!, Microsoft

• www.nvaccess.org

What is NVDA?

• NonVisual Desktop Access
• Free, open source screen reader for

Microsoft Windows

• Allows blind/vision impaired users to

access Windows

• Allows user to "read the screen" via

synthetic speech/braille

• Developed by users, for users

NVDA Features

• Zero cost!
• Multilingual: translated into over 40

languages

• Portability: can run entirely from a USB

drive

• Regular, automatic updates
• Supports Windows XP–Windows 8.1 (32

and 64 bit)

Application Support

• Office suites: Microsoft Office

Word/Excel/PowerPoint, IBM Lotus Symphony

• Web/document browsers: Mozilla Firefox,

Microsoft Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader

• Email clients: Mozilla Thunderbird,

Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express/Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail

• Adobe Flash

NVDA Features

• Announcement of controls & content as the

system focus/cursor moves

• Announcement of textual formatting; e.g.

font name/size, style, spelling errors

• Announcement of text under the mouse
• Independent object navigation and review
• Support for touch screens

How is NVDA Being Used?

• By home users: email, news, music,

finance, shopping, social, etc.

• By students: school and university
• In the workplace, including By those who

are self-employed, particularly in IT

• People on the go: public library computers,

Internet Cafes

• Software and website accessibility testing;

e.g. Yahoo!, Microsoft

Usage Statistics

• Over 60,000 downloads in last3 months
• Currently over 15,000 people on average

using NVDA each day, spanning 160 countries

• WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey #4

(2012) reports NVDA 2nd most used Windows Screen Reader

Why is NVDA Good for Students?

• It's free!

– Can have at home as early as possible – Can be installed on unlimited computers – Access to only certain school computers puts students at a disadvantage

• Portability: carry and use anywhere
• Consistency: same screen reader at home

and school

Awards

• 2007: Michael Curran: Australian National Disability

Award

• 2009: Vision Australia "Making a Difference" award
• 2009: Michael Curran: Vision Australia Youth

Service award

• 2010: NVDA appeared on New Inventors Australian

Television show; won "Les is More Award“

– Presented "to an inventor whose invention might make a real difference to people's lives or the environment"

Awards

• 2011: James Teh: Special Excellence Award in

the 2011 QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards

• 2011: Queensland Disability Action Week

Community Organisation - Disability Organisation Award

• 2011: Federal Communications Commission

Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility

• 2011: James Teh: finalist for the Queensland

Young Australian of the Year Award

• 2012: AFB Access Award

Recent Developments

• Support for Microsoft PowerPoint
• Support for track changes in Microsoft

Word

• Configuration profiles: different settings for

different situations

• Updates to work with Microsoft Office 2013

More Information

• www.nvaccess.org