NVAccess

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!

Hi everyone,

NVDA 2024.3 Beta 6 is now available! Since Beta 5 the main change is that we fixed a bug with Unicode character normalization - and we updated some more translations. Do please download and test it and keep letting us know of any issues! Read the full details on NVDA 2024.3 and the new beta here: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3beta6/

Beta3 of NVDA 2024.3 is now available for download & testing. Changes from Beta2 include Add-on update notifications no longer appear when running the NVDA installer & updates to translations. Read more & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3beta3/

Highlights of 2024.3 include notification of add-on updates, Unicode normalisation options, Help Tech Activator Pro display support, mouse wheel scrolling commands, bug fixes for emoji panel & browsers

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

NV Access is pleased to invite you to participate in the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2024.

At NV Access we are always interested in understanding the satisfaction of our NVDA users.

Plus, we like to understand clearly what is important to you and also identify what we can do more effectively.

As in previous years, it is a simple, 3-question survey. It is open to NVDA users and testers around the world. We encourage everyone to complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2024. You can find the survey at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKimQWY1UGBfZkg2a8cpgo790DjyUefRy0GCKNdqXYUwMmYQ/viewform

As with last year, the survey is on Google Forms however you do not need to have a Google account to submit the form.

Completing the survey questions will assist us with improving the NVDA user experience. Please do participate, and share with others, thank you!

NV Access are very pleased to announce the release of NVDA 2024.2! Please download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-2/

Highlights include Sound Split, numerous new keystrokes, new Braille mode & other features, updates to eSpeak, LibLouis & other dependencies & programs.

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #A11y #Accessibility #New #Release #FOSS #Update #NewVersion

This week's In-Process is out, featuring all you need to know about copying text in Word, using Browse mode in Word, getting help in NVDA, and a special thanks to our friends at ISCB! All online now: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-6th-may-2024/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Microsoft #MicrosoftOffice #Office365 #Office #Keyboard

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

Highlights

• “on-demand” speech mode
• Native selection mode in Firefox
• Bulk actions in the Add-on Store Many more updates and fixes. Please see the release announcement for all the info and download links: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1-released/

Beta7 of NVDA 2024.1 is now available for download and testing. Changes from the previous beta include:

• When copying text in Microsoft Word with NVDA’s browse mode enabled, formatting is now also included
• Updates to documentation, Native selection mode, errors when session is locked / unlocked and translations.

Read more & download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1beta7/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Beta #News