NonVisual Desktop Access

NonVisual Desktop Access ( NVDA) is a free, portable and open source screen reader that allows blind people to use computers with the operating system Microsoft Windows.

The project was started in 2006 by Australian Michael Curran, who is like most volunteers themselves blind. NVDA is programmed in Python. Since version 2010.2 Beta1 the screen content is also read by the screen Hooking. However, it defaults to accessibility frameworks such as Microsoft Active Accessibility ( MSAA), the newer user interface automation or the Java Access Bridge. The project uses the GNU General Public License.

NVDA contains the integrated speech synthesizer eSpeak and additionally supports SAPI synthesizer. The output on braille displays is officially available from version 0.6p3.

Support and requirement

In addition to general Windows functions NVDA works with WordPad, Notepad, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. It supports the basic functions of Microsoft Word and Excel 2000/XP/2003/2007/2010. The free office suite OpenOffice.org can be with NVDA but serve well. NVDA supports the Mozilla Firefox ( version 2 or higher) very well. Firefox is the recommended browser for maximum accessibility with NVDA. ARIA is also supported, so that Web applications can be used by blind people in the future much better.

NVDA is running under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 NVDA does not run under Windows 95/98/ME.

256 MB RAM and a computer with at least 1.0 GHz clock frequency are necessary for smooth working. But NVDA is running on slower computers, the program start and individual actions can then but take a little longer.

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