Blind Main

As NVDA is used globally, we are regularly considering opportunities to attend conferences in different locations where we can connect with our diverse community of NVDA users and the wider assistive technology community. Therefore, we are excited to announce that members of the NV Access team will be attending the 2026 Sight City Conference which is being held in Germany during May this year. We are excited about the opportunity to meet with NVDA users from Europe and around the world who will be attending, as well as many like minded organisations, professionals, educators and researchers, experts in assistive technology from Europe and globally. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be attending the 2026 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. We will be sharing updates on what is new with NVDA and what is on our roadmap via our usual channels, our In-Process blog, social media (here), and the official NVDA user's email group

Question to other #NVDA #ScreenReader users: What clipboard manager do you use? I've been using Ditto, but the labeling in the keyboard shortcuts settings is horrible and making it really hard to set them. When I used it on my last PC, I had JAWS, which reads the field names better, but I've chosen not to install that on this PC.
#Blind #Accessibility #Windows #Windows11 #ClipboardManager @main @mastoblind

Beta5 of NVDA 2026.1 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.

Full info and download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2026-1beta5/

Our latest In-Process blog post is out and it's a big one!

• NVDA 2025.3.3
• Restarting after updating
• Where do you get your info?
• #NVDA20
• Thank you Germany!
• NVDA 2026.1 Beta 4
• One week with NVDA

All that and more right here: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-27th-february-2026/

NVDA 2026.1 Beta 4 is available for testing for anyone interested in trying out the next version of NVDA before it is released!

Changes:

• Fixed a rate issue in eSpeak NG
• Fixed changing MathCAT settings
• “Use NVDA during sign-in” is no-longer checked by default in a fresh install
• Warning is given when creating a portable copy if it will downgrade an existing portable copy.
• Updates to translations.

Full details & download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2026-1beta4/

Any Tintin++ users out there willing to share tips? This is the only #MUD client I can get working on #Stormux, and to be honest, the scripting just to add a simple trigger and the error messages are confusing to me. I'm trying to set up some simple triggers for Erion MUD and having a hard time figuring out what I'm doing.
#MUDClients #MUDClient #tintin #orca #ScreenReader #Linux #archlinuxarm @mastoblind @main

Question to #blind #linux users: I'm stuck using my #RaspberryPi500 as my computer for a bit because my PC quit working. Can anyone recommend a #Mastodon client? I'm on #Stormux, based on #ArchLinuxArm.
#accessibility #orca #ScreenReader @mastoblind @main

Hi everyone, NVDA 2025.3.3 and NVDA 2026.1 Beta 3 are both now available.

For those wanting the stable 2025.3.3, go here: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-3-3/

And if you are keen to try the latest 2026.1 beta, you can check that out here: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2026-1beta3/

(If you have installed the 2026.1 beta, please update to the latest beta, do not go back to 2025.3.3, as this would be a downgrade, which we do not recommend)

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2025.3.3 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

This is a patch release to fix a security issue.

Full details and download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-3-3/

(For those on the 2026.1 Beta, a new beta incorporating this patch will be available soon).

Hey @ACBNational @nationsblind @Unitedblindleaders hope you guys are keeping tabs on these age verification moves by various platforms locking out #blind and #disabled users, #Discord is about to start this for everyone and the #OurBlind server already had members in the UK get locked out when that first rolled out there. Would be nice to see some proactive action on this, particularly before other platforms follow suit as they are likely to do, maybe get something figured out that is both #accessible and not a privacy mess, and discriminatory, as providing ID that disabled people are less likely to have is. Deplatforming large online spaces for already marginalized groups is something I would hope you're not in favor of.

@main @mastoblind

Crossposted from https://europe.pub/post/9269750

A utility bill came on paper using:

• black text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, orange, gray..)
• white text (on a variety of different backgrounds- blue, green..)
• very light grey text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• blue text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• 2 kinds of bold text (extra heavy black and dark green)

I’m not blind. I can see it just fine. But when I try to scan this thing into a bi-level doc, it’s impossible because of this shit-show of color combinations. There is no possible level by which all the text can be made clear. As soon as a level is used to eliminate the colored backgrounds, a lot of the light gray text goes white. This forces me to scan it as color, which wastes file space.

So I thought-- what about blind people? Aren’t they fucked in this situation? If I were blind, I would scan, OCR, then use a screen reader on the text. Some OCR tools can work on color docs but I don’t think all OCR software has that.

Reaching the accessibility law is itself a shitshow in the EU now that the EU blocks Tor. Indeed, only clearnet users are permitted to be aware of the law. I had to pull directive 2019/882 from the archives, where the most recent capture was bad but an old capture was fetchable.

Directive 2019/882 seems to only address “products and services”, and documentation for that commercial category. I see nothing about paper bills. That seems bizarre, no?

I found this Color Contrast for PDF Accessibility: Why Does It Matter?, but that’s not exactly relevant.

So is the utility company legally compliant with this shitty unscannable invoice design?

NVDA 2026.1 Beta 1 is now available for testing! Info & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2026-1beta1/

Includes MathCAT built in, improvements to speech, spelling errors, OCR, Braille, highlighter, add-on virus scan results, new languages & more!

Fixes for language not supported error, LibreOffice, Outlook, screen reader web content, malformed links in Chrome

Notes:

• Only 64-bit Windows 10 & 11 are now supported
• Add-ons for 2025.x & earlier are incompatible

Intopia's Australia & New Zealand Assistive Technology Survey is open, only until the end of this week.

The survey is open to users of assistive technology in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND: https://intopia.digital/articles/intopia-launches-assistive-technology-survey-2025/

If you are eligible, please do take part.

@doubletap I'm listening to today's episode ("The Best NVDA Add-ons and Keyboard Tricks You Need") and really enjoyed the discussion around #NVDA workflows and keyboard customisation. I smiled when one of you mentioned struggling to remap an Applications key on a Keychron, because I ran into exactly the same issue after buying my Keychron shortly after Christmas.
What finally worked for me was not using the Menu / Applications keycode directly at all. Even though it's exposed in the Keychron Launcher, it didn't actually do anything reliably on Windows with NVDA.
Instead, I created a macro for Shift+F10, which is the standard Windows keyboard equivalent for the context menu and is very screen-reader friendly. In the Keychron Launcher, I went to Macro, selected a macro slot, chose Start Recording, pressed Shift+F10, stopped recording, and then assigned that macro to the key I wanted.
One important gotcha I ran into: the launcher shows what look like “duplicate” key entries in the macro (for example multiple F10s or Shift appearing twice). Those aren't mistakes. They're the key-down and key-up events. If you delete them, you can end up with Shift getting stuck. Leaving the macro exactly as recorded solved that for me.
Once I did this, the key worked reliably everywhere I’ve tried it, like File Explorer, browsers, and with NVDA, and it's honestly been more dependable than trying to use the Applications key directly. Thought I'd share in case it helps others listening to this episode or experimenting with Keychron keyboards.
#ScreenReader #Accessibility #Blind #keyboard @mastoblind @main

I refuse to send email to most recipients (those using MS or Google mail servers). It’s not individuals who receive my mail, but gov offices, NGOs, and corporations.

So my question is, is there anything I could do if there is a blind recipient? I figure an office would never task a blind worker to handle postal mail. A blind worker would likely be working with email because it’s more easily read (using a screen reader).

Am I accommodating enough if my documents are scannable and OCR-able?

@FastSM I'm noticing a couple issues with #FastSM, and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if they're bugs.
First, when I try to update using check for updates or the new update popup, I get:
Failed to download or apply update: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\Users\lanie\Apps\FastSM\FastSM-update\FastSM\_internal\enchant\data\mingw64\bin'
Second, search doesn't seem to work reliably. I'll do a search for a hashtag and get an empty timeline that never loads anything.
Has anyone else noticed either of these?
@mastoblind @main

Ok does anyoneknow if the #Braille Extender add-on for #NVDA is still being maintained? I checked the GitHub and cannot determine this, but the amount of open issues makes me wonder.
@main @mastoblind @NVAccess@fosstodon.orge

Okay, this is weird. I enabled streaming for home and notifications in #FastSM, restarted the app, and now my home timeline is just...gone. I know I didn't hide it or anything. Has anyone else seen this? I even tried restarting the app a second time. It's still gone.#accessibility #ScreenReader #Mastodon @main @mastoblind @FastSM

How is everyone doing this evening? I'm sitting in bed drinking my medical food shake, listening to music, with a few #IncrementalGames idling, and maybe doing a bit of #Python practice on #Codecademy.
I'm not 100% yet, but I feel stronger than I've felt in a while. I don't particularly care for the taste of these shakes, but my mom and I are working on ways to improve them. It's also a relief not having to worry about whether food will stay down or whether I'm getting the nutrients I need.
I'm also still using and enjoying #FastSM for #Mastodon on #Windows. It's been working well for me so far.
Accessibility / tech note for fellow screen reader users:
If you use #NVDA with #MicrosoftEdge (and possibly #GoogleChrome) and have been dealing with freezes or heavy lag, especially when you have multiple tabs or web apps open, check whether you have the BrowserNav add-on installed. I was experiencing some pretty severe freezes, sometimes to the point where NVDA would become unresponsive for minutes. Disabling BrowserNav made a noticeable difference for me right away, including being able to keep more tabs open without issues.
#Accessibility #ScreenReaders #BlindTech #Disability #ChronicIllness #AssistiveTechnology #WebAccessibility
@main @mastoblind

Accessibility-focused Mastodon question.
I’m currently using the Enafore web client and generally like it. I’ve been seeing some chatter about FastSM, and I’m curious how it compares in real use.
Has anyone here used Enafore and then switched to FastSM? If so, how is it with a screen reader, and what feels different or better (or worse)?
I don’t have much energy for trial-and-error right now, so firsthand experiences would be especially helpful.
#Mastodon #Accessibility #ScreenReaders #BlindTech @mastoblind @main

@NVAccess so I spent an hour on the phone with my credit union yesterday because I could not log into their site, got in eventually but the issue was when typing into the edit fields with a #BrailleDisplay I had to space to actually have the text enter, and running across similar issues with #GitHub, though there I am running across quite a lot of places where it just does not register that anything was entered, yet #NVDA and the display can see it.

@main

Our In-Process blog is back for 2026! And we've got a bumper issue to start with:

We highlight the "Switching from Jaws to NVDA" guide, we have tips for running NVDA on a Mac and creating a new NVDA Shortcut. We hear from a user on their achievements in 2025, and we want to hear yours! And finally, a quick tipe from Jen on Using Clip with the command line!

All available now at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-23rd-january-2026/

Ok @main @mastoblind @NVAccess got a puzzler for all my #nvda users. So somehow yesterday I managed to bungle my way into where NVDA was acting like it was locked into focus mode everywhere, and could not be brought out of it, received "unsupported input" for single letter nav everywhere, and hotkeys like alt+tab would not register. I ended up having to do a full reset on it to fix the problem.I use #Braille Extender, and full#BrailleDisplay operation. Anyone got a clue what the fuck I did?