Free screen reader for computers running on the Windows operating system

NVDA

NVDA

  -  34.51 MB  -  Open Source
  • Latest Version

    NVDA 2024.2 LATEST

  • Review by

    Marian Marinescu

  • Operating System

    Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 / Windows 11

  • User Rating

    Click to vote
  • Author / Product

    NV Access / External Link

  • Filename

    nvda_2024.2.exe

  • MD5 Checksum

    09879144371b4fd0acc1d76ab16be079

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision-impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerized voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.

The tool can also convert the text into braille if the computer user owns a device called a “braille display”. The app provides the key to education and employment for many blind people. It also provides access to social networking, online shopping, banking, and news.

NVDA works with Microsoft Windows. You can download it to your PC, or to a USB stick which you can use with any computer. Normally screen readers are expensive, making them unaffordable for many blind people. NVDA is free. It’s been downloaded 70,000+ times, in 43 languages.

  • NVDA 2024.2 Screenshots

    The images below have been resized. Click on them to view the screenshots in full size.

    NVDA 2024.2 Screenshot 1
  • NVDA 2024.2 Screenshot 2
  • NVDA 2024.2 Screenshot 3
  • NVDA 2024.2 Screenshot 4
  • NVDA 2024.2 Screenshot 5

What's new in this version:

New Features:
New key commands:
- New Quick Navigation command p for jumping to next/previous text paragraph in browse mode

New unassigned Quick Navigation commands, which can be used to jump to the next/previous:
- figure
- vertically aligned paragraph
- menu item
- toggle button
- progress bar
- math formula
- same style text
- different style text
- Added commands to jump first, last, forward and backward through the synth settings ring
- Setting the first/last setting in the synth settings ring has no assigned gesture
- Decrease and increase the current setting of the synth settings ring in a larger step
- Desktop: NVDA+control+pageUp and NVDA+control+pageDown
- Laptop: NVDA+control+shift+pageUp and NVDA+control+shift+pageDown
- Added a new unassigned input gesture to toggle the reporting of figures and captions

Braille:
- Added support for the BrailleEdgeS2 and BrailleEdgeS3 displays
- A new braille mode called "display speech output" has been added
- When active, the braille display shows exactly what NVDA speaks.
- It can be toggled by pressing NVDA+alt+t, or from the braille settings dialog.

Sound split:
- Allows splitting NVDA sounds into one channel (e.g. left) while sounds from all other applications are directed to the other channel (e.g. right)
- Toggled by NVDA+alt+s
- Reporting row and column headers is now supported in contenteditable HTML elements
- Added an option to disable the reporting of figures and captions in Document Formatting settings
- In Windows 11, NVDA will announce alerts from voice typing and suggested actions including the top suggestion when copying data such as phone numbers to the clipboard (Windows 11 2022 Update and later)
- NVDA will keep the audio device awake after speech stops, in order to prevent the start of the next speech being clipped with some audio devices such as Bluetooth headphones
- HP Secure Browser is now supported

Changes:
Add-on Store:
- The minimum and the last tested NVDA version for an add-on are now displayed in the "other details" area
- The community reviews action will be available in all tabs of the store

Component updates:
- Updated LibLouis Braille translator to 3.29.0
- New detailed (with capital letters indicated) Belarusian and Ukrainian Braille tables
- New Spanish table for reading Greek texts
- New table for Lao Grade 1
- eSpeak NG has been updated to 1.52-dev commit cb62d93fd7
- Added new language Tigrinya.
- Changed several gestures for BrailleSense devices to avoid conflicts with characters of the French braille table
- alt+leftArrow is now mapped to dot2+dot7+space
- alt+rightArrow is now mapped to dot5+dot7+space
- alt+upArrow is now mapped to dot2+dot3+dot7+space
- alt+downArrow is now mapped to dot5+dot6+dot7+space
- Padding dots commonly used in tables of contents are not reported anymore at low punctuation levels

Fixed:
Windows 11 fixes:
- NVDA will once again announce hardware keyboard input suggestions
- In Version 24H2 (2024 Update and Windows Server 2025), mouse and touch interaction can be used in quick settings

Add-on Store:
- When pressing ctrl+tab, focus properly moves to the new current tab title
- If cache files are not correct, NVDA no longer will restart
- Fixes for Chromium-based browsers when used with UIA:
- Fixed bugs causing NVDA to hang
- Backspace key is now working correctly in Gmail sign-in fields
- Backspace now works correctly when using Nudi 6.1 with NVDA's "Handle keys from other applications" setting enabled
- Fixed a bug where audio coordinates would be played while the application is in sleep mode when "Play audio coordinates when mouse moves" is enabled
- In Adobe Reader, NVDA no longer ignores alternative text set on formulas in PDFs
- Fixed a bug causing NVDA to fail to read the ribbon and options within Geekbench
- Fixed a rare case when saving the configuration may fail to save all profiles
- In Firefox and Chromium-based browsers, NVDA will correctly enter focus mode when pressing enter when positioned within a presentational list (ul / ol) inside editable content
- Column state change is now correctly reported when selecting columns to display in Thunderbird message list
- The command line switch -h/--help works properly again
- NVDA's support for the Poedit translation software version 3.4 or higher correctly functions when translating languages with 1 or more than 2 plural forms (e.g. Chinese, Polish)

Changes for Developers:
- Please refer to the developer guide for information on NVDA's API deprecation and removal process.
- Instantiating winVersion.WinVersion objects with unknown Windows versions above 10.0.22000 such as 10.0.25398 returns "Windows 11 unknown" instead of "Windows 10 unknown" for release name
- Make the AppVeyor build process easier for NVDA forks, by adding configurable variables in appveyor.yml to disable or modify NV Access specific portions of the build scripts
- Added a how-to document, explaining the process of building NVDA forks on AppVeyor