Blind Main

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Announcing RBlind custom dark and light themes for Lemmy (rblind.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink

As part of OurBlind's continued efforts to provide accessible online spaces for the blind and visually impaired community, we've developed custom themes for Lemmy, to use on our Lemmy instance on Rblind, and to make available for others, in keeping with the themes' license terms and the spirit of free and open source software.

If you're reading this on www.rblind.com and are not signed in, you're using RBlind-Dark. We hope you're enjoying it! If you log in, you can switch to RBlind-Light. Once logged in, go to your username, then Settings and, use the Themes dropdown to make your selection: we suggest RBlind-Dark or RBlind-Light at the end of the list.

Why these themes matter to us

We started this Lemmy instance back in 2023, prompted by the Reddit API protests. Reddit Inc., the company that controls the website our community r/Blind is on, had announced policy changes that made the apps most of us used to participate in the Reddit community impossible to maintain. During this time it became clear to us and many other online communities that a corporate-owned platform would always be subject to pressures that are contrary to our needs. We launched this site as our blind-friendly home base in the fediverse, a decentralized and often self-hosted social media platform.

The goal of having our own home server was always to be able to make our own decisions about the software we run on it. One of those decisions is that the visual styling should always be comfortable for low-vision users and other disabled people, as part of our core audience. That meant designing and providing themes that, within our technical limitations, conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

How we designed our Lemmy themes

OurBlind admins contracted Travis, a talented graphic designer from within the community, for this project. Check out his website here. Together we went over specific requirenments within WCAG and the site's usage, colors, layout, preliminary testing, and communication, to develop both the themes themselves and the framework for future work and sharing.

How these themes meet our goals

In short, the new themes ensure high contrast, colorblind friendly colors, readable fonts, and appropriately-sized and readable buttons and links.

Following are examples of the home feed using the new themes.

RBlind-Dark example

RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Dark

RBlind-Light example

RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Light

Time for testing and feedback

These have been audited by OurBlind admins, but that's only part of the validation process. If you're using this site and have low vision, colorblindness, a cognitive or a motor disability, consider providing feedback. Do they work well given your needs and use case? Do you like them? Does something not work quite right? Comment below or fill out the anonymous survey. Don't hesitate to comment if you're not a member of this instance or not disabled - we want these to be helpful to as many people as possible. Thank you!

We'll be collecting feedback and open to revisions until February 1st 2025. Even after that, we'll still be interested in your experience, but will take longer to respond and adjust.

How to use these themes on your own instance

As mentioned, this project is all about the value of free and open source software in ensuring control and autonomy. We're making this our home in the fediverse and we want to be good neighbors. We already offer the broader community a place for discussions around blindness, but we also want to contribute back.

These themes are licensed under GNU AFFERO General Public License and available at the Codeberg repo to be used or modified. Updates to the themes that come as a result of user feedback will be available there. Definitely give Travis a star and consider hiring for your own design needs, he's been a delight to work with.

The repo is also mirrored on GitHub for accessibility reasons.

Thanks, from RBlind

This community's journey has been long and thrilling, across three platforms and over a decade. Everybody on the admin and moderation team has deeply benefitted from and grown with the community. These themes are a humble gift to our members and our neighbors on the fediverse. May they make all our lives that bit more comfortable.

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A Brief Introduction to RBlind (rblind.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

5 comments fedilink

Welcome to rblind.com, a community for blind folks and friends! This is one of the communities affiliated with the OurBlind network. Here, you can interact with both blind and sighted folks alike, in an open, friendly, environment. Just as with Reddit, you can, and are encouraged, to upvote and downvote posts and comments, post your own links and topics in communities, and participate in discussions with others.

Signing Up

As with any community, the first step to participating is to sign up for an account. To do so, you can use the "sign up" link, located in the navigation landmark. You'll be presented with a form that asks for a username, email, password, and asks a question about why you want to join. You'll also be asked if you'd like to see NSFW (not safe for work) content.

Don't worry! We approve all accounts fairly quickly. There's no need to over-think the "why do you want to join" question. We do things this way in order to keep out the spammers, without having to use a captcha or some other inaccessible challenge.

Logging in and first steps

Once your account is approved, you can log in! The first thing you'll want to do is to visit the settings link, and go over the available settings. Once successfully logged in, you'll find the settings link in the navigation menu. Here, you can do things like set your display name, select what languages you'd like to see posts in (we strongly recommend keeping undetermined selected), enable two-factor login if you'd like, change the visual theme of the website, and more. After adjusting the settings, you can press save and the changes will be applied.

Finding Communities

Once you've gotten your settings the way you like them, it's time to find some communities to join! To do so, find and activate the "communities" link. You'll be presented with a page containing several controls and a table containing a list of communities.

By default, you'll be seeing what are called "local" communities. A local community is a community that is run by us here at OurBlind. You'll want to make sure that you're subscribed to blind main, and research. To do so, find the table containing the list of communities. Column four of each row will contain a button labeled "subscribe" that will allow you to subscribe to the community, or "joined" if you're already subscribed.

But RBlind is more than just a forum for talking to other blind people! It wouldn't be much fun if we were isolated in our own bubble, without being able to interact with the rest of the world, would it? That's why RBlind allows you to join other communities, run by other people. To list these communities, find the set of radio buttons above the table on the communities page. These radio buttons give you three options:

subscribed: only show the communities you're subscribed to
local: only show local communities run by us
all: show all of the communities that RBlind knows about

You'll also find a combo box that allows you to change how the communities are sorted, and a text field that will let you search for a particular community.

For now, set the radio buttons to "all". You don't need to click the search button, or do anything else. As soon as you change the radio button, the table of communities automatically updates.

Now, you should find a table with 50 rows. Just under the table is a "next" button, that will load the next page of communities. You'll notice that under the "community name" column, the names look a bit like email addresses. This is telling you what the community is called, and what website runs it. For example, [email protected] is the Shower Thoughts community (similar to the one on Reddit), and it's run by a website called lemmy.world. However, you don't need to worry too much about that! You can subscribe to the community, and make posts and comments, just like you would in a local community. The only thing to be aware of is that just like on Reddit, different communities are run by different people. That means each community will have its own rules and customs. We at OurBlind only set the rules for the communities that show up when you set the radio buttons to "local".

Interacting with posts and comments

Congratulations! Now you've signed up for an account, subscribed to some local communities, and even found some interesting remote communities to join! It's time to start reading and interacting with posts.

To do so, find and click the first link in the navigation menu, directly below the jump to content button. Your screen reader will probably read it as "current RBlind" or similar. This link will take you to your homepage.

Your homepage consists of a list of posts, each marked with a heading level one. Above the heading for each post, you'll find an upvote button, the number of votes the post currently has, a downvote button, and perhaps a link (if one was included) or an expand button for images (if the post has an image). Under each post you'll find information about the post, like who posted it, where it was posted, and the number of comments it has.

If you found the post of value, you can press upvote. If it was off-topic, low-effort, or spam, you can downvote. If you'd like to view and participate in the comment section, you can activate the heading level 1 link. If the post has a link associated with it, you can cursor up once from the heading level 1 to find and press enter on it.

the comment section

Hopefully, after browsing your homepage for a while, you've eventually found an interesting post that you'd like to participate in. To load the comments, activate it's heading level one, and the comments section will load.

The comments show up in a set of nested lists. Just as with posts, they have upvote and downvote buttons. You'll also find a "collapse" button above some comments. If you're uninterested in a particular part of the discussion, you can use this button to collapse the thread of comments, hiding it. If you'd like to reply, you can press the reply button, and a text box will become available for you to type your comment. If you'd like to post a new comment, you can use the text box above the list of existing comments.

On this page you'll also find a set of radio buttons that control how the comments are sorted. "Hot" is the default, recommended option. However, you can also sort by "new" to see comments in order, "top" to see the most popular comments, and several others.

If someone replies to your post or comment, you can find this by visiting the "inbox" link in the navigation menu.

Making A New Post

Congratulations! You've read your feed of posts, interacted with some, and maybe even made a comment or two of your own. You're well on your way to becoming an RBlind expert! But what about when you have something you want to share?

Well, that's also easy! First, find and activate the "create post" link in the navigation menu. The create post form will load. In this form, you need to enter a title and a body for your post. You can also optionally select a language, add a link, an image, and a thumbnail. You also need to select what community your post will be part of. When you open the community combo box (by cursoring down on it), you'll be given a long list of communities. However, you can also shift tab to a search box that will allow you to filter the list. For example, if you wanted to find our main community, you could type "blind" in the search box, tab back to the list, and select "blind main".

Mobile Apps

Now that you're an RBlind veteran, you might want an app to better use the website on your phone. Currently, the app we recommend is called "thunder for lemmy". It's available for free in both the IOS and Android app stores. When it asks you what server you want to log into, you need to make sure and enter rblind.com. We also recommend going into the Thunder settings, and adjusting them to your taste.

Thunder is also available for users of Mac OS who have arm-based macs. However, currently those of us on Windows and Linux are best to use the rblind.com website.

Other Useful Resources

LemmyApps: this website allows you to find third-party apps that will work with RBlind and filter them by various platforms and features, including accessibility! Note, however, that the administrators of RBlind haven't tested all of these apps. If you have good luck with one of them, we'd love it if you made a post letting us know.
Lemmy Explorer: this website lists other communities you can join from RBlind, that we might not know about yet. In order to have the best experience with a screen reader, after selecting the "communities" tab, press the "list view" button. If you set your home instance to rblind.com, clicking on a community will allow you to subscribe to it.

Can't I post from Mastodon?

Yes, sort of. Currently you can make new posts to rblind.com from Mastodon, and reply to existing ones. However, you can't upvote or downvote posts, see how many votes a post or comment has, or subscribe to other communities. So we do recommend making an account on rblind.com directly for most purposes. However, if you want to interact from Mastodon or other "fediverse" software, the usernames to interact with are @[email protected] and @[email protected].

Conclusion

We hope this brief introduction to the RBlind website has been helpful to you! If you have any questions, feel free to post to blind main, post in the comments here, or reach out to us for support.

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Merry Christmas and Happy new Year! (rblind.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1 comments fedilink

Hi everyone,

We're taking a well-earned break until the middle of January. We'll endeavour to respond to any direct messages or public queries as soon as possible. In the meantime, have a happy & safe time while we’re on leave. Enjoy Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or just time with loved ones!

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The narration company behind Dungeon Crawler Carl and many other great audio books needs accessibility feedback for their new app! (rblind.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1 comments fedilink

Hey guys! Links near the bottom:

So Sound Booth Theater, who do allot of popular books and audio dramas mainly in the Lit RPG Genre like DCC, Kaiju Battlefield surgeon, Dead Tired, Industrial Strength Magic, Epithet Erased, Eternal Dominion, Relict Legacy ETC, have had an app for a while, but it's horrible. Just, so bad not only for us but also for sighted people. However, the company they use to negotiate pricing with Audible (ACX) is going to start charging allot more soon, so they need to start selling everything from their own platform if they want to stay afloat.

As part of that, they are rewriting their shitty app from the ground up, and it's now finally in public beta. And they've said they are committed to screen reader accessibility, but it's still pretty bad. Which makes sense as they probably can't afford a proper consultant...

I've been giving them lists of bugs, but I only have an iPhone, and I'm not even on the latest version of IOS. Besides, I'm just one guy, and I might miss things or not be able to explain them as well as someone else. So if you like SbT's narration, and you want a more accessible app, this is the time to get in on it, when they are still throwing all of their resources into making it as good as possible. We may not get this kind of chance again for months or years to come!

Here are the beta links, and some extra info below that.

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.iglu.soundboothapp

IOS:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/Dz41rI4w

Currently you can't buy stuff on the app, but their are lots of freebies you can add to your library for testing or just your own enjoyment. You can give feedback from within the app by hitting the "report a bug" button in the profile tab.

So far, I've noticed mostly lots of unlabeled buttons, situations where it's unclear what option is selected, fields and buttons that don't announce them selves as such, and a lack of headings in certain important areas.

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New NV Access email list (rblind.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

We have been asked about it for years, and we are pleased to confirm that we have finally setup an official NV Access mailing list. You can subscribe to receive:

Our fortnightly In-Process blog
NV Access organisational updates
NVDA Release announcements (Stable, and / or beta)
Good news stories
Job listings

If you just received an email from us, then we've had your email address from previously and believed you were interested.

If you didn't get our "Greetings from NV Access" email today and would LIKE to subscribe to any of the above, please do go to: http://eepurl.com/iuVyjo (We'll aim to get that form onto nvaccess.org in the new year).

If you did get the Greetings email and wish to change what you receive or unsubscribe, please do use the links in the message.

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W3C, DAISY and NISO co-hosted webinar: Advancing Digital Accessibility for Scientific & Technical Publications (www.w3.org)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

W3C, DAISY and NISO are co-hosting a webinar: Advancing Digital Accessibility for Scientific & Technical Publications

The DAISY Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) invite you to this Webinar happening on December 17, 10:00-11:30 AM Eastern time, 15:00–16:30 UTC.

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Really cool audio based social network for the blind (livewire.us)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink

It's all done over the phone or via VOIP. I love it. Check out their site livewire.us or call 602.560.6050. Seems to have a lot of folx on all the time.

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Pathways to Disability Empowerment- Transform Your Future: Write a Resume. (thelighthousefortheblindinc.zoom.us)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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These magicians just designed a new trick for people who are blind (www.fastcompany.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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games for blind gamers wiki (gamesforblindgamers.miraheze.org)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1 comments fedilink

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Our In-Process blog is out (rblind.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

This International Day of People with Disabilities, we want to highlight our amazing community and how you live the theme of this year's #IDPwD "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future"

We have just put out a blog post; every piece talks about how you, our community are empowered to take on leadership in your lives, your work, and your screen reader, NVDA - check it out here:

https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-3rd-december-2024/

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Free webinar 2024-11-26: How to Train Friends and Family on a Screen Reader (nfb.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind | The Blog of Michael Taboada (michaels.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink

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And we're back (rblind.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

After a server outage, getting a new server, multiple DNS and https issues, and restoring from backup, we should now be done with all of the various weirdness.

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NVDA 2024.4 released (rblind.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

NVDA 2024.4 is now available Featuring many improvements in Microsoft Office, braille & document formatting. We encourage all users to update. There's more than will fit here so please check out the full details & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4/

Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER.

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Release #News #NewVersion #Update

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Seeking suggestions for VoiceOver-friendly Lenny clients for iOS/iPadOS (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink

Greetings… sort of new to this whole Lenny thing. I’m using an iPhone 15 Pro Max and am looking for options that would allow me to read posts on Lenny, post to communities & that works well with VoiceOver. At the moment, I’m writing this using an app called Voyager, but it has some accessibility issues, so I figured it might be a good idea to toss this question out there and hopefully get some responses. Anyone had experience with apps for Lenny on iOS/iPadOS, especially when it comes to accessibility? Inquiring minds wish to know… Thanks for reading this, and looking forward to your comments.

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NVDA with braille user survey (rblind.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

One of the themes which came through from the NVDA Satisfaction Survey earlier this year, was to improve Braille support. To help us target the most needed improvements, we have created a short survey. If you use NVDA with braille at least some of the time, please consider completing this survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKAo14uwbUPCLcI7ukCFcqrfCS1_Kg_iauo5o_vyKeEnxifA/viewform

Please also share with anyone else who may be interested. #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Braille #Accessibility #A11y #Survey #CommunityInput

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RBlind.com hosting issues (rblind.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1 comments fedilink

Did you notice we were gone for a few days? Twice?

Yeah, sorry about that.

We’re working on understating the issues with the provider, and on mitigations and the path forward.

If we’re down again and users need to do something, we’ll have an update on https://ourblind.com.

We’ll also post on here, but the issue with that is obvious.

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Want to make games for Blind people - Looking for thoughts/suggestions (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1 comments fedilink

Hey blind folks on Lemmy!

I'm an ex-mobile game dev, and noticed while searching today there's about 45 million fully blind people in the world, but I couldn't find much about games targeting blind folks.

It seems like there's mods on existing games to assist blind people, but in my quick search there's no dedicated groups to making games for blind people as their top priority.

I have a few questions:

First, do you think lots of blind people would be interested in playing games? Think for like an hour or two a day.

Second, what sort of games would be good for blind people? Are there any games you think would be fun if someone made it for you?

Third, how would blind people like to play games? Would they prefer a phone with like one big button (i.e jump) with haptic feedback and sound, or would they prefer something like on a laptop and a screen reader?

Forth, right now I'm thinking about making a competitive math game; you have one minute to answer as many questions as possible. I was planning on using audio/screen reader to output the question, but similar to the third question, I'm curious on what's the easiest way to input the answer.

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NVDA 2024.4 Beta 2 is now available (rblind.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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

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PSA: even when you’re happy with your AT setup, keep learning and trying new settings (rblind.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink

I’ve been using full screen magnification on computers since Windows 7 came out. I could have been doing it earlier on macOS, but there you go.

The problem

Since then, I’ve had my settings locked in: using the mouse or trackpad to pan, not allowing the zoom window to follow keyboard focus, because the snapping makes me dizzy.

I was rewarded for my efforts with a generally comfortable desktop computer experience, and chronic wrist pain that stopped me from really learning the guitar or playing serious FPS games. Mind you, the closest I’ve gotten to a diagnosis for this is “oh, that does make sense, maybe that’s why.”

I’ve been trying to get used to using keyboard focus following, but it just hasn’t worked for me. Until today, that is.

The solution?

Did you know on macOS you can adjust the speed at which the zoomed in screen follows focus? And that you can have it only move when the cursor reaches the side of the screen? I sure didn’t!

I already have a collection of ergonomic mechanical keyboards, but I already have to complement them with a trackpad. I’ve considered throwing even more money at this problem and getting a trackball. I guess I don’t have to?

Next steps

I’m going to try to get used to this on my personal computer. I may need to create new keyboard macros or adjust settings further. I’ll have to get used to a whole new workflow that’s very different from what I’ve been using for 15 years, but the potential advantages are huge.

I need to be as quick navigating the computer this way as I am with the trackpad, but I always use a lot of typing for actions - Spotlight search, Raycaat, the command palettes on VS Code and Rider - so I think it’s doable.

Takeaway

I, at least, accept that there are takeoffs when accommodating for and dealing with my disability. In this case I’ve practically been accepting developing a new disability in exchange for being able to work with one I already have. Gotta keep that shareholder value ticking up.

You may or may not be doing the same, but chances are you’ve figured out what works for you and gotten into a local maximum of efficiency, like I did. Alternatives similar to this are worse, so I that this was as good as it got. I had to experiment with what I knew wouldn’t work for me to have the opportunity to find something that works even better. Maybe that’ll be an absolute maximum in efficiency for me or maybe I’ll learn something better later on.

The bottom line is experimenting and trying different approaches is always a good idea. Worst case scenario, you confirm you’re doing the best thing for you.

Do you have any experiences like this? Finding out your perfect setup wasn’t so perfect after all?

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NVDA 2024.4 Beta now available (rblind.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink

(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.

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So I'm trying out some Rayband glasses, and I have some questions about the AI for any blind people that use it: (tweesecake.social)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink

So I'm trying out some Rayband glasses, and I have some questions about the AI for any blind people that use it:

* Is it best to just say "look and describe" or ask for specific questions? I tried asking about lighting in a room "look and tell me if the lights are on" but it said no when the switch was flipped both ways. Could be AI issues, could be that the controllable light was set too dimly.
* What have y'all found them useful for as far as describing?
* Any specific way to prompt it that you use, like "look and describe" or "look and describe in detail" that you use?

#RayBand #accessibility #blind @main

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NVDA 2024.3 Released (rblind.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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.

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NVDA 2024.3 Release Candidate now available (rblind.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

0 comments fedilink

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