Blind Main

Ok so I am not sure if it's just a change with the #NVDA 2025 update or not, but my method of making sure my #BrailleDisplay wakes when I reconnect it, leaving focus on the system tray clock, has stopped working. The time will still be read when it updates but if the display has just reconnected it will not change off just reading "braille display", which as long as that's all that is being shown you cannot use the display to input anything. If anyone has thoughts of a setting or add-on that will make it so I can be sure the display will fully wake and accept input when reconnecting I'm all ears.

@main @mastoblind @NVAccess

For example, is there a structure you prefer? Details you wish were provided more often? Do you prefer that descriptions always be objective and matter-of-fact with as little of the writer's opinion as possible? Does this change with the kind of image being described?

I've been learning a lot about internet accessibility since meeting a completely blind person a while back, and it's becoming a major interest of mine. I'd like to learn as much about it as I can.

NV Access is very pleased to introduce the OFFICIAL NVDA users email group. A community dedicated to helping people understand and use the NVDA screen reader in a friendly, safe and welcoming environment. Join at https://groups.google.com/a/nvaccess.org/g/nvda-users or email [email protected]

It's a busy day! NVDA 2025.2 Beta 1 is now out: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-2beta1/

AND In-Process is also out: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-30th-june-2025/ - covering all about NVDA 2025.1, NV Access in the Forbes Accessibility 100, five quick things to try with NVDA 2025.1, and a small end of financial year request: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-30th-june-2025/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Blog #News #NewVersion #PreRelease #Beta #FLOSS #FOSS

Ok @main @mastoblind give me your suggestions for must have #NVDA add-ons. I operate my PC completely with a #BrailleDisplay over bluetooth, and have the Braille Extender, Resource Monitor, and Windows Essentials add-ons that I remember. If an add-on is not in the store please include a link.

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2025.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version. This release introduces NVDA Remote Access, provides speech, braille, OCR & Office improvements, Native selection in Chrome & edge

Full info & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #FOSS #NewVersion #Update #News #Free

Ok for my more up to date tech inclined #blind people, is CCleaner still a valid tool, is it #accessible, and does it work with #NVDA? @main @mastoblind

NV Access are pleased to advise that Beta (and alpha) versions of NVDA are once again available. To celebrate, we've released Beta 10 of NVDA 2025.1: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta10/

Beta 10 includes:

• Updates to translations
• Correct context help navigation for Remote Access dialogs

Thank you everyone for your patience and support, and as always with pre-release builds, please do file any issues on GitHub: https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues

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

Crossposted from https://beehaw.org/post/20362400

Among the prominent leaders in the history of Blind education in Japan are Konishi Nobuhachi (1854-1938) and Ishikawa Kuraji (1859-1944), two sighted educators who contributed greatly to the early development of Japanese Braille in the 1880s and 1890s. Kunmōain, the school where Konishi and Ishikawa taught, opened its doors to blind and deaf students in 1880, and was renamed in 1887 as the Tokyo School for the Blind and Deaf (in short, the Tokyo School; the school was reorganized into a school for blind students in 1909, and a school for deaf students in 1910).

At the time in Japanese society, Blind education in schools, as well as Deaf education, was fairly new. People with disabilities, in general, had limited opportunities and support. The Tokyo School, which earned its status as a school under the direct authority of the Ministry of Education, was one of the few places in Japan where blind and deaf students with some financial means could receive formal education. In addition to a broad curriculum of academic courses, such as language, history, and mathematics, the school offered vocational training in music, acupuncture, and massage – the traditional professions of blind people. Shortly after Konishi was appointed to the school in 1886, Ishikawa joined the teaching staff there upon Konishi’s recommendation. Ishikawa’s immediate task was to thoroughly understand the principles of Braille and transform Braille into a suitable script for the Japanese language. This was no easy feat for anyone, not least because the phonetic and semantic nature of the Japanese scripts had to be accurately codified in the much more limited template of Braille dots.

Japanese Braille took shape over a few years of trial and error. Ishikawa and his committee aimed to develop a functional Japanese-based Braille template that could be used not only at the Tokyo School but also disseminated nationwide as the new standard script for Blind education. From early on, the committee made the crucial decision of comparing Braille with the Japanese kana syllabaries, which are phonetic characters and can be used in writing to represent the sounds of a vast number of kanji characters. [...]

Hi everyone,

UPDATE: The site is back up!

Thanks for your patience with the site over the last day. We sent it to bed without any supper last night, and it's back working this morning - https://www.nvaccess.org/ - you can download NVDA, read most of the pages, etc. A couple of things, including the certification exam and beta downloads are offline over the weekend, and we'll get those back up and running on Monday.

One of my closest and longest friends is starting a new YouTube channel documenting his journey to fulfill a life-long dream of his. Even though he's low vision, through a new program available in Ontario, he has the opportunity to gain his drivers license via the use of a bioptic telescope. If you love cars as much as he does, are just curious, or are a low vision person interested in what a program like this could mean for you, check out his first video on the channel! As far as I know, this is the first time someone has documented the journey of learning to drive with a bioptic telescope from day one, from the perspective of a person with a disability, rather than a doctor or other medical professional.

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 8 is now avaialble (You didn't miss Beta 7, there was a technical issue with the release and we had to immediately push beta 8).

Changes:

• Updates to translations
• Fixes for the Add-on Store & Remote Access in secure mode
• Fix reading math in PDFs
• Fix the toggle report CLDR script
• Fix issues when connecting to an untrusted relay server
• Documentation now includes a tab icon

Read the full update and download from https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta8/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #Beta #News

This kind of bill is what we need more of, which is why we need more Blind people in congress. Glad to see Blind politicians doing the legislative work. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/6204 #Disability #Blind @main @mastoblind

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 6 is now available!

Read the full details and download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta6/

Changes introduced in Beta 6:

• Updates to translations
• Fix for the COM registration fixing tool: don’t run when cancelling with alt+f4
• Minor fix for SAPI 4 voices
• Fix for Braille display detection
• Minor improvements to the user experience of Remote Access

Please continue to test and give feedback via GitHub!

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

I'm looking for an audio-described version of her 2013. And, at least on Blind Mice, I'm not seeing one, and that's where I normally find my audio-described movies.

Edit: Never mind, Blind Mice does have it. It just took me a while to realize that it had multiple pages that I had to click through.

Ok @main @mastoblind what do people use for their mastodon client on Windows with #NVDA? I have tried the web client but it's so so cluttered and there's no way to move through the feeds quickly. I'm on Dragonscave so I need something that will work with that.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29537608

This study explores the experiences of blind and low vision students at K-12 institutions. The students interviewed expressed choosing classes based on the accessibility of the materials. Teachers were frequently insensitive to them. They needed to navigate accessibility barriers in and out of the classroom constantly. Institutions should be more proactive about digital accessibility and offer more teacher training. Check out the full article for more info. #accessibility

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 5 now availableNVDA 2025.1 Beta 5 is now available! Changes since beta 4 include:

• Updates to translations
• Fixes for reading math attributes in PDFs
• Minor improvements to the user experience of Remote Access

Read the full details and download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/pos

I use Uber to commute about once a week and I’ve noticed that having my cane clearly visible makes drivers more likely to back up, make a U-turn or otherwise go out of their way to make the pickup and drop-off experience better for me.

I’ve also noticed a couple of Bolt drivers (that’s a similar company you get in Europe) literally not picking me up. Reported and handled, but I’ve stopped using that app.

Do you guys do anything to self-disclose before a pickup? Like send a message like “hi, please note I’m blind and may miss you where you arrive?” Some drivers have told me you can do that in your profile, but I can’t find any setting about that or info on Uber’s support pages, apart from the Uber Assist service that I don’t think I need.

Any particularly good or bad experiences with this?

@main @mastoblind Ok coming up on a month in and my #Beelink EQR6 #MiniPC has been great, best experience with a computer since I went #Blind. I have it set up as an always on headless device that I am operating with bluetooth headphones, my Bi40x #BrailleDisplay, and #NVDA.

I am not blind myself (yet) … But how do blind people feel about morse code for reading text (or writing it)? Is it a workable solution, or is neural-network based text-to-speech and speech to text preferred? Drawbacks of morsecode include that it takes long to learn and to master.

But these kind of signals can be even understood by blind or deaf people.

Morse code wiki link

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 4 is now available! Changes from Beta 3 include:

• Updates to translations
• Fix security issue which allowed an arbitrary process to connect to a Remote Access session running on a secure screen
• Allow Remote Access leaders to regain control after the last follower has disconnected
• Improve focus handling in the Remote Access Connection dialog
• Don’t toggle Remote Access mute when not connected

Read the full details & download from: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1beta4/