Blind Main

As it is the start of the month I would like to invite my fellow #Blind, #DeafBlind, and #VisuallyImpaired people, along with their family, and friends, to #OurBlind. OurBlind comprises the #Discord, #Lemmy, and #Reddit communities operated by the staff of the r/Blind subreddit, as well as those who have joined since the creation of the Discord in 2022, and Lemmy in 2023. We have members from all over the world, and of all ages, hearing and vision levels, and are a welcoming and safe space for Our #LGBTQIA and #neurodiverse friends. Our general community guidelines, and the links to reach our platforms can be found on our website.

https://ourblind.com/

@main @mastoblind

NVDA 2025.2 Beta 5 is now available for testing!

Read more & Download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-2beta5/

Changes in Beta 5:

• Fixed a bug where supported languages were incorrectly being reported as unsupported.
• Updates to translations.

Please try Beta 5 and let us know what you think.

At NV Access we are always interested in understanding the satisfaction of our NVDA users. Plus we like to understand clearly what is important to you and also identify what we can do more effectively. We encourage you to complete the NVDA Satisfaction Survey 2025 to assist us with improving the NVDA user experience. It is a short, three question survey, which is anonymous and does not require signing in.

Complete at: https://nvaccess.org/survey

NVDA 2025.2 Beta 4 is now available for testing!

Read more & Download at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-2beta4/

Changes in Beta 4:

• Fixed retrieving some text in object navigation / review cursor
• Added a warning before installing or updating NVDA on the controlled end of an NVDA Remote Access connection.
• Removed changes to trusted certificate handling which caused problems with NVDA Remote Access & some add-ons.
• Updates to translations.

Hi everyone,

Two tidbits from me this morning:

1. We've made it even easier to get to the official NVDA users email group. Just head to: https://nvaccess.org/nvda-users - Join NV Access staff and the community, ask questions, share tips, and enjoy a friendly and welcoming atmosphere (not unlike here :) ).

and

2. I've updated the NVDA Connect page with some more resources - including RBlind.com here (Which, I think, is just about the only more general resource on there rather than being NVDA specific - but I know @rumster@rblind.com and everyone here are great friends of NV Access, so I slipped you in :)

And a head's up that we should have another beta of NVDA 2025.2 out shortly - I'll post again when that's out, then I'll leave you in peace - unless of course, anyone has any NVDA questions - I'll keep an eye out for those as always :)

Quentin

So it would appear that Orca and the cinnamon desktop environment do not particularly like each other.

Since cinnamon is a fork of the gnome project, it somewhat works. Like I can view my desktop icons and use the terminal and view files in the file manager. But I cannot use the start menu, view the panel and system tray, etc.

Also, it appears while the file manager does let me view files and folders. I can't shift tab through other functionality from the file manager.

In-Process is now avaialble! A big one this week, which includes:

• Official NVDA users email group
• Using Google Groups
• NVDA 2025.2 Beta now available!
• Reporting issues with NVDA
• Three quick tips from Noelia

Check it all out now: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-17-july-2025/

NVDA 2025.2 Beta 3 is now available for testing: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-2beta3/

Changes introduced in Beta 3:

• Added a WASAPI toggle to SAPI5.
• Added a confirmation dialog to update root certificates when downloading add-ons.
• When using NVDA Remote Access, speech from User Account Control screens on the remote computer now works reliably.
• Updates to translations.

Ok I debated making this but it cannot hurt. I hope all my fellow #Blind, #DeafBlind, and #VisuallyImpaired people, along with their family, friends, and others have had a great time at the #ACB and/or #NFB 2025 conventions. I am taking this time, and the increased activity on certain hashtags to do some shameless promotion of #OurBlind. OurBlind comprises the Discord, Lemmy, and Reddit communities operated by the staff of the r/Blind subreddit, as well as those who have joined since the creation of the Discord in 2022, and Lemmy in 2023. We have members from all over the world, and of all ages, hearing and vision levels, and are a safe space for Our LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse friends. Our general community guidelines, and the links to reach our platforms can be found on our website.

https://ourblind.com/

@main @mastoblind

So I use a combination of magnification gestures and Talkback but I've noticed that in bard if I click search and Find a book and then I turn on my screen reader in order to actually read the description it always goes back to the search page and I lose what I was on. It is really annoying because no other app does that

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 nvda-users+subscribe@nvaccess.org

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

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