NVDA is an excellent Screen Reader and I have been using it myself. I like the fact that NVDA is an open source project which means that anyone can access the software and get a very reliable product to boot as it happens.
When browsing the web I've found NVDA to be far better to use than Window-Eyes though not quite as good as JAWS but certainly acceptabel enough to use and who knows, the way NVDA is going may make my comments today history tomorrow, a new build came out only a few days ago. On 06/04/2013, at 10:40 PM, Nicolai Svendsen <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi! > > I actually use NVDA on an everyday basis at this point, and I've found I can > work with NVDA's object navigation as a substitute for JAWS virtual cursor > and all those other cursors JAWS has. I actually find it a lot easier to use, > and it gives me a much better overview. I haven't found JAWS to work that > great with web applications either. Further, in NVDA 2013.1 NVDA receives > more support for Powerpoint applications and general Office improvements, and > that's actually working out quite well. At this rate I'm finding applications > that work better with NVDA, but I'd be curious to know which ones you use > often so I can file tickets and look into it. NVDA is open source, after all. > NVDA add-ons are very handy here, and they're just like JAWS scripts. > > I don't plan to purchase my SMA for JAWS again, even if I'd had different > results than what I'm getting. I'd have to pay four SMAs to get my license > up-to-date, just in order to retain my serial number. That would cost $195 > less than the standard license since their SMAs cost $200 now, but it's still > not worth it since things work pretty well for me at the moment. Plus, I > hardly need researching features in a screen-reading application, but I do > think Flexible Web is kind of interesting. You don't need that with VoiceOver > because a lot of these advertisements are contained within frames so > VoiceOver needs to interact first, but NVDA and JAWS don't. NVDA does if you > use object navigation, but NVDA groups lists and other elements together > which means you have to interact with it to read their content. I've mostly > seen this with lists though, so I suppose you could use that to navigate if > it's a big deal, but it's still a pretty interesting feature.. > > Both JAWS and NVDA rely on MSAA/IAccessible2, so you should actually get > pretty similar results unless the controls require extra work as is the case > with Powerpoint with both screen readers, so JAWS isn't excluded here. MSAA, > for instance, does not provide sufficient information. It does not allow you > to retrieve the location of the cursor, or retrieve individual units of text > in an editable text field, which is part of the issues with inaccessible > applications using these APIs. > > Anyway, I won't go on a technical rant, so I hope this kind of makes sense! > > Regards, > Nicolai > On Apr 6, 2013, at 8:57 AM, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> wrote: > >> You're quite right! there is a bit of Freedom Science Fiction bashing and >> with good reason, who can forget that disgraceful episode when Freedom >> Scientology took GW Micro to court over the issue of place markers, I >> believe that particular case was settled out of court. >> >> Then there's the other case of Freedom Science Fiction deliberately trying >> to take a company out of business just because they had a name which just >> happened to use the word "Freedom" in it. >> >> Thankfully the people at System Access had sense enough not to be >> intimidated and they changed their name, the rest of course is history, that >> being we now have yet another Screen Reader for Windows in the form of >> System Access, yet more competition to JAWS, Window-Eyes and so on which can >> only be a good thing. >> >> Despite all the bashing as you put it, I'm prepared to give credit where its >> due and express my view thus, unless GW Micro do something such as a rewrite >> of many parts of Window-Eyes then they're going to see themselves swamped! >> by the competition and that's not a good thing. >> >> I was most interested to hear your opinions on the Mac and I'm sorry you >> didn't get too far with that however I acknowledge without hesitation that >> the Mac is not for everything and I'm very pleased you tried it rather than >> pretending to try it and deliberately putting obstacles or doubts in your >> way and into other peoples minds. >> >> I use a variety of platforms here for a variety of reasons and all have >> their good and bad points, advantages and disadvantages, likes and dislikes, >> pleasures and pains, weakness and strengths... well you get the drift >> <smile>. >> >> >> On 06/04/2013, at 2:34 PM, David Griffith <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I know that Freedom Scientific bashing has been in vogue over the last few >>> years. They are a commercial company and do not appear to have always >>> unstinctingly operate in their customers best interests. Nevertheless I have >>> been, in practice, reliant on their implementations of Jaws since 2006. >>> >>> As, with others, I have resented the annual upgrage fee I have tried to >>> make the break firstly with experimenting with exclusive use of NVDA on >>> Windows, and then secondly by purchasing an iMac for voiceover usage. Sadly >>> in both circumstances I have had to return to windows and Jaws for serious >>> Office productivity taks. When the pressure is on, and the chips are down, >>> jaws is what I rely upon. I now conclude that in order to retain this >>> productivity edge the yearly Upgrade cost for Jaws is sadly the price I >>> have to pay. There is no feasible way I could nowadays, for example , rely >>> upon Jaws 11, NVDA or voiceover. >>> >>> I cannot comment on Window eyes as I have never used it. >>> Genrally though, with some exceptions, Jaws continues to provide the maximum >>> accessibility for me. >>> Whilst if I had to, I could survive without forking out for Jaws every year, >>> and use NVDA, I would need at least a demo copy of Jaws to assist me with >>> difficult access. >>> >>> The lack of a virtual screen cursor in NVDA means that there are some >>> situations where only Jaws wil do. >>> >>> There are a few happy circumstances where NVDA will outperform Jaws, for >>> example in gaining limited access to the generally inaccessible Calibre >>> Ebook software, but these are the exception rather than the rule. >>> Where access is difficult only Jaws can often solve problems. >>> For example the other week I had an inaccessible interface to deal with , >>> The Adobe Music Importer for the Amazon cloud Player. >>> Using Virtual OCR, and then reviewing the results with the Jaws cursor and >>> performing virtual mouse clicks I was able to get some functionality out of >>> a program which would have been impossible with NVDA or Voiceover on the >>> Mac. It was clunky, requiring me to run OCR multiple times as the screen >>> was updated but I got it to work after a fashion. >>> More importanly, For Office productivity, Jaws and Microsoft Office remains >>> the only serious option for me. >>> I am managing to stick with Office 2003 but I am heavily reliant on Jaws for >>> table management, header and style management, index and content creation >>> and so on. >>> I also have become increasingly reliant on the Jaws text Analyser tool over >>> the last 24 months to produce professional looking output. I know of no >>> screen reader which provides equivalent text analysis functionality, though >>> it is possible Window Eyes does. Certainly NVDA and voiceover on the Mac do >>> not cut the mustard here. It was not until I started to use Text analyser a >>> couple of years ago that I realised the formatting and presentational errors >>> I was creating. My reliance on sighted proof reading has plummetted since I >>> started utilising this and other tools. >>> >>> A similar experience is provided on the web. Whilst NVDA and Voiceover >>> provide feasible web access, and occasionally outperform Jaws, in genral >>> only Jaws will do. >>> >>> The bafflingly complicated and restricted text selection limtations of >>> Safari with Voiceover make it impractical for rapid academic searches. Some >>> elements, including some headers are impossible to select and copy with >>> Voiceover except by using last phrase copied. It is impossible to copy more >>> than a paragraph because of the text interactional limits unless you want to >>> select and copy the entire web page. I could survive with various strategies >>> with Safari and Voiceover but it just takes too much time to flexibly >>> extract the content of web pages I need. NVDA is better and sometimes more >>> stable but I find the fasterst browsing experience remains with jaws. >>> >>> I invested a lot of time looking at the potential of NVDA and voiceover as >>> alternatives to Jaws. In practice still I play with Voiceover and NVDA, but >>> work with Jaws. I wish it were not so and that the fre screen reading >>> alternatives provided feasible office comdpetition that I could rely upon. >>> At the moment they do not. Nobody has ever been able to demonstrate to me >>> that the Mac currently a viable serious Office platform for a blind user, >>> though some limited functionality is certainly possible if your needs are >>> not that great and you are prepared to work at it. >>> I saw only yesterday somebody trying to defend Office functionality on the >>> mac by saying she simply bans people from sending table formatted matgerial >>> to her. This is not a serious response and would be considered eccentric >>> and probelmatic in most of the jobs I have done over the years. It is only >>> a feasible response if you want to remain a non professinal amateur dabbling >>> on the fringes of access. A strategy reliant on instructing the Department >>> of Health not to use tables in the material they sent to me when I was an >>> NHS Manager is so absurd as to be ridiculous. >>> In practice whilst using NVDA on a Windows platform is more feasible than >>> voiceover on the Mac for office usage, it also lacks some crucial tools. >>> >>> David Griffith >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: [email protected] >>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dane Trethowan >>> Sent: 06 April 2013 02:54 >>> To: Windows Access; Share Your Enthusiasm! >>> Subject: The Word Is Out! >>> >>> Okay, I'm not afraid whatever to admit if I'm wrong and I certainly have >>> been wrong when it comes to good Screen Reading software, JAWS and >>> Window-Eyes. >>> >>> I've been using JAWS 13.0 for the last 4 weeks or so and - in my opinion - >>> accessibility to Windows software thanks to JAWS blows GW Micro away and >>> that's a shame as Window-Eyes is far behind in several crucial areas. >>> >>> the most obvious is the Internet browsing facilities, and another is >>> training material - material to help new and old users alike - become >>> familiar with the Screen Reader and associated Windows Applications, >>> concepts etc. >>> >>> Most people on list would know what I'm talking about so I needen't say any >>> more but I will say that I've decided to put my money where my mouth is, I >>> ordered JAWS yesterday. >>> >>> >>> >>> ********** >>> >>> Dane Trethowan >>> Skype: grtdane12 >>> Phone US (213) 438-9741 >>> Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 >>> >>> >>> >>> ======================================= >>> >>> To post to this group, please send your message to: >>> [email protected] >>> The Windows-Access E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, >>> virus and worm-free >>> >>> To modify your subscription options, please visit your personalise >>> subscriber options page, located at >>> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access >>> >>> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Windows-Access forum >>> at either of the following websites: >>> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/windows-access/index.html >>> Or: >>> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >>> >>> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: >>> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> >>> >>> --------------------------------------- >>> >>> >>> [email protected] >>> >>> ======================================= >>> >>> To post to this group, please send your message to: >>> [email protected] >>> The Windows-Access E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, >>> virus and worm-free >>> >>> To modify your subscription options, please visit your personalise >>> subscriber options page, located at >>> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access >>> >>> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Windows-Access forum >>> at either of the following websites: >>> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/windows-access/index.html >>> Or: >>> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >>> >>> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: >>> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> >>> >>> --------------------------------------- >>> >>> >>> [email protected] >> >> >> ********** >> >> Dane Trethowan >> Skype: grtdane12 >> Phone US (213) 438-9741 >> Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 >> >> >> >> ======================================= >> >> To post to this group, please send your message to: >> [email protected] >> The Windows-Access E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, >> virus and worm-free >> >> To modify your subscription options, please visit your personalise >> subscriber options page, located at >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access >> >> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Windows-Access forum >> at either of the following websites: >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/windows-access/index.html >> Or: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >> >> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> >> >> --------------------------------------- >> >> >> [email protected] > > ======================================= > > To post to this group, please send your message to: > [email protected] > The Windows-Access E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus > and worm-free > > To modify your subscription options, please visit your personalise subscriber > options page, located at > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Windows-Access forum at > either of the following websites: > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/windows-access/index.html > Or: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> > > you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> > > --------------------------------------- > > > [email protected] ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 ======================================= To post to this group, please send your message to: [email protected] The Windows-Access E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit your personalise subscriber options page, located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Windows-Access forum at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/windows-access/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> --------------------------------------- [email protected]
