Welcome to NV Access
NV Access is based in Melbourne, Australia. We are a non-profit organisation that was created in March 2007. Our main purpose is to support projects and initiatives that provide free and open source software solutions that enable people who are blind and vision impaired to access technology. These projects are also open-source which allows the community to collaboratively create software that meets users needs more quickly.
We do not believe that accessibility should be an extra cost for the end user; and people who are blind and vision impaired should be able to use any type of technology for the same cost as their sighted peers. These include computers, mobile phones, PDAs, GPS systems and so on.
Often, to make such technology accessible, blind and vision-impaired users need to purchase expensive assistive solutions like screen readers, just so they can use a computer like their sighted peers. Currently the majority of this type of software is commercially sold for up to thousands of dollars which can force users into pursuing external funds, and in some cases, missing out on accessibility completely.
So our aim is to support initiatives that eliminate this barrier to equity by providing assistive software free for users. We believe that true accessibility is only achieved when access is delivered equitably to the user.
The main project that we are currently supporting is NVDA, a free and open source screen reader. You can visit our Projects page for more information and for a direct link to the NVDA homepage.
Sponsors
The Mozilla Foundation
Since our inception in early 2007, NV Access has recieved generous financial support from the Mozilla Foundation in the form of both grants and sponsorships:
- March 2007: Full sponsorship of Michael Curran to attend the 2007 CSUN conference in Los Angeles
- July 2007: Grant of US$10,000 for the NVDA project to improve its web access code
- December 2007: Grant of AU$92,000 to hire James Teh to work on NVDA on a full-time basis
- Current: Full sponsorship for Michael Curran and James Teh to attend the 2008 CSUN conference in Los Angeles
Capital Accessibility LLC
Capital Accessibility provides NV Access with the use of one of their conference phone bridge facility as it is needed. It is mainly used for monthly committee meetings and sometimes for other meetings as necessary.
Donations
So far in 2007, NV Access has received a total of AU$13,430 in donations. NV Access would like to extend a special thanks to all the individuals who have donated to support our projects this year.
News
January, 2008
Another grant from the Mozilla Foundation
In December 2007, NV Access was approved for another grant from the Mozilla Foundation in order to hire James Teh (one of the core NVDA developers) on a full-time basis. James was previously working for an IT company and could only contribute to NVDA in his spare time after work and on weekends. This grant from the Mozilla Foundation will enable him to leave his current employment and dedicate all his working hours to improving NVDA. You can read our list of goals to see what we hope to achieve for NVDA with this new grant from Mozilla. The grant will cover all salary and any overheads associated with the management of this position as well as contribute to the general running costs of NV Access.
NV Access is also looking for organisations or interested parties to partially or fully match this funding in order to hire Michael Curran (the other core NVDA developer)to also work on some of these and other goals in order to continue to make NVDA a viable free screen reader solution for people around the world who are blind or vision impaired.
July, 2007
Mozilla Foundation Grant to improve web access in NVDA
In early July, NV Access received a grant for a total of US$10000 from the Mozilla Foundation to support a re-write of the current web access code for NVDA.
This grant will also allow the programmers to conduct research into determining the most appropriate design and method for NVDA to access web content. It will also enable NVDA to fully support Mozilla FireFox and its implementation of IAccessible2.
For the NVDA user, the improved web access solution will mean a more usable and faster experience when browsing the web, including better access to the more dynamic content that has been emerging in recent times.
The grant is expected to run until mid 2008. By which time the design, code and initial testing of the new web access solution should be completed. If you would like to read about the technical progress of the grant work, you can visit the Web Access blog for developers.
Friday May 25, 2007
NVDA version 0.5 is released
NVDA, or NonVisual Desktop Access, is the first completely free and open-source screen reader for the Windows Operating System. The NVDA project developers have just released version 0.5 of the NVDA screen reader. The release can be downloaded as an installer or a portable ZIP file that can be extracted and run from your hard drive or a USB memory key. To read more about this release of NVDA or to download a copy, go to the NVDA Project web site.
Saturday May 12, 2007
Where Is NV Access Now And Where Are We Headed?
NV Access was created very recently, and at this point we have limited resources to support projects. We do not yet have a physical office and we are all volunteers working from home, working on our own equipment.
Our main goal for the rest of the year is to apply for funding from Australian philanthropic organisations and also to apply for project specific grants from international organisations such as the Mozilla Foundation.
If you would like to contribute to our projects, then please visit the Projects page for more information on our projects, and check out the Helping Out page to see how you can help. If you wish to donate to NV Access, you can go straight to the Donate page.