Welcome to NV Access
NV Access is a non-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Australia. We are dedicated to the ideal that access to technology should not incur an extra cost for blind and vision impaired users. We believe that blind and vision impaired people should be able to use any type of technology for the same cost as their sighted peers. To that end, our primary purpose is to support projects and initiatives that provide free and open source computer software solutions that enable this accessibility.
Currently, we exist primarily to develop and support NVDA, a free, open source screen reader for Microsoft Windows. For more information and to download a copy, please visit the NVDA web site.
We may also be able to provide paid support and accessibility consulting services. Please contact us if you wish to discuss this further.
News
NVDA 2010.1 Released
The latest version of NVDA, NV Access's free and open source Screen Reader for Windows, is now available. This release focuses primarily on bug fixes and improvements to the user experience, including some significant stability fixes. You can find out more information, or download a copy from the NVDA website.
NVDA 2009.1 Released
NV Access is happy to announce the availability of NVDA 2009.1, the latest version of the NVDA free and open source Screen Reader for Windows. Please visit www.nvda-project.org to download a copy. Major highlights of NVDA 2009.1 include support for 64 bit editions of Windows; greatly improved support for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader documents; support for Windows 7; reading of the Windows logon, control+alt+delete and User Account Control (UAC) sc ...
Adobe Provides Grant for PDF and Flash Support in NVDA
We are pleased and grateful to announce that Adobe have provided a grant to NV Access to support NVDA development. This grant will enable us to improve support for Adobe Reader and add support for Adobe flash embedded in browsers. This is great news for NVDA users given the increasing regularity of PDF documents and Flash content. This will also help ...
New Grant from the Mozilla Foundation furthers NVDA
We would like to thank the Mozilla Foundation for providing NV Access with another grant allowing the NVDA screen reader to continue and grow. Initially this grant will allow development of much more proper and complete support for ARIA live regions in NVDA. Specifically this work will firstly consist of redesigning NVDA's in-process code, making it less specific to virtual buffers and more generalized so that it will be much easier to add code for such things as ...
Yahoo! Supports the NVDA Project
We're pleased to announce a formal partnership with Yahoo! to support the NVDA project. Their first funding contribution will enable us to implement enhanced table navigation and reporting in virtual buffers, ARIA land marks, ARIA drag and drop and [ NVDA:wiki:FutureGoals#GeneralARIAImprovements other ARIA improvements ...
A 2009 Vision Australia Making A Difference Award goes to NV Access
NV Access is very pleased to have received a Making A Difference Award presented by Vision Australia as part of its 2009 Making A Difference Campaign.
For the past four years Vision Australia has been presenting Making A Difference awards to individuals, community groups and organisations who have shown outstanding support for ...
NVDA Presentation at CSUN 2009
The Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, hosted by California State University, Northridge (and thus usually known simply as the CSUN conference), is perhaps the world's largest conference on assistive technology. Thanks to the generocity and support of the Mozilla Foundation, Mick attended CSUN 2007 and both Mick and I attended CSUN 2008. We gained a great deal from these conferences, as th ...
Microsoft provides grant to improve NVDA
Microsoft has recently decided to support NV Access and the NVDA screen reader project by providing funding and support that will allow NV Access to improve NVDA in two key areas:
- Allowing NVDA to support Microsoft's UI Automation API in Windows 7 (the next Microsoft Windows Operating System); and
- Improving NVDA's support for Microsoft Internet Explorer and other related applications.
Supporting UI Automation means that NVDA gains access to applications ...
Annual Report 2007-2008 and Website updates
Annual Report 2007-2008
I am happy to announce that the Annual Report for 2007-2008 is now available in the Annual Reports section of the web site.
This is our first Annual Report, as NV Access was created only in March 2007. In the report you will find a President's report, a treasurer's report and finance statements from April 2007 to June 2008.
Website updates
Over the last few months we have been making some changes to the NV Access website which shou ...
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 improvin ...
Sponsors
- The Mozilla Foundation: Several significant grants for the NVDA project, sponsorship to attend CSUN conference 2007-2009.
- Capital Accessibility LLC: Provides NV Access with the use of their teleconferencing facility as needed.
- Microsoft Corporation: Grant to implement support for Internet Explorer and UI Automation in NVDA, partial sponsorship to attend CSUN conference 2009.
- Yahoo! Inc: Grant to improve web access in NVDA.
- Adobe Systems Inc: Grant to implement support for Adobe Reader and Flash in NVDA.
Donations
To date, NV Access has received a total of AU$14,898.00 in donations. We would like to extend special thanks to all the individuals who have donated to support our projects.

