It’s a busy time at NV Access: NVDA 2026.1 is AVAILABLE NOW!
- NVDA 2026.1 Released
- Important notes for NVDA 2026.1
- NV Access All hands
- Copying the NVDA version number
NVDA 2026.1 Released
This is the longest “Highlights” section of release notes we’ve had! So, I’m going to let it speak for itself without making it longer:
NVDA 2026.1 includes support for reading math content with MathCAT, which is now built-in to NVDA.
There have been several improvements to speech. Spelling and grammar errors can now be reported with a sound instead of speech when reading. You can now configure NVDA to automatically say all after successfully recognizing content, such as with Windows OCR. NVDA no longer reports the language being read as unsupported when the synthesizer supports the language but not the specific dialect. NVDA now supports 64-bit SAPI 5 voices.
Braille support has also been improved. It now continues to work when switching to a secure screen, like the sign-in screen or User Account Control dialog. NVDA messages from the local computer are now shown in braille when controlling a computer via Remote Access. Spelling and grammar errors, as well as the number of items in a list in browse mode, can now be shown in braille. Other braille bug fixes, including in Microsoft Outlook and LibreOffice Writer, have also been added.
In browse mode in web browsers, NVDA no longer treats controls with 0 width or height as invisible. This may make it possible to access previously inaccessible “screen reader only” content on some websites. Malformed links no longer prevent NVDA from reading content in Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers. The browse mode highlighter now appears on content recognition results, such as when using Windows OCR. In Microsoft Word, unassigned Quick Navigation commands to jump to references have been added. They are also now shown in the elements list.
It is now possible to view virus scan results for an add-on from the Add-on Store. For add-ons that include one, you can also view an add-on’s changelog. The reliability of background add-on updates has been improved.
A new “Privacy and Security” category has been added to NVDA’s settings dialog. The “Logging level” and “Allow NV Access to gather NVDA usage statistics” settings have been moved here from the “General” category. The settings for Screen Curtain have also been moved here from the “Vision” category. Additionally, Screen Curtain’s settings are now configuration profile independent.
The NVDA interface is now translated to Cambodian. Liblouis, Unicode CLDR and eSpeak NG have been updated. Added tables for English Grade 3, Japanese (Rokuten Kanji), and Macedonian uncontracted braille. Improved the Biblical Hebrew, Unified English Braille, Greek International, Hungarian, Norwegian, Portuguese 8-dot and Slovakian braille tables. Emoji localizations for Luxembourgish have been added.
There have also been many other bug fixes and improvements.
Important notes for NVDA 2026.1
A couple of important things to note for NVDA 2026.1 are around compatibility, and add-ons.
- This release breaks compatibility with add-ons made for NVDA 2025.3.3 and earlier. Our amazing community of add-on developers, however, are working amazingly fast behind the scenes. As I write this (11th May), already 181 add-ons are stable and available for NVDA 2026.1, with another 27 available in beta or dev version. There are 309 add-ons available for NVDA 2025.x so, just a few days after NVDA 2026.1 came out, we are well on the way. Refer back to this article from March if you’d like to double check which of your add-ons is compatible with 2026.1 before updating.
- Windows 8.1 is no longer supported. Windows 10 is the minimum Windows version supported. We recommend updating to Windows 11, or when that’s not possible, to the latest Windows 10 version (22H2). 32-bit Windows is no longer supported. Windows 10 on ARM is also no longer supported. If you are affected by any of these minimum hardware changes, remember, NVDA does not “expire”, so if you need to stay on NVDA 2025.3.3 for now, it will continue to work for you.
- Wiris MathPlayer is no longer supported. We believe all of the functionality this provided, and much more, is now available in the built-in MathCat. See the User Guide for tips on moving from MathType to MathCat. If you do run into any problems, please don’t hesitate to file and issue or let us know.
- Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER. Updating software can change files which are in use. This can lead to instability and strange behaviour which is resolved by rebooting. This is the first thing to try if you do notice anything odd after updating.
NV Access All hands
Last week, the NV Access staff and board met for a rare in-person get together. This is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate where we have come from, as well as to clarify where we are headed. With the milestone NVDA 2026.1 version now released, our plan for the rest of this year includes a couple of exciting new features in NVDA (more on those to come) and improving stability in the features we already have. We also took the opportunity to update our planned Roadmap.
Copying the NVDA version number
One small but useful new feature in NVDA 2026.1 is a button on the About NVDA screen to copy the version number. This can be really helpful when seeking help with a problem.
To access the version number:
- Press NVDA+n to open the NVDA menu (Your NVDA key is either insert or caps lock)
- Press h for the help menu
- Press a to open the “About” dialog
- Press alt+c to copy the version number to the clipboard
You can then open an email or other document and paste the version number (control+v). The pasted text will look like this for 2026.1:
2026.1 (2026.1.0.55743)
In earlier versions of NVDA, you can follow the same steps, but at step 4, you will either need to note the version number to write manually, or copy it with the review cursor.
(If you’d like to learn more about the review cursor, whichever version of NVDA you are using, we strongly recommend “Basic Training for NVDA”, which you can purchase individually, or as part of the NVDA Productivity Bundle, which includes ALL of our user training modules, as well as telephone support).
That’s all for this week. Do try out the new NVDA 2026.1. If you’re waiting for your favourite add-on to be updated, do use the tips in the Important Notes section to check them. Remember you can run the new version as a portable copy to check out the new features. We’ll have more in a couple of weeks!