November 13, 2026 3:40 pm

This week, we’ve updated NVDA, and some documentation, we hear from our user group in Japan, plus there are tips for File Explorer and more!

1. NVDA 2026.3.1
2. Updated VPAT / ACR
3. NVDA on show in Japan
4. Unassigned gestures
5. File Explorer shortcuts

NVDA 2026.3.1

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2026.3.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.

Highlights

This is a patch release to fix security issues. A bug fix is also included for an issue introduced in 2026.3 with the task switcher in Windows 10. The Brazilian Portuguese eSpeak voice was restored to the behaviour in 2026.2.

Read the full changes and download at the NVDA 2026.3.1 release announcement.

Updated VPAT / ACR

We’ve updated our VPAT. Actually we’ve updated our ACR, but whatever you call it, there’s a new one. Mostly of interest to companies who use NVDA and need to keep a copy on file for any software they use, the activity of completing it is useful, even for us as a screen reader manufacturer. VPAT stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template – it’s a large document which gives you points to consider and rate your software and website on many aspects of accessibility. VPAT is technically the blank template. The Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is the completed report about a product.

NVDA is, as you would expect, quite good at all the things someone who is blind might need. However, through this process, over the years, we have previously identified and fixed several issues which may affect other users. The newest version of this document doesn’t dramatically change any of our ratings or identify or fix any new issues, but it is up to date for NVDA 2026.3.1. So, if your organisation needs a copy, head over to the VPAT section of the Corporate and Government page and you’ll find it there.

NVDA on show in Japan

We love to hear from our communities all around the world. There is a very active community of users, and contributors in Japan. They have a website devoted to the local community: https://www.nvda.jp/ and recently attended the Sight World 2026 conference in Tokyo https://www.sight-world.com/sightworld2026

Nobuyuki and the team presented at the conference on four main themes:

• Screen sharing using Copilot
• Add-on Store
• NVDA Coach
• New Forms of Learning with NVDA

They wrote to advise us that the event was a huge success, and they had around 100 people in attendance at their presentation. They sent us photographs and a link to their video presentation:

The Video is in Japanese, and includes a message from NV Access Training & Support manager Quentin Christensen (in English).

A banner from the NVDA Japanese Team session titled “NVDAではじめる、新しい「学び」のかたち” (“A New Form of ‘Learning’ Starting with NVDA”), presented at Sight World 2026 in Tokyo.

Unassigned gestures

The last couple of releases I’ve highlighted the unassigned gestures, so let’s do that again. Unassigned gestures are things which you can do with a keystroke or touch action etc, but we didn’t set one up by default. There are only two this time around:

• Magnifier: A new unassigned command has been added to move the mouse cursor to the center of the magnified view.
• Added an unassigned Quick Navigation Command for jumping to the next/previous clickable element in browse mode.

The magnifier command is thanks to Cyrille, and the clickable one thanks to Cary. Thank you to them and ALL of our amazing NVDA community contributors!

File Explorer shortcuts

One of the fixes in NVDA 2026.3.1 is with reporting switching Windows in Windows 10. I was thinking of writing a post on using alt+tab and the other ways of switching Windows – there are a few! But I realised, I already wrote a piece on switching Windows.

I’d forgotten about alt+escape; I’m going to get back into using that! But that got me thinking about other general Windows keystrokes we might not know or (like me) might have forgotten. Another recent fix in NVDA (from NVDA 2026.3) is with File Explorer, so I thought we’d have a look at a couple of shortcuts which are well worth knowing, and some you may find useful:

Firstly, to start File Explorer, press Windows+e Open a new File Explorer window (from within File Explorer), with control+n

Navigating

• Move to next area: tab
• Move to previous area: shift+tab
The focus starts in the “Items view list” – the contents of the currently selected folder. From here:
• Press shift+tab once to the folder list (you had to press it twice in some versions).
• Press tab to the “Split button” which is the name of the field the item list is sorted on. Once on the split button, use the arrows to select a field and enter or space to sort on it – if you select the same field, it will reverse the sort).

When in the items list view, you can customise the view. Windows provides shortcuts for the various views:

• control+shift+1: Extra-large icons
• control+shift+2: Large icons
• control+shift+3: Medium icons
• control+shift+4: Small icons
• control+shift+5: List view
• control+shift+6: Details view
• control+shift+7: Tiles
• control+shift+8: Content
Note that in some versions of Windows (such as recent builds of Windows 11) these shortcuts do NOT work, but control+ALT+number works, for instance control+alt+6 for details view. The “details” view is the one I would personally recommend, as everything is in one list, and you get the most information about each item (file type, size, date modified etc) and can sort on any of those fields as needed. In details view, use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list. In most other view types, e.g. the icons views, use the left and right arrow keys.

Tabs

Like browsers, you can have multiple folders open in different tabs or different windows:
• New blank tab: control+t
• Move to next tab: control+tab
• Move to previous tab: control+shift+tab

I cannot find a keystroke to open the current folder in a new tab. If you know one, please let me know! In the meantime, the following would work:

1. Press shift+f6 once from the folder list to move to the tab control list.
2. Press the applications key (or shift+f10) to open the context menu.
3. Press the up arrow once to “Duplicate tab”.
4. Press enter to open a new tab with the current folder.

To close a tab without closing all the other tabs, press control+w.

Address bar

Move the focus to the address bar: alt+d. On the address bar, you can type the name of the folder or paste it from elsewhere, then press enter to load that folder.

Windows has several special folders. If you email us for help with an issue, we might ask you to send us your NVDA log, which you can find in your %temp% folder. To get to your %temp% folder:

1. In File Explorer, press alt+d to go to the address bar
2. Type: %temp% (That is, the word ‘temp’ with a percent sign either side)
3. Press enter
Windows will load a folder such as C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Temp which is where it is storing your temporary files. There are others such as %onedrive% for your OneDrive folder (if setup), as well as system folders which are worth being careful around.

File properties

One other quirk in File Explorer is opening file properties. In the file list, once you have located a file, press alt+enter to open the file properties for that file. This only works from the file list, even though you can access “Properties” in the context menu on folders in the folder list and it notes the alt+enter shortcut.

That’s all for this fortnight. We’ll be back towards the end of the month with more news, tips and tricks. I’m not sure what will be in that edition, but after all those lists of things in the file manager section, I’m going to aim for zero lists next fortnight – keep an eye out for that to see if I can do it!

Do keep the conversation going in the NVDA users email group, and remember, if you’d like to receive this blog by email, you can! Just go to https://www.nvaccess.org/newsletter and you can sign up for the blog, for details as new versions of NVDA drop, and more.