Archive: 2017

  1. In-Process 26th June 2017

    Welcome to another issue of In-Process, it’s great to have you with us once again. Those in a rush will be pleased to hear it’s not a long In-Process this week. I choose to attribute that to our winter solstice being last Wednesday. We’ll have more and more time to do newsworthy things as the days get longer from now on!

    To start this week, one very popular session at this year’s NVDACon was the session by Reef and Jamie. “A discussion of how the NVDA community can make non-code contributions”. For anyone who would like to listen to the session, it is available on the NVDACon website. The direct link to the recording is https://www.nvdacon.org/2017nc

    As a follow-up to that session, Reef Turner has written up some notes on how you can help triage submitted issues. Triage helps prioritise the issues that have the biggest impact on the most users. Reef has written a short piece on the process NV Access use to triage issues. For those interested in helping triage, the Triage Help page has more information.

    There are a lot of exciting things “incubating” in snapshot builds currently:

    • Work on Aria placeholder is now incubating in “Next” builds. Work on ARIA grids with virtual coordinates (as introduced in ARIA 1.1) has started. This is a complex addition, and will take a little time to complete.
    • MathML content is now supported in Google Chrome.
    • NVDA can now speak using the new Windows OneCore voices (also known as mobile voices) included in Windows 10. You access these by selecting Windows OneCore voices in NVDA’s Synthesizer dialog.
    • The keyboard layout can now be set from the Welcome dialog.
    • The names of landmarks are abbreviated in Braille.

    Look out for all these and more in 2017.3 later this year. In the meantime, if you would like to try them out, head over to our snapshots page. Remember, these are pre-release builds and things may or may not work as advertised.

    We now have over 50 NVDA Certified Experts! Congratulations to everyone who has become certified so far. All the best to those currently studying. If you’d like to get in on the action, be sure to visit the NV Access Certification System. Remember, you can now add your contact details so those wanting to find an expert can contact you!

    And that’s all for this week, except to say, Happy 20th anniversary to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! In closing then, I’ll leave you with this to think on: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”.

  2. In-Process 13th June 2017

    In-Process 13 June 2017:

    Firstly, the big news: NVDA 2017.2 is now available. Anyone with automatic updates enabled should have received a prompt to update. You can manually update NVDA by pressing NVDA+n to open the NVDA menu, pressing H for help then C to check for update. You can also download NVDA 2017.2 from https://www.nvaccess.org/download/.

    Highlights of this release include full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current). The full “What’s new” is online if you would like to read more.

    Another new release to announce, this time the Microsoft Excel with NVDA training module. Following on from the success of “Basic Training for NVDA” and “Microsoft Word with NVDA”, NV Access are very pleased to present “Microsoft Excel with NVDA”. As with the other titles in the series, Microsoft Excel with NVDA is a comprehensive walk through all the features of Excel with the keyboard and NVDA. Each topic is accompanied by an activity to help solidify your knowledge. Topics covered include: Getting started with Excel, using headers, multiple worksheets, formulas, cell references, named ranges, tables, the elements list, text and number formatting, sorting, filtering, using charts, protecting and sharing workbooks. Microsoft Excel with NVDA is available from the NV Access shop.

    With the great success of NVDACon again this year, there has been a lot of interest in recordings of the sessions from those who couldn’t attend. All the sessions are now available from the NVDACon site on the “Past Conferences” page. Thank-you once again to all the organisers and presenters for putting together a fantastic conference, and thank you to all those who participated for joining in and making NVDACon 2017 a great success!

    The NVDA Certified Expert program has been a big hit, with many people proudly showing off their prowess with NVDA. One new feature that we’ve rolled out is that when you are listed on the Certification page you can now also add your contact details. If you are already listed on the page and would like to add or update details, simply log in to your account, and add or edit any of your contact information. We’ve also streamlined the log-in process. You now only need to log in once, rather than needing to log in to sit the certification and then separately to purchase the certificate.

    Keen followers of In-Process will have seen our last post: “Microsoft Edge 2 years in: Where are we at for accessibility?”. Particularly for those using Windows 10, this is a great update on using Microsoft’s newest flagship browser with NVDA. Speaking of seeing posts, did you know you can subscribe to the In-Process RSS feed? If you would like to be automatically notified of new In-Process posts, your browser should be able to detect it on the page you are reading now. If you do need a direct link for your RSS application, you can point it to: https://www.nvaccess.org/category/in-process/feed/. If you’re wondering what RSS is, Google has many answers, here is one: A Really Simple Guide To Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

    Speaking of Windows 10, one of the features of Windows we have had a lot of queries about is Microsoft’s new “OneCore” voices. OneCore are a range of new voices Microsoft have added to Windows 10. For those using Next builds of NVDA, you can test these out now by opening NVDA’s synthesizer settings (press NVDA+control+s) and choosing Microsoft OneCore from the list. You can then open the Voice Settings dialog (NVDA+control+v) and choose the specific voice you would like to use. These are due to make their way to the Master branch this week and eventually into NVDA 2017.3 when it comes out.

    Another feature making its way through our Next branch is a new set of sounds for NVDA. Designed to be more subtle, modern and snappy, feel free to try these out in the latest Next build. As always, if you have any feedback on the voices, or anything else, there are a number of ways of getting in touch. If you find a bug or want to suggest a new feature, you can post an issue on GitHub. If you’d like to share ideas, ask for help from other users or follow along with the general conversation around NVDA, all the cool kids are on the E-Mail list. And if you’d like to get in touch with NV Access directly, you can E-Mail us.

    Also in next thanks to Reef, continuing our work on supporting ARIA 1.1, is aria-placeholder, which is used for fields which have placeholder text before you type into the field. There aren’t many examples of aria-placeholder in the wild yet, so here’s a challenge to see if you can find one!

    That’s all for this time. For the next In-Process, tune in at the same bat-time, same bat-channel!

  3. Microsoft Edge 2 years in: Where are we at for accessibility?

    NV Access is committed to ensuring that blind or vision impaired people are able to independently and efficiently access the Windows Operating System and its applications, no matter their location, language or economic status. This means much of our work involves keeping up with changes in the Windows Operating System, and ensuring that NVDA can work with the latest technologies available; Blind and vision impaired people must not be left behind. With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with its new and modern Edge web browser, setting it as the default browser in the process. Therefore, it is extremely important that NVDA provides support for Edge which is equivalent to other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, or indeed Internet Explorer.

    Due to the extremely fast release of Microsoft Edge and the fact that its accessibility model makes it incompatible with other existing web browsers, no 3rd party assistive technologies were able to provide any meaningful access to Microsoft Edge at the time of its release.

    NV Access first heard about Microsoft Edge in early 2015 (back then known as Project Spartan). We were initially hopeful that it would offer roughly the same means of accessibility as Internet Explorer; i.e. a simplified view of the document via Microsoft Active Accessibility, an implementation of UI Automation for complex controls such as edit fields, and most importantly, direct access to the entire browser document object model (DOM) via COM. It is this final feature that NVDA (and other prominent assistive technology) relies on entirely for access to Internet Explorer.

    The early preview builds of Project Spartan did provide much of what we needed to support it in NVDA using existing code for Internet Explorer. Thus, it only took a little bit of tweaking to have NVDA working fairly well with Spartan. However, there were some general statements made in various Microsoft technical articles warning that although there may currently be some compatibilities with Internet Explorer, assistive technologies should not rely on them as they may no longer exist in the future. Rather, assistive technologies should instead access the browser entirely via UI Automation. But while it ain’t broke… don’t fix it, as the saying goes. If the compatibilities were to be removed at a later date, we’d deal with it at that point.

    In around April 2015 (only 3 months out from the release of Windows 10), we not only found out that those compatibilities had now been removed, but also Microsoft Edge (as it was now called) was going to be the default web browser in Windows 10 right from initial release. This meant that not only was Microsoft Edge completely inaccessible (due to there simply not being enough time for assistive technologies to implement entirely new browser support), but blind users of Windows 10 were not going to be able to use the default browser. Yes, Internet Explorer was still there, and you could also install a 3rd party browser such as Firefox or Chrome, but for the average user, this may have been beyond their knowledge. No matter what other advantages there were for users to upgrade to Windows 10, NV Access could not in good conscience recommend the upgrade at that stage.

    It has to be said that right from the beginning of Microsoft Edge development, accessibility was not technically ignored. Edge exposed a rather rich accessibility tree via the UI Automation API right from the start, as one of Microsoft’s goals with Edge was to try to simplify and standardise accessibility support across the entire Operating System, thus decreasing the need for assistive technologies to maintain custom code or rely on application-specific APIs. See the blog post: Accessibility: Towards a more inclusive web with Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 for further details. Tests on html5accessibility.com also showed early on that Edge actually surpassed other browsers by scoring 100% in its html5 compatibility for accessibility. However, At the time, due to extreme performance issues, serious deficiencies in the API which were hindering useful text navigation, and the fact that no assistive technology had yet entirely relied on UI Automation to access a browser, this point really had no practical meaning. See the blog post: Serotek’s Position on Microsoft Edge for a background of how assistive technologies provided efficient access to browsers in the past.

    Although there were definitely glaring limitations and bugs in Edge, NV Access decided to take some time to prototype support for Microsoft Edge, not necessarily because we thought we could provide a great experience straight away, but so that we, and the rest of the industry, could clearly understand what was possible and what was impossible for Edge support in assistive technology. You don’t know until you try!

    Our prototyping greatly aided the discussion and work between Microsoft, NV Access and other assistive technology vendors in understanding and prioritising the issues. And at the same time, NVDA users could also slowly watch support for Edge evolve over time.

    Roughly 2 years on, thanks to the collaboration between Microsoft, NV Access and other assistive technology friends, Microsoft Edge has certainly become much more usable, not only with NVDA, but also with other assistive technologies such as Microsoft’s own narrator.

    For the best experience today with Microsoft Edge using NVDA, you will need to be running both the latest version of NVDA (2017.2 released at the end of May) and Windows 10 Creaters Update, which started rolling out to users in mid April. With this combination of screen reader and browser, it is certainly possible for a blind user to navigate a great deal of pages, including reading news, filling in forms and searching the web. All NVDA browse mode features users have come to expect in other browsers are now available in Edge, such as finding text; table navigation; automatic language switching; quick navigation by heading, table, button, etc.; and much more.

    There are still a few major limitations which require work by both Microsoft and NV Access, including no support for same-page links, inaccessible or confusing composite controls (E.g. audio, video and file upload controls) and a lack of support for ARIA live regions. This final point currently makes Edge insufficient for quite a few modern services such as Google Docs and even some of Microsoft’s own online collaboration products. It is also true that performance when navigating around a page is still significantly slower than with other browsers. However, thanks to recent work between NV Access and Microsoft, it is now more than three times faster than what it was in earlier versions of Edge. These performance improvements were due to a lot of under-the-hood changes in Edge’s UI Automation text implementation, in which NV Access played a major consultative role over the last year. You can read further technical detail from Microsoft in their Accessibility improvements in EdgeHTML 15 blog post. Although there are still more performance improvements needed, we do urge NVDA users on Windows 10 to give Microsoft Edge a go and provide feedback so that we can improve the user experience. It is extremely evident from the collaboration between Microsoft, NV Access and other assistive technology vendors in the past year or so that Microsoft is today very committed to ensuring a great accessibility story on Windows. The Windows Insider program is ensuring early feedback from users. Annual face-to-face meetings between Microsoft and assistive technology vendors are facilitating fruitful and friendly discussions, and weekly progress calls between Microsoft and its assistive technology partners are ensuring issues are flagged as early as possible. We still have some way to go before NV Access could say that Microsoft Edge can provide an equivalent or better experience than other browsers, but with the progress we have made in the last year, we are confident that further improvements are certainly possible. Around 34% of NVDA users are now on Windows 10. We hope that more NVDA users will choose to upgrade and experience the advancements that Windows 10 offers in the near future.

  4. Announcing NVDA 2017.2 Release

    Version 2017.2 of the free NVDA screen Reader from NV Access is now available for download. Highlights of this release include full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current).

    NVDA is used by 10s of thousands of blind and vision impaired people spanning more than 120 countries, enabling them to socialise, get an education and participate in the workforce regardless of their location, language or economic situation. However, NV Access needs your help to continue this important work. Please consider making a donation when downloading.

    Download NVDA 2017.2

    To find out what’s new in this release, please read What’s new in NVDA 2017.2.

  5. In-Process 26th May 2017

    Wow, what a big week it has been! NVDACon, NVDA 2017.2 RC1 and a new training module about to drop!

    This past weekend saw the annual NVDACon online conference. Full of great presentations and conversations. There were so many great NVDACon highlights. Nektarios Paisios from Google gave an overview of advancements in the Chrome browser. There were updates on Windows 10, Dictation Bridge and tips for new NVDA users. There were sessions from Jamie and Reef from NV Access. Reef shared how the community can participate and make non-code contributions. We look forward to seeing lots of new issues and discussion from that talk! Jamie presented on making audio production accessible with REAPER and OSARA. The growing following OSARA and REAPER are gaining is fantastic. Then, of course, NVDACon was capped off by the inspiring keynote presented by Jamie. If, like me (Quentin), you got pulled in too many directions and missed any sessions, fear not! Keep an eye on the NVDACon website and Twitter for updates. The sessions were recorded and will be made available to listen to in your own time. For myself, I do apologise for missing most of the sessions. To make up for my tardiness, if you missed asking any questions of the team during the keynote, send me your questions at [email protected]. I’ll be sure to reply and also compile the best questions and answers for the next In-Process.

    Now, to the news that everyone is always keen to hear. The next version of NVDA, 2017.2 is getting closer! On Monday, the first release candidate was released for NVDA 2017.2. What is a release candidate? That’s a great question! Here’s a post on release candidates which we prepared earlier!

    That’s all well and good, but what’s coming in 2017.2, you ask? Well, let’s have a look! “Highlights of this release include full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current).”

    If you think a lot of those are for Windows 10 users, fear not! There is indeed something coming in 2017.2 for everyone. Reading through the what’s new of the RC, you will find references to not 1, not 2, but 42 resolved GitHub issues! As we know, 42 is indeed the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. Coincidence? Almost certainly. Relevant to anything? Well, it was Towel Day on the 25th… In any case, do go check out the NVDA 2017.2rc1 release announcement and download the RC. Finding anything show-stopping now will help give us a chance to resolve it before the final version of 2017.2 comes out!

    And did I mention a new training module? Well yes, I did! The “Microsoft Excel with NVDA” training module to be precise. The module is so close to being available on your hot little hard drive! There is a slight delay as it is prepared and uploaded to the server though. So, Excel lovers, your homework for this week, is to check the shop and be the first to snag a copy when it appears! The “Winner” will be announced next In-Process (note: there’s no actual prize, aside from the glory of being first).

    If you missed it, Jamie recently penned an insightful post about Microsoft’s Windows 10 S announcement and the opportunities and challenges such a version of Windows could present. Windows 10 S is designed to be a lightweight Windows 10 with restrictions to aim the product at the education sector. Read more in Jamie’s post about Why can’t NVDA run on Windows mobile and Windows 10 S.

    That’s all for now. Have a wonderful week, and as always, we look forward to hearing from you. Don’t forget to send in all the questions you wanted to ask at the keynote but didn’t get to (or were too shy).

  6. NVDA 2017.2rc1 Released

    NVDA 2017.2rc1 has just been released for testing. This is a release candidate, which means that unless any critical issues are found, this will be identical to the final 2017.2 release.

    Highlights of this release include full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current).

  7. Why Can’t NVDA run on Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 S?

    With the recent news about Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S, which can only run third party apps from the Windows Store, we’ve been asked by several users whether we can make NVDA available in the Windows Store. In the past few years, users have also asked about making NVDA available for Windows 10 Mobile. Unfortunately, neither is possible. Some of you are no doubt curious as to why, so we thought we’d take a few paragraphs (and a major deviation from our normal In-Process format) to explain.

    Windows 10 S is a feature-limited edition of Windows 10 targeted at education. Like Windows 10 Home and Pro, it runs on devices with Intel processors. Although it can only install apps from the Windows Store, it can run desktop apps converted using the Desktop to UWP Bridge. It was recently announced that Apple’s iTunes is coming to the Windows Store, very probably using this Desktop Bridge. This is in contrast to the earlier Windows RT, which runs on ARM processors and cannot run third party desktop apps at all.

    Although the Desktop to UWP Bridge does allow many desktop apps to be converted, this is not possible for screen readers and some other assistive technology software. Screen readers such as NVDA require special privileges which are not permitted in the Windows Store, even for apps converted using the Bridge. For those interested in the technical details, this Microsoft article details the restrictions on converted desktop apps. Specifically, NVDA requires UIAccess, loads modules in-process to processes outside the app and modifies the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive (in order to install as an Ease of Access service). It is impossible for a screen reader to function fully without these facilities.

    Windows 10 Mobile runs on devices with ARM processors. Windows 10 Mobile cannot run desktop apps at all, even those converted using the Desktop Bridge. It can only run pure UWP apps. First, it’s not possible to use Python in UWP apps, so a Windows 10 Mobile version of NVDA would have to be written from scratch; there would be no common code. Second, UWP does not provide sufficient facilities for implementing a screen reader, such as intercepting keyboard keys and touch gestures while in the background or responding to accessibility events from other apps while in the background.

    We strongly believe in the importance of competition in the screen reader space. Unfortunately, it is simply not possible for third party screen readers to be made available on these platforms as things currently stand. It is our sincere hope that Microsoft will make it possible for third party screen readers to be offered on these platforms in future.

  8. In-Process 4th May 2017

    In-Process 4th May

    Greetings and May the Fourth be with you! Sorry, I couldn’t resist that little Star Wars opening. Also, thank you to all the firefighters out there, as today is also International Firefighters’ day.

    The team have all been busy as well. Jamie and Reef are still hard at work on ARIA support in NVDA, particularly for Chrome. You might be wondering, what exactly is ARIA? ARIA is a way of making the newer controls used in modern, dynamic websites accessible. Good web authoring practice goes a long way. ARIA allows developers to define the role and functionality of elements. This enables programs such as NVDA to interact with controls on web applications logically, based on the role of the object. It also enables better handling of dynamic content which can change automatically.

    Jamie is working on the NVDACon keynote and Reef is working on his session. The NVDACon planning committee are doing great work getting ready. This years NVDACon promises to be bigger and better than ever. See NVDACon.org for details.

    Quentin is working on the last couple of sections of the Excel training material. For everyone waiting keenly for this training module, its release is drawing ever closer. The “Basic Training for NVDA” and “Microsoft Word with NVDA” modules remain popular. Even advanced users have commented on how much they have learnt from these modules. The certification for the “Basic Training for NVDA” is in high demand. Many users are now able to share their accreditation as an NVDA Certified Expert. See The NV Access Shop for the training modules, and the Certification System for information on becoming an NVDA Certified Expert.

    Jamie has also been working on support for Microsoft’s new OneCore or Mobile voices, which have been added to Windows 10. These are more responsive than the SAPI 5 voices and also cover more languages. Unfortunately, support for OneCore voices won’t make it into NVDA 2017.2 but it is something to look forward to in 2017.3.

    Speaking of which, yes, the next release, NVDA 2017.2, is drawing closer. Keep an eye out for a release candidate around the time the next In-Process comes out. More details on the new features, fixes and other things to look out for will be in the next In-Process.

    I’ve been asked lately about the difference between installed and portable versions of NVDA. Many users wonder what the best setup is for using NVDA on a shared computer.

    When you download NVDA and run the setup file, a temporary copy of NVDA is loaded. This is used to speak details of the install and associated instructions and information. You can choose to “continue running” this temporary copy. The temporary copy is useful when using a snapshot build and wanting to check a new feature or fix. NVDA will work as normal until you quit it or shut the computer down. You can change the configuration, eg the synthesizer or speech rate, but these aren’t saved when NVDA exits.

    A portable version of NVDA can be setup on a memory stick. This is useful when using a computer that you may not have administrator access to, such as in a library or shared computer lab. Nothing is added to the computer’s registry, but you can still save changes to settings. There are several restrictions to both temporary and portable versions of NVDA. These restrictions are documented in the NVDA User Guide

    The main restrictions of temporary and portable versions are:

    • The inability to automatically start during and/or after log-on, • The inability to interact with applications running with administrative privileges, unless of course NVDA itself has been run also with these privileges (not recommended). • The inability to read User Account Control (UAC) screens when trying to start an application with administrative privileges. • Windows 8 and later: the inability to support input from a touch screen. • Windows 8 and later: the inability to provide features such as browse mode and speaking of typed characters in Windows Store apps. • Windows 8 and later: audio ducking is not supported.

    When you install NVDA, none of these restrictions applies. The full features of NVDA are available on any screen. NVDA can be used on UAC dialogs, and the login screen.

    If you are using a shared computer, you may not want NVDA starting automatically on the login screen, or after logon. When installing, one of the setup screens has checkboxes to create a shortcut, and one to “Use NVDA on the logon screen”. When checked, this option will start NVDA when the computer boots and gets to the logon screen. Having NVDA running on the logon screen should not affect the way sighted users interact with the logon screen. Depending on the setup, it will simply read the information aloud, and/or make use of a connected Braille display. The welcome dialog has an option to “Automatically start NVDA after I log on to Windows”. If this is unchecked, NVDA will not start when this user is logged in. Even if this option is checked, NVDA won’t start when other users log in to their accounts on this computer, unless they have set that up. Both of these options are also available in the General settings dialog. Press NVDA+control+g to open the dialog. Note that the NVDA key is either INSERT or CAPS LOCK, depending on how it was setup.

    It is perfectly possible to have NVDA installed on a computer, but only started when a user presses CONTROL+ALT+N. In that way, an NVDA user can share a computer, even a login, with sighted users and have NVDA only run when desired.

    Have a great couple of weeks everyone. Don’t forget to block out your diary for NVDACon from the 19th to the 21st of May!

  9. In-Process 21st April 2017

    The team has been busy through the middle of April. We have a couple of things you can enjoy now, and a few things that will make their way into upcoming releases of NVDA.

    Reef has continued his work on Aria. This month implementing NVDA’s support for Aria Placeholder. Reef has also been working on a presentation for the upcoming NVDACon. The presentation will be a great opportunity to hear from NV Access’ most media shy member. It will also provide some great insights into the triage process, as well as information on how YOU can help! See https://www.nvdacon.org/ for full information about NVDACon and how to take part.

    Jamie has been enthusiastic in hunting down, debugging and reporting bugs in Chrome. He has also tackled Liblouis issues related to the input of UEB grade 2.

    Mick traveled to Sweden for the Funka Accessibility Days conference. In Stockholm, he presented to web developers from around the world.

    Mick at Funka 2017

    Mick Curran presenting at Funka Accessibility Days in Stockholm, Sweden.

    Image credit to Antonio Santos @akwyz

    Quentin has been working on new sections of the Microsoft Excel with NVDA module. The module will be out later this year. This month has focussed on some of the formatting features in Excel. Topics include formatting numbers through to conditional formatting based on cell contents.

    This week the team have all come together in Brisbane. We have brainstormed issues, with the benefit of working together in one room. One issue has been tossing around ideas for how best to deal with “clickable” web elements. This is quite challenging, knowing an element is “clickable” is useful in some cases. In other situations, “clickable” is both repetitive and not useful. Together, we are working on a solution which we hope will be effective for the majority of websites.

    NV Access team in Brisbane

    NV Access team (from left: Mick, Reef, Quentin and Jamie) in Brisbane, April 2017

    Another issue we have started preparation on is something we call “speech refactor”. What we are planning is a complete reworking of NVDA’s aging speech code. This will enable NVDA to support new features in the future. Such features include switching synthesizers or speech rate for different languages or maths. Using sounds or voice changes for different text formatting is another potential feature.

    We have also recorded interviews for a new video. The video will highlight the wonderful impact NVDA has for users. In particular, those in developing countries. This is a very exciting project; we look forward to having more information to share with you in a few months’ time.

    The Windows 10 “Creators Update” is slowly making its way to users of Windows 10. For anyone running NVDA 2017.1, rest assured this version works well in the Creators Update. The Creators Update brings improvements to many areas for NVDA users. These include text echo in UWP apps and Edge, as well as changes to audio ducking.

    The new NV Access logo is starting to make an appearance. This is an exciting transformation to the NV Access image. I’ll leave you with that little teaser! Ok, a description of the new logo does come with the NVDA Expert Certification certificate. Don’t worry, we will definitely make a description available on the website in due course.

  10. In-Process 4th April 2017

    Hi everyone, welcome to a slightly late edition of In-Process. Rest assured, while not writing blog posts, we have still been busy working on lots of other great things for you.

    First up this week, NVDACon planning is well underway. Be sure to bookmark the NVDACon page for updates as they come to hand.

    Jamie has been tracking down and fixing some crashes in Adobe reader.

    Reef has continued to improve Aria support.

    Jamie has been busy working on our new unit testing framework.

    So, what is unit testing? Unit testing is a way of testing a little part of the code to ensure it gives the expected result. One set of unit tests might check how NVDA behaves when selecting text in Browse mode. Let’s use the example of “select all”. When NVDA’s “Select all” code runs, everything in the current document should be selected. Unit tests can check the result with the caret at the start, in the middle and at the end of the text, or with all the text already selected. Currently, if NVDA is in Browse mode, and the caret is in the middle of the document, it only selects text from the start of the document to the caret. Unit tests could run this code and check the result against the expected behaviour. The unit test to select all from the middle of the document would fail because the entire text is not selected.

    Someone might have changed the code when working on different functionality. “Select all” in Excel or File Explorer, for instance, works differently to how it works in Word or Notepad. If the way the code is written is correct, it might not give any errors when compiled. Compiling turns the code into a program that someone can run. Unit testing can help detect errors in the logic behind the code, rather than the syntax of the code. When a unit test fails, we know where to look, because it only tests a small section of code. Unit testing will ensure that the fix does not affect how the function works in other situations. If we did intend to change the behaviour, we could instead update the test to reflect the new output. Unit testing can save a lot of time in testing that behaviour is as expected, identifying the cause of an issue, and ensuring that new code is correct.

    Now to an exciting announcement from last week. NV Access are very pleased to announce that NVDA Expert Certification is now available! The system has been in testing with some of our brave and loyal test users for a few weeks*. We are now very pleased to open it up to everyone!

    *Note: No users were harmed in the testing of our certification system!

    Quentin has been busy sending out certificates to the first excited NVDA Certified Experts.

    The certification tests your knowledge of all aspects of the free NVDA screen reader. The exam is online and available now. Free for anyone to sit, the test is time limited and takes less than an hour. See our release announcement for full details of the new certification.

    The exam and the list of certified users are now online at the official certification webpage

    Finally, while we were all over at CSUN last month, we had the pleasure of chatting with J.J. from Blind Bargains. Hear the whole team talking about The Winding and Long Road for NV Access in this 37-minute interview, available on Blind Bargains.