Welcome to 2019!
We hope everyone had a relaxing new year. We’re all back on deck now, and looking forward to making 2019 NVDA’s best yet! If you’ve contacted us since Christmas, you should receive a reply shortly, if you haven’t already.
NVDA 2018.4.1
To start with, we’ve already got a release out this year! It’s a point release for 2018.4 so still has that version number. NVDA 2018.4.1 fixes a critical bug where NVDA would crash on start-up if NVDA’s language was set to Aragonese (The issue possibly affected other languages as well, but was reported by one of our Aragonese users). As usual, you can get this latest version from the NVDA Download page.
For many of us who come from the other side of the world, and failed geography, this may prompt the question: Where is Aragon? The Aragon region is in the north-eastern part of Spain, in the Pyrenees valleys. The Pyrenees are the mountain range in Southwest Europe which forms a border between Spain and France. According to Google’s quick facts: “Aragon is known for its ornate, Moorish-influenced Mudéjar architecture, represented in the 1686 Basilica of Nuestra Senora del Pilar in Zaragoza. The regional capital, Zaragoza is a commercial city of wide boulevards and arcades.” It sounds like a wonderful place. With this week’s updates, our friends in the region will once again be able to use the latest version of the world’s favourite free screen-reader! A big shout out to our Aragonese users and supporters!
NVDA point releases
The release of 2018.4.1 comes a few weeks after 2018.4 with just the one change. This inspired me to answer a question you may have been wondering. In that time, have we really only worked on that one bug? The answer of course, is “No”. We’ve been working on lots of other improvements and fixes. There are many exciting things planned for 2019.1. Some of these are available now in alpha snapshot builds. The reason we only included the one fix in this release is to minimise the chance of introducing any other new bugs. In general, any code which is added or changed in NVDA is tested in Alpha snapshots for at least a couple of weeks. This helps to ensure that there aren’t any unintended side-effects. Before new releases of NVDA, all those improvements go into the beta and then RC releases. This aims to ensure that everything runs smoothly before it all goes into a new release.So, if you would like to try out the new features we’ve been working on, they are in our Alpha snapshot builds.
NVDA Certification
The NVDA Certified Expert program has been one of the most widely acclaimed new projects from NV Access in recent years. We’re pleased to say that we’ve updated the exam as of this week. The update, keeps the questions in line with the current features of NVDA 2018.4.1. The exam itself remains free to sit. Upon completion, you have the option to pay only $100 to receive a certificate and listing on the certification page. Those renewing their certification receive a 50% discount, making the cost only $50 AUD.
New Year’s Resolutions
Finally, I’d like to thank those who have shared their hopes for 2019 with us. Several people have told us their New Year’s Resolution is to make a regular contribution to NV Access. We really appreciate any donation, large or small, because it helps us to continue to provide NVDA for free, to anyone around the world. In our recent video, we got to share stories of some of those for whom an affordable screen reader has changed their life. If NVDA has changed your life, feel free to Let us know, we love hearing from you!For my part, my New Year’s Resolution, is to bring you the most informative In-Process possible, as regularly as possible. On behalf of the team, our resolution is to bring you four high quality releases of NVDA throughout 2019!
That’s all for this first edition of the year. We hope you are well and having a great start to the year!