For a screen reader such as NVDA to be useful, it must be able to provide access to the latest Operating Systems and third party applications. Microsoft has recently granted NV Access a year of free access to much of its latest and legacy software in order to ensure NVDA’s support for many of these applications continues to improve.
For many years, Microsoft has offered its paid, subscription-based MSDN program to developers around the world, providing access to most of its applications. Although this is a less expensive option than purchasing each application separately, it can still be extremely costly for those in the non-profit sector.
NV Access is extremely appreciative of the fact that Microsoft has chosen to donate an MSDN subscription to us for 2013. This subscription allows us to continue testing and developing support for Microsoft applications, including the many versions of Microsoft Office currently in use. On many occasions previously, we had to rely on members of the community to test for us with their own copies of software, which can be a slow process.
NV Access and Microsoft have enjoyed a strong relationship for several years. This has ensured that NVDA has been at the forefront of the industry, supporting both Windows 7 and Windows 8 from their earliest days. We thank Microsoft for their support and we look forward to working with them into the future to ensure that blind and vision impaired people have full access to the Windows Operating System for no more cost than sited users.