NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Providing feedback via synthetic speech and Braille, it enables blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows for no more cost than a sighted person. Major features include support for over 20 languages and the ability to run entirely from a USB drive with no installation. Proprietary screen readers can cost $1,000 or more; NVDA provides a free and open source option that does not add and extra cost for basic access to computers for those with visual impairments.
Mozilla's Accessibility Team describes NVDA as one of the most valuable open source projects in terms of its helpfulness to those with vision impairment. We began our support of the NVDA screen reader in 2007, with a $10,000 donation. The work that this grant funded was sucessful enough to encourage Mozilla to provide a grant of $80,000 to support work in the following year. This amount enabled NV Access developers to focus on NVDA development for a year and a half and significantly accelerated the progress of NVDA development, including in particular support of Firefox and its WAI ARIA features for accessibility of AJAX-enabled complex web applications.
NVDA adoption is growing swiftly, and other organization such as Microsoft and Adobe have also begun providing funding for further development of this important technology. At CSUN 2009, NVDA gave a presentation on the progress and future plans of the project.
2007: Initial Support
- Amount: $10,000
- Focus: General support for NVDA development
NVDA started out as a spare time project for Mick Curran, with help from Jamie Teh, two blind developers in Australia; later Mick established NV Access as a nonprofit organization to oversee the project and solicit donations for it. In 2007 the Mozilla Foundation provided them with this grant to enhance NVDA to better support its use with Firefox.
2007: Support for full time work
- Amount: $80,000
- Focus: Full time work by James Teh
The positive results of early versions of NVDA encouraged Mozilla to provide a larger grant of $80,000. NVDA announced that this new round of funding, would enable James Teh as a full-time developer to work on NVDA. NVDA established goals for the coming year's work, including the implementation of Braille display support, better support for HTML 5, and research and development of future accessibility features. The work done by NV Access attracted attention from Microsoft, who also offered financial support to allow compatibility with WIndows 7 and Internet Explorer. At the completion of this grant, NV Access demonstrated that it had achieved impressive growth in all of its goal areas. NV Access met up with Mozilla at CSUN 2008, where new accessibility features in Firefox 3 were discussed.
2009: Expanding work
- Amount: $25,000
- Focus: Expanding NVDA support for Web technologies
By 2009, NVDA had attracted serious attention as a competitive open source product that enhanced choice for visually impaired Web users. Along with grants from Adobe to enable flash and PDF support, NV Access received further funding from Mozilla to enable core development of NVDA along with support, automated testing, automatic language switching in virtual buffers, ARIA improvements, community development and live region support, a critical component of good support for highly dynamic web documents and web applications. During 2009, NV Access made key improvements that highly benefited Firefox users.
NV Access joined Mozilla at the 2009 CSUN conference, connecting with community and offering a presentation on the design, implementation, and features of NVDA.2010: Growing influence
- Amount: $20,000
- Focus: Quarterly general support for NVDA development
At present, NVDA is receiving funding from organizations than Mozilla, but much of it is earmarked toward specific work. Mozilla was pleased to offer NV Access $20,000 in funding for general development of NVDA during 2010. The NVDA screen reader has proven itself as a critical asset to open accessibility and is being used by more and more Web developers to test their websites.
Links
- NVDA Project Home
- July 25, 2007: First Work on Web Access Grant
- January 12, 2008: Goals for the Mozilla Grant
- January 18, 2008: Mozilla grant announcement
- March 21, 2008: NV Access at CSUN 2008
- December 18, 2008: NVDA presentation at CSUN 2009
- January 6, 2009: Mozilla grant progress report
- August 3, 2009: NVDA announcement of Mozilla funding
NV Access
NV Access is a non-profit organization based in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to the ideal that access to technology should not incur an extra cost for blind and vision impaired users.
Please consider making a contribution to Mozilla so we can continue to make grants to other worthwhile organizations like NV Access.
