Technology is changing their lives; it has not only made life easier but also assisting the people to overcome their problems. NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) is an open-source and free screen reader software for visually impaired persons that can read on-screen text. It reads the text as you move your mouse on the different windows of the screen and type with your keyboard as well. It can recognize more than 35 languages including Indian languages (UNICODE format). NVDA screen reader uses forment synthesis method to output the text as voice. It uses eSpeak synthesizer by default to output the voice and also allows you to select different synthesizer but one must go for eSpeak to read UNICODE text.
Features of NVDA Free Screen Reader Software
NVDA is an ultimate screen reader solution for text to speech task. By the help of NVDA screen reader you can-
- Read the text of various applications including browsers, instant messenger clients, MS office applications, desktop icons, start menu etc. (use Firefox browser to read UNICODE text)
- Listen to the respective letter when you press the keys in any Word Processing software
- You need not start it separately as it starts along with windows for easy access and guides you as you move your cursor
- It can recognize text formatting and errors as well
- You can keep it always with you in pen drive and run in other PCs without the need of installation
- NVDA screen reader is capable to run in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows
We have just learnt how NVDA screen reader assists vision impaired persons. While writing this post I just thought of using Flutter app for blinds which could help them to play or pause their lessons which they listen from media player or VLC. They can just show there hand to laptop’s webcam to pause their lessons and start again by same action. In this way they can interact with laptop or PC (with webcam) without touching a single key. Read our post on Flutter gesture recognition app.
Final Thoughts
While writing about NVDA screen reader software I must mention Mr. T.S. Shreedhar who has contributed his knowledge to NVDA software to add Indian languages. He is now working with the project to read the content of mobile or tablets.
Download NVDA Screen Reader
