mastodon - Link to source
The thing about JAWS vs NVDA is that it doesn't matter if @freedomscientific packs it with objectively better features. NVDA is free, easy to use (within the context of desktop screen readers), and it's good enough for the vast majority of screen reader users. Want to browse the web? Want to check your email? Need to type up an assignment? Need to track data with spreadsheets? Want to write some code? Want to run virtual machines? Just wanna keep up with your communities on Discord? Want to test your app for accessibility? NVDA can do all of those things. There is no faffing, no caveats, no running obscure commands, and no license to install. You download it. You install it. You run it. That's it. Want it to do more stuff? Open the addon store which is built into NVDA. If you know Python, you can write your own addons and share them with other users.
FS is relying on organizations like schools and governments where paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars is normal and expected and you can't just install an addon to an existing app. This does not work outside of those organizations. The blind kid who wants to listen to memes and keep up with their friends doesn't have several hundred dollars per year, but they probably know that they can go download a free screen reader that will let them listen to memes and keep up with their friends.
NVDA is winning because it's good enough for most people and costs nothing. If you do have the money to spare for a license and you want to use JAWS because you prefer it, that's fantastic! I'm glad you found a screen reader that you like. Most people will choose the free option because they just wanna listen to their favorite streamer while they type up their research paper.
#blind #AccessForAll #ScreenReader #nvda #jaws #jaws26
#blind #screenreader #nvda #jaws #accessforall #jaws26 @Freedom Scientific / Vispero
in reply to PepperTheVixen ΘΔ

mastodon - Link to source

Matt Campbell

Sensitive content

This entry was edited (11 hours ago)

Khronos reshared this.

in reply to Matt Campbell

pleroma - Link to source

Jason J.G. White

I suspect that, in comparing screen readers, there may be a tendency to overlook the fact that the functionality of NVDA is distributed between the core application and a large collection of community-supplied add-ons. For a feature-level comparison with other screen readers (in the Windows environment or elsewhere), you really have to compare NVDA + relevant add-ons with the capabilities of the alternatives. Comparing only the NVDA core without the add-ons is misleading.
in reply to Jason J.G. White

mastodon - Link to source

x0

@jason @matt Except for in constrained environments. Of course, JAWS has the same thing with JAWS scripts, many of which are community supplied, but some ship with the screen reader, equivalent to NVDA's default app modules. I wonder which community is larger and has more active development and new add-ons? The store helped NVDA's process along I think, although the Spanish store was and still is going pretty strongly. I don't think JAWS has a central index of scripts. But JAWS scripts might cover some more niche cases than add-ons currently do, given longer history.
@Matt Campbell @Jason J.G. White
in reply to x0

pleroma - Link to source

Jason J.G. White

I'm fortunately in the position of having the freedom to choose my own hardware, operating systems and software - I'll never have to think about constrained environments. One advantage of NVDA is that there's now a centralized repository for add-ons, whereas there isn't for JAWS scripts. Voiceover for Mac supports AppleScript, but there are no published scripts as far as I am aware. Orca under Linux (which I use a lot) is moving toward supporting an add-on capability, but at the moment, all of the new features go directly into the core application.
in reply to Andrew Hodgson

pleroma - Link to source

Jason J.G. White

NVDA should be well suited to many higher education and employment scenarios as well. At least in the work I do, Web applications are becoming increasingly common (e.g., Google Drive/Docs for sharing documents that are not on GitHub), so it typically doesn't matter what operating system, let alone screen reader, one is using as long as they work reliably with modern Web-based interfaces, and the Web applications are accessible. Microsoft 365 is also widely used, and NVDA supports it. I'm sure there are various legacy enterprise applications around, but they'll probably continue to migrate to the Web over time, or be replaced by Web-based alternatives.
⇧