Looking at the #NVDA road map, it seems like they have two goals in mind for the future.
1: Fill the thing with AI and bloat (See the built-in remote fiasco. That was just the start.)
and
2: Collect more and more user data.
How about we not do that, please?
NV Access
in reply to Mister Krabs • • •1/n Thanks for your feedback! We do genuinely appreciate you tagging us so that we can respond. I have taken the time to consider each of your points. Please find responses below.
As mentioned by others, Remote Access has been regularly requested by users. All reports are that it works quite well, and we have ironed out several issues for NVDA 2025.2, but if you are aware of any still present, please do let us know.
NV Access
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to NV Access • • •We have had many people ask for AI image recognition, and that is the only AI-related we are actively working on presently. We have had AI image description add-ons available for over six years and they are anecdotally very popular. What we are working on - which no add-on currently offers, is an ON-DEVICE solution, to keep your image descriptions private.
NV Access
in reply to NV Access • • •4/n
If having NVDA able to describe images without alt text is of no interest to you, then again, you will be able to avoid using that feature.
Out of 33 points on that page, only THREE involve AI and at least two of those are blue-sky ideas for well in the future. I'm not sure where filling NVDA with AI bloat is? (For comparison, have you looked at MS Office lately?). Collecting ANONYMOUS data will help us prioritise the features YOU the users request.
NV Access
in reply to NV Access • • •5/n
For instance, if people request add-on XYZ be added to core, that carries a lot more weight if we know that 80% of users have that add-on installed.
Our corporate users are particularly interested to know what information NVDA collects and how to disable it. You can find this information on our Corporate and Government page, and will still be able to moving forward.
NV Access
in reply to NV Access • • •6/6
We know users in general are also interested in any information we collect & we will be sure to share this in our blog (sign up at nvaccess.org/newsletter ) and likely here on social media. Again, can you find the same information for many of the other programs you use?
Finally, if you do have specific concerns with anything on our roadmap, or any NVDA features, please do let us know. NVDA continues to be, as it ever was, a community driven project & we thrive on feedback.
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NV Access
nvaccess.orgMister Krabs
in reply to NV Access • • •@NVAccess Thanks for your response. AI and image recognission (Especially on-device) as well as remote, is great. I'm glad that they're optional and disabled by default. However, the point I'm trying to raise, and that people don't seem to be getting, is why add these to the core codebase when they could be addons just like so many other features? Especially for users on low-resource devices which NVDA has historically served better than JAWS, app size is very important.
Over the years, JAWS has grown to be insanely bloated. The install takes 20-30 minutes, even using a good internet connection with a fast computer. Part of the reason for this is that a lot of the features that aren't exactly things that could be considered core are in the core codebase. The NVDA installer is still quite small, (30-50 MB last I checked). Maintaining a quick and simple download and installation process and a more basic default feature set would improve user trust. All addon code is publicly available, and the addon store provides an extra layer of security for companies and individuals with privacy concerns.
I have the same view of AI regardless of the project. If AI can be an optional feature, via an addon or other method, I support it. I'm not unfairly going after NVDA here, MS offices' decisions regarding AI are awful for many reasons and I've spoken about that at length before, on and off of social media.
Also, regarding the collection of user data. A lot of companies hide the information they collect on their users, but that doesn't make unnecessary data collection acceptable. There are plenty of public forums where you can accept feedback. Just use those. There's no need for telemetry here.
I hope this helps to get us on the same page.
NV Access
in reply to Mister Krabs • • •With Remote, adding that to core allows us to add extra security to it which wasn't possible as an add-on. I just looked at my portable versions. 2025.1.2 takes up 213MB compared to 217MB for 2024.4.2, so it's actually SMALLER. And if you don't use it, it doesn't use any other resources.
With AI image recognition, we are still exploring how that even works, and no decision has been made regarding implementation - certainly size will be a consideration. Thanks for asking!
aaron
in reply to Mister Krabs • • •Jay Pellis
in reply to Mister Krabs • • •Sean Randall
in reply to Jay Pellis • • •Jay Pellis
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Sean Randall
in reply to Jay Pellis • • •Jay Pellis
in reply to Sean Randall • • •James Dean
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Jay Pellis
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Sean Randall
in reply to Jay Pellis • • •It's under the Medium-Term Priorities section of [NV Access's NVDA Roadmap](nvaccess.org/post/nvda-roadmap…)
NV Access | NVDA Roadmap
nvaccess.orgJay Pellis
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Sean Randall
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Obviously Picture Smart is not an on-device service and goes out to GPT just like be my eyes does, but the wording even in the roadmap from Nv Access shows that privacy and security are preplanned, not afterthoughts.
Jay Pellis
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Scarlet Phoenix Collective
in reply to Mister Krabs • • •NV Access
in reply to Scarlet Phoenix Collective • • •SwitchingFromJawsToNVDA
GitHubScarlet Phoenix Collective
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Scarlet Phoenix Collective • • •@the_spc If you've got access to both and one works better in one situation then go for it. If there is anything NVDA specifically lags in we could improve, please do let us know!
And I wasn't sure whether you meant you need Jaws for a specific job search (site?) or whether you feel you need it for work - but we do have information for employers / companies in setting up NVDA: nvaccess.org/corporate-governm…
And we are happy to answer any questions an organisation may have about NVDA :)
NV Access | Corporate & Government
www.nvaccess.orgScarlet Phoenix Collective
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Scarlet Phoenix Collective • • •