It is offered free of charge to anyone in the world, meaning there is no longer a financial barrier for blind people to work, learn, or do anything else on a computer. The philosophy behind NVDA is extremely compelling. It offers many of the same features that JAWS offers and should be suitable for 99% of screen reader users. The organization behind the project is an Australian company called NV Access ( It has been around since 2006 and primarily competes with the JAWS for Windows screen reader produced by Freedom Scientific or Vispero as they are now known by. Nonvisual Desktop Access or NVDA for short is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Hopefully by the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of each product and its individual strengths/weaknesses.

Both are powerful screen readers in their own right, but they have their strengths and weaknesses which I will discuss in more detail. The two that we will be discussing are Apple’s VoiceOver for macOS and the Nonvisual Desktop Access or NVDA for Windows. However, several free yet capable screen readers have emerged in the last 20 years. Traditionally, screen readers have been very expensive third-party programs that were very difficult to obtain depending on one’s financial status. One of the most important tools a blind user uses with modern computing devices is a screen reader. The modern era has brought many advantages for those who are blind or visually impaired.

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