Transcript: A free and easy screen reader

5 February 2011

Roberta:  We’re here with Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia to tell us about a piece of free technology that allows anyone who is blind to use computers through audio and it’s called NVDA. Welcome Scott.

Scott:  Thanks for, thanks for having me back.

Roberta:  We’ve talked about this before but could you just give us a brief overview as to what NVDA is and what it does?

Scott:  Sure, NVDA is a very popular free screen reader, so it runs on Windows and basically people can download this free screen reader and install it on Windows and then it basically allows people who are blind to use Windows, they can use the web, they can edit documents and basically give them all functionality of the computer through a voice reading things back to you. So it’s a very powerful programme and it’s evolved a lot in recent years and yeah because it is free as opposed to you know one to two thousand dollars of the, of its rivals, you know it’s a really good option.

Roberta:  Now I understand that NVDA has made an announcement relating to support and training, this is important isn’t it?

Scott:  It is, and as you say they’ve just announced that now they’re going to provide support, so people can call up NV Access the company behind NVDA and they can get support on the phone and they also offer training in person as well, so there’s a really great step forward there.

Roberta:  And I was going to ask you that question why is offering a support service so important, but you’ve answered and I guess it feels really good, more like people are willing to try if they know that they’ve got the backup?

Scott:  Absolutely and the really big thing about a support service is that, and this is especially a big issue with free screen readers is that when you have big companies behind products you know you can get in touch with them if you need help, if you need training, there’s that option and, but traditionally with free software there isn’t really the same ability to get in touch with someone because often it’s something, because it’s a free product it’s often difficult to have people employed for support.

And also when you have free things built into the operating systems, like Apple has a free screen reader called VoiceOver on the iPads and Macs, again it’s often hard if someone gets stuck to contact a really big multinational like that for help. So in the case of this it’s wonderful that you’ve got the best of both worlds, that there is that free software, but there’s also still that opportunity to get in touch and get some help.

Roberta:  So Scott is that available now and how could people get it?

Scott:  It is available now, there’s a lot of information on the NV Access website at nvaccess.org and also the NVDA programme itself is nvda-project.org. So there are certainly options for people to get hold of NVDA for free and then also get in touch regarding the support.

Roberta:  Now is there a cost involved in the support or?

Scott:  There is and this is one of the things, because the software itself is free, understandably to pay for people to man the phone and you know be there, so the cost is 59.95 an hour and you can, you get charged in 10 minute blocks.

Roberta:  Oh that’s better.

Scott:  Yeah, so it sounds like a lot but when you consider that if you have to purchase an alternative like JAWS that cost one to two thousand just for the software, you know they’ve structured their costs so that the software is free, but you do pay for support. But that said I mean you know you probably wouldn’t need a lot of support to get up and running, to get the basics happening and you know it is optional and there’s also a lot of free online resources on the website already, so there’s a few options you can try for free, you can go through the free online support and then if you still have issues then you know it’s great that there is someone at the end of a phone to help.

Roberta:  Absolutely, very comforting. Now where can we go to find out more?

Scott:  Yeah as I was saying before the nvaccess.org and nvda-project.org sites are all from NV Access and they can provide you with the options to download NVDA for free and to get all that support information, but Media Access also have a lot of information on our website so mediaaccess.org.au and go to Digital Technology.        

Roberta:  Digital Technology, well that’s good, that’s a great website actually, if I can navigate it, anybody can.

Scott:  [laugh].

Roberta:  [laugh] Well Scott, thank you very much for all of that today, that’s called the NVDA and it is available for you now. We’ve been speaking with Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia and if you would like to contact them you can go to that website or you can go to mediaaccess.org.au or you can call them on 02 9212 6242. Thank you Scott.

Scott:  Thank you.

Roberta:  And Media Access Australia are supporters of this program and we thank them for that.