A Quick Start for NVDA screen Reader (August 2008(

1. The package comes in two forms, both easily installed. A portable version can be unzipped to then run from a USB stick or CD, great for getting going on any PC. The full version comes with readme, desktop shortcut, and saving settings.
2. The download page for NVDA shows several versions. At this time, a good choice is the Preview 0.6 for either installed or portable versions. The snapshots are still evolving for some applications but generally stable for web browsers Firefox 3. Results may be less satisfactory for Internet Explorer. Further installations over-write previous code.
3. The kicker on using the installation package and upon startup is the default synthetic voice, named eSpeak. The voice may be difficult to understand at first, but can be learned with practice. Its chief virtues are that the speech engine is free, small, and easily customized for multiple languages, appropriate for an internationally oriented accessibility project. Its goal is to talk you through the installation process but you might well leave on Windows Narrator, if you use it.
4. REMEMBER THIS: There is an NVDA modifier key, defaulted to INS Insert but may be reset to CAPS LOCK. use Insert + N or CAPS LOCK +N to bring up the NVDA menu to change settings at any time.
5. The installation process is simple -- just keep clicking Next if you do not want to change the installation directory. At the end is a dialog for changing the default modifier key to CAPS LOCK. The modifier key allows you to send commands and make settings with NVDA versus typing into an application.
6. There are many alternatives to the eSpeak voice. Your PC may already have installed voices from other applications as well as those built in to Windows. A later step, will explain how to expand your repertoire of voice choices. Experiment with the following cycle to find a suitable trial voice:
   • Bring up the NVDA menu by INS+N.
   • Choose Preferences from the menu
   • Choose Synthesizer to show the options available on your PC. Click down in the combo box for different synthesizers, i.e. software to render voices, which are actually just data files. Try SAPI 5 if available for the most natural voices. You may need to install SAPI5, available free from online Microsoft.
   • Changing from eSpeak should bring up another voice. Click OK to experiment with the voices for this synthesizer.
   • Use INS+N again, select Preferences, and choose Voices. The combo should show the installed voices for the selected synthesizer. You may find names like Microsoft Sam or Adult American or Grandma or NV Kate. The voice should change after a few seconds loading its data.
   • Although not really pleasant, the MS voices like Mike and Mary in Windows XP and comparable better voices in Vista should suffice once you become attuned to their reading habits.
   • Continue until you find a voice you can understand well enough to experiment further with the functionality of NVDA.
   • Do not let the harshness or unfamiliarity of the synthetic voice scare you off. Blind people use this hours a day, as a necessity to utilize the power of screen readers. Just like listening to a new human acquaintance with an accent, you will soon become accustomed to their intonation, pace, and quirks and listen past their voice to what they are telling you.
7. Now experiment with NVDA in a browser. Here are the main key strokes for navigating a page: h for heading; k for link; f for form fields; n for buttons; I for lists; i for list items; and TAB for next element; down and up arrows for lines; INS+down for continuous reading; CNTL to stop reading. Precede a letter by SHIFT to reverse direction. To enter data into a form field, e.g. to search, you need to trigger what is called 'virtual buffer pass through' by pressing SPACE on first entering an edit field. Alternatively use INS+SPACE to toggle the pass-through. This is a pain until you get used to the extra layer of screen reader control interacting with forms on a web page.
8. You can tweak the speed and volume of the voices. Modifying pitch makes voices more weird but may help some users with hearing differences. It's neat that you can gradually increase the speech rate until you can listen faster than your sighted counterparts!
9. To interact best with a screen reader, you will want to become more oriented toward the keyboard than the mouse. Look up "Windows shortcuts" to find and learn a few of the fastest ways to get around the screen, e.g. ALT+TAB to chance active windows.
10. Better voices are available for around $25 or come bundled with a more versatile text reader that can also convert documents to mp3 files. A page of voice samples is available at nextup.com for Text Aloud. Voices are commercial products just like software available from multiple vendors. Neospeech is good for reading screen parts as well as text, but is currently unavailable. ATT Natural voices are good as well as the others, but some may be more responsive in the screen reader..
11. If you are using NVDA as your assistive tool, you will need to learn more using the Help for each application, e.g. Windows or Mozilla mail.

1. If you are using NVDA for testing accessibility of web pages, you need to design test cases for the quality of your pages. Then turn off your monitor or blind fold yourself or use a wireless keyboard remotely so you cannot see the screen. Navigate the page from start to finish, identify your accessibility gaps by w3c standards or a checklist, but pay special attention to the use cases engineered into the page and how a user will achieve the goals of the web site. The most common problems are the lack of headings to mark page sections and the use of stupid link texts like "click here".
2. No screen reader handles all applications. Few applications are read perfectly by all screen readers, including NVDA, which specializes in open source products for an international community. You just might be out of luck on some key application and require a $1000 outlay for a proprietary reader with scripts. Since web applications are becoming more dynamic, screen readers are trying to keep up and certainly will balk or fail on some pages or some uses of those pages. NVDA is supported by the Mozilla Foundation and works especially well with Firefox, better than Internet Explorer. Many applications like Apple iTunes are distributed in discriminatory forms difficult for screen readers. Applications based in Java require a special accessory. Other text tools like Adobe have their own accessibility and reading support.
3. Delve into NVDA details through the website wiki or Freelists.org mailing list. Search for some topic, e.g. eSpeak, using a query like "NVDA eSpeak freelists". Be aware that older discussions may be deprecated and that the primary authorities are Michael 'Mic' Curran and James Teh.
4. Learn more about speech synthesis at Wikipedia.