NVDA is a free, open-source screen reader for Windows that speaks what is on screen and follows the keyboard, giving blind and low-vision users access to applications, documents, and the web without a paid licence.
NVDA is a screen reader: it converts the interface of Windows, and of the applications running on it, into synthetic speech and braille. You drive the computer from the keyboard as usual, and a modifier key layer lets you query the current control, jump between headings and links, or read a whole window. Browse mode turns web pages and documents into something navigable by structure rather than by mouse position. It ships with its own synthesiser, works with the voices installed in Windows, and can drive a refreshable braille display. A portable copy on a USB stick carries the setup between machines.
The licence is the part that changes lives: it is free, it is open source, and it runs on the copy of Windows a user already owns, so an organisation can deploy it across a school or a workplace without counting seats. Because the source is public, translators have localized it into dozens of languages and volunteers maintain add-ons that cover everything from specific applications to braille hardware. Where a screen reader is not the right tool, a text-to-speech converter such as Balabolka handles batch narration of documents instead rather than live reading.
The practical benefit of NVDA is that cost stops being the reason someone cannot use a computer. A school can install it on every machine in a lab, a library can offer it on a public terminal, and a user who switches jobs can carry a portable build on a stick rather than negotiate a licence transfer. It handles the daily work rather than a demo: reading email, moving through a spreadsheet cell by cell, formatting a document, and following a web page whose structure is announced as headings, lists, and form fields. Add-ons extend it where a workflow needs more, and the community answers questions in public. NVDA also gives low-vision users speech that complements magnification, so the two tools can be used together.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Everything spoken can also be sent to a refreshable braille display, with the same focus tracking driving both outputs, so a deafblind user works from exactly the same interface as a colleague listening to speech, without learning a second set of commands or opening a separate application.
Browse mode restructures a page into headings, lists, landmarks, and form fields that you move through with single keys, and NVDA switches to focus mode automatically when you tab into a text box, so typing still behaves normally rather than being swallowed by navigation commands.
When an application exposes no usable keyboard path, flat review and object navigation let you walk the accessibility tree by hand and read a control the developer never labelled properly, which is often the difference between an unusable program and a workable one for the rest of the day.
Optional add-ons extend NVDA with support for particular applications, additional voices, braille hardware, and remote assistance, and each one installs from a signed package without altering the core reader, so a misbehaving extra can be switched off instead of forcing a full reinstall.
The reader, its settings, and its voices can be written to a USB stick and run on a borrowed machine without installing anything, which is how students and contractors keep a familiar setup on whatever Windows PC they happen to sit down at.
It ships with eSpeak NG and also uses Windows OneCore, SAPI voices, and third-party engines, so a user can choose between a robotic but instantly responsive voice for fast navigation and a more natural one for long reading sessions, switching per profile.
A built-in remote feature lets a support worker hear and control another session over the network, which is the practical way to teach a new user, hand over a working configuration, or troubleshoot a single setting without standing behind their chair for an hour.
Almost every command can be reassigned, and preferences are stored in profiles that switch per application, so a laptop keyboard, a braille notetaker layout, and a user's own muscle memory can coexist without a constant round of reconfiguration every time they change task.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
Common questions about NVDA.
It is genuinely free. NVDA is released under the GPL by NV Access, funded by donations and grants rather than licence sales, so there is no paid tier, seat count, or activation step, and organisations can deploy it as widely as they need.
Yes, and many low-vision users do. Speech covers what falls outside the magnified area and keeps track of changes elsewhere on screen, so the two tools complement each other rather than competing for control of the display.
It handles Word documents and text-based PDFs well, using structured navigation rather than line-by-line reading. Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so they need OCR first before any screen reader can do more than describe an image.
Firefox, Chrome, and Edge are the ones most actively tested and improved, and support varies by browser because each exposes its accessibility tree differently. Chrome and Firefox tend to be the smoothest for browse mode navigation and live region announcements.
Yes. The portable build writes the reader, configuration, and add-ons to removable media and runs without installing, leaving the host machine untouched, which suits shared computers in libraries, labs, and exam rooms.
You need a handful to start, mainly the modifier key plus a few navigation commands, and the rest can be learned as the need arises. The built-in command reference and the user guide document every keystroke in plain language.
Yes. There is nothing to purchase, it installs silently for administrators, settings can be copied between machines for a consistent setup, and remote support lets a teacher or IT worker help a user without travelling to their desk.
NVDA is a free, open-source screen reader for Windows that speaks what is on screen and follows the keyboard, giving blind and low-vision users access to applications, documents, and the web without a paid licence.
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NVDA Beta is the pre-release testing channel of NVDA, the free open-source Windows screen reader, giving blind and low-vision users early access to upcoming speech, braille and application support changes before they reach the stable release.
NVDA RC is the release candidate build of the free NVDA screen reader for Windows, published ahead of each stable version so testers can try new speech, braille, and browsing changes early.
Balabolka is a free Windows text-to-speech program that reads documents aloud with installed voices and saves the narration as MP3, WAV, or other audio files for later listening.
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