NVDA Screen Reader vs Read Aloud

is freely and open source (GPL2) Supports Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Word, Excel and Outlook Express, and Mozilla Thunderbird. NVDA supports web content using JavaScript. For students testing the screenreaders, NVDA was considered to be the second best screen reader in terms of capability for Windows and a great selling point is its price-free. In testing, some students preferred NVDA while some preferred JAWS. Interestingly enough, NVDA was able to read some web content that JAWS did not but the reverse was sometimes true as well.

- George Thompson

I have done my best to outline the major differences between NVDA on Windows and VoiceOver on the Mac. While both products are good, I personally lean in favor of NVDA. Microsoft Windows is by far the most popular system in the world, and NVDA is a great tool in the toolbox. Its open source nature is a major plus and means the innovation and ability to keep up with the ever increasing changes in Windows is almost certain. In contrast, Apple’s neglect has turned me personally away from the Mac. I do not recommend people invest in Macs anymore either, as it has been clear for many years that Apple’s focus is on iOS. While it’s sad these events have transpired, we must never forget or disrespect the work Apple has done. Apple is a pioneer in the realm of mainstream accessibility, and now everyone else including Microsoft is trying to catch up. This is a very good thing as it pushes the entire industry forward and ultimately means access for blind users is only getting better and better as the years march on.

- iPhoneGeeks

NVDA was much easier to get up and running, and I can keep it on a USB drive so that if I have to use it, then I can just pull it out and have it work.

- Blee Blat

This software is so well designed, and it works all the time. I highly recommend this software for people looking for text to speech software. Just hit control C and then click read and it reads whatever you copied. Thanks for such a stable software.

- Donald

A great tool to use when you have attention deficit disorder, limited range of motion/physical disability, making things easier to be at your fingertips. ReadAlound needs a icon or share icon to connect to the different websites quicker.

- Ms. Courtney

This app is just what I was hoping for. I can copy and paste text from documents I'm writing into this app and listen to the flow. I don't use it for anything else, but it would be extremely easy to read web text or PDF text as well using this program. After using it for a few weeks, I bought the paid version, which gets rid of the ads. What I like: the different voices (I like the female, UK English one), fast and easy to put text into the reading pane, ability to pause and start. Really accurate pronunciations. What I'd change: I'd make it so I can have this reading in the background while I have a different window maximized (i.e., while I'm in my word processing program). It would be great if we could also customize pronunciations. The engine incorrectly pronounces certain words (surprisingly few, though), and it would be great to be able to edit that as is possible on other programs.

- Jessica