[Trainer-Talk] Is NVDA enough for the blind?

[Brian Vogel]

Leo Bado wrote:  ". . . if the goal is to secure a real-world job, users
should train with the same authentic, situational tools the role actually
demands. Practice should mirror the workplace—not some sanitized sandbox
with training wheels."

Showe Trela wrote, in part: "For those of you actively teaching, placing
consumers into employment, or working within VR systems, what do you see as
the long-term implications of moving away from JAWS as the primary screen
reader taught to blind individuals?"

These two things are not mutually exclusive.  That being said, most VR
systems and employers (if the employers know anything at all) know about
one, and only one, screen reader:  JAWS.  That's an accident of history as
JAWS is the granddaddy of them all that still survives on the Windows
platform.

But the reality is that money does matter, as do the attitudes of many IT
departments, a number of which are only familiar with JAWS.  But none of
this makes JAWS inherently superior.

I am recently retired (as of April 1st) after a decade and a half of
working as a tutor for the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision
Impaired Technology Tutor Network.  We were (and are still) effectively a
JAWS only shop, which I had been trying to get them away from for quite
some time.  Many clients, particularly those who will be seeking remote
employment, and where such employment is sometimes tenuous, at best, simply
cannot afford the current JAWS subscription costs if they are not actively
employed.  You can't use JAWS Personal for employment (or at least you
can't legally, and no state agency would ever do so).  Keeping a
professional subscription is expensive.

I have used NVDA as a functional stand-in for JAWS since almost 2010,
because when I first started tutoring the only option for JAWS was a full
license and the number of referrals and their irregularity made it
financially unreasonable to buy a JAWS license that I used only
intermittently.  JAWS and NVDA have much more in common from the
perspective of "typical daily driver tasks" (regardless of setting) than
they do differences.

One also cannot ignore Narrator in all of this, either, as Microsoft has
been focusing more resources on Narrator in the Windows 10/11 era than it
ever did before.

It's also important to remember that choice of screen reader as a
reasonable accommodation by an employer does not necessarily mean you will
get the screen reader you prefer.  They are not obligated to supply JAWS
(though this is what most do) but to supply a screen reader that allows the
work tasks to be performed.  And when it comes to money, and how business
works, I can definitely see the time coming in the not wildly distant
future where Narrator is going to be pushed a lot harder because it comes
with Windows at no cost and is a Microsoft made and supported product.

It's all about feature matching, and that can and does mean that if most of
the employers in your area of service are almost certain to be supplying
JAWS, then the focus should be on JAWS.  But if they are not already set in
their ways about what they supply, that gives you the latitude to teach the
screen reader you choose and help them get it set up.

There is no one right answer here.  The number of variables on the end of
the potential employers and on the end of the clients, and the nature of
the likely employment scenario itself all can push more in the JAWS or NVDA
direction.

But in the end I've yet to meet a long-term JAWS user who can't make the
jump to NVDA, or vice versa, with relative ease.  These two screen readers
are not "worlds apart."

Brian Vogel