When I swtiched from MacOS + Voiceover to Windows + NVDA mid-2021, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I was able to do everything I wanted, and play audio games, without much - if any - friction. I self-taught myself NVDA and didn't sit there crying with frustration like I did while trying to learn VoiceOver in 2019; I had only been blind for a year and a half at that point (since 2020).
When I first started learning how to use a computer without eyesight, it was Windows 7, and JAWS 13 if memory serves. While I loved Windows 7, I absolutely hated JAWS. By 2014 I got my first Mac computer, a MacBook Pro. Two years later, I learned how to get Windows 10 Boot Camp onto said MacBook Pro. I had already been in college a few years by this point, and so started using windows for certain homework assignments, and OSx for other assignments. At the time, I thought Mac OS X was absolutely amazing. I especially preferred it over using JAWS with my Boot Camp Windows 10. Eventually I learned about NVDA, and taught myself how to use that. I have never looked back.
As of 2024, I now rock in HP laptop running the latest builds of Windows 11 and NVDA.
As I said in my subject line, NVDA is a joy to use. With all of the different add-ons, and customization options, it's really a no-brainer why I would use this over any other screen reading software.
Kinda irrelevant but I don't hate JAWS. I love Convenient OCR and PictureSmart, I'm able to browse sites like Tumblr with PictureSmart for example. But I just feel more "at home" with NVDA, if that makes sense. I do use JAWS at work, sometimes if I'm writing (there seems to be a bug with NVDA and Word where it won't read the word count with Control + Shift + G), for reading Kindle books on my PC, and for working with Google Docs/Drive/Sheets.
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Breath of fresh air
When I swtiched from MacOS + Voiceover to Windows + NVDA mid-2021, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I was able to do everything I wanted, and play audio games, without much - if any - friction. I self-taught myself NVDA and didn't sit there crying with frustration like I did while trying to learn VoiceOver in 2019; I had only been blind for a year and a half at that point (since 2020).
NVDA is a joy to use
When I first started learning how to use a computer without eyesight, it was Windows 7, and JAWS 13 if memory serves. While I loved Windows 7, I absolutely hated JAWS. By 2014 I got my first Mac computer, a MacBook Pro. Two years later, I learned how to get Windows 10 Boot Camp onto said MacBook Pro. I had already been in college a few years by this point, and so started using windows for certain homework assignments, and OSx for other assignments. At the time, I thought Mac OS X was absolutely amazing. I especially preferred it over using JAWS with my Boot Camp Windows 10. Eventually I learned about NVDA, and taught myself how to use that. I have never looked back.
As of 2024, I now rock in HP laptop running the latest builds of Windows 11 and NVDA.
As I said in my subject line, NVDA is a joy to use. With all of the different add-ons, and customization options, it's really a no-brainer why I would use this over any other screen reading software.
NVDA is the GSROAT
Jaws unfortunately has its usefulness still in some edge case office apps, but as a dev, I couldn't do anything with jaws, only nvda.
Just for the record
Kinda irrelevant but I don't hate JAWS. I love Convenient OCR and PictureSmart, I'm able to browse sites like Tumblr with PictureSmart for example. But I just feel more "at home" with NVDA, if that makes sense. I do use JAWS at work, sometimes if I'm writing (there seems to be a bug with NVDA and Word where it won't read the word count with Control + Shift + G), for reading Kindle books on my PC, and for working with Google Docs/Drive/Sheets.