NVDA Coach just hit version 1.3.2 — and if you’re an assistive technology instructor, a blindness rehabilitation professional, or someone learning NVDA for the first time, this is the screen reader training tool you’ve been waiting for.
NVDA Coach is a free, open source add-on for the NVDA screen reader that teaches you commands through guided, hands-on practice sessions — from inside NVDA itself. No videos. No PDFs. No switching between windows to follow along. Press NVDA+Shift+C and the Coach begins walking you through what to do and why, one step at a time.
What’s New in v1.3.2
This release is all about making NVDA Coach accessible to the global blindness community.
Localization is now fully activated. Translation infrastructure was wired up in v1.3 but never switched on — addonHandler.initTranslation() was missing from both core modules. That’s fixed now, meaning translated strings are actually delivered to users in their language for the first time.
All UI strings are now translatable. The dialog title, introduction text, idle welcome screen, browse mode completion message, button labels, and the practice area label were all missing from the translation pipeline. Every one of them is now wrapped and localizable.
Language-aware documentation routing. The resources page, practice web page, and help file now open from the user’s language folder when a translation exists, falling back to English if not.
First complete Russian translation included. All five lesson chapters, all documentation, and all UI strings — contributed by Valentin Kupriyanov, Head of the Russian-speaking NVDA user community at nvda.ru. This is the first full community translation of NVDA Coach, and it opens the door for every language community to follow.
What Makes NVDA Coach Different
Most screen reader training materials live outside the screen reader. You read a guide, then switch to NVDA, then switch back. NVDA Coach eliminates that gap entirely. Every lesson speaks an instruction, tells you which key to press, and waits for you to do it. F1 repeats the instruction, F2 cycles through up to three hints per step, and F3 skips ahead.
Reading lessons embed a practice text area directly inside the Coach window. Tab navigation lessons open a real accessible form with actual buttons, checkboxes, and text fields. Browse mode lessons open a fully accessible HTML practice page in your browser. You’re never practicing in a vacuum — you’re working with real content from the start.
35 Lessons Across Five Chapters
Chapter 1: Getting Started with NVDA — 11 lessons covering the NVDA modifier key, reading the title bar, silencing speech, Tab navigation, activating controls, and Input Help mode. Starts with a lesson on the three categories of keyboard commands so learners understand who controls what before they touch a shortcut.
Chapter 2: Reading and Moving Through Text — 6 lessons on character, word, and line navigation, Say All, and text selection. Every lesson includes an inline practice text area built directly into the Coach window.
Chapter 3: Browse Mode and Web Navigation — 10 lessons covering heading navigation, link navigation, form fields, browse/focus mode toggling, landmarks, the Elements List, and NVDA Find. A fully accessible practice web page opens automatically.
Chapter 4: Object Navigation — 6 lessons on the object tree, moving between objects, routing focus, and knowing when object navigation is the right tool. Desktop and laptop layouts both covered.
Chapter 5: Customizing NVDA — 2 lessons on keyboard layout switching and the synthesizer settings ring.
Built for AT Instructors
NVDA Coach was designed for classroom and one-on-one instruction. Assign a chapter as pre-session homework, use it as a structured warm-up, or give it to students for independent practice between appointments. Progress tracking saves completed lessons across NVDA restarts, and all lessons are plain JSON files — meaning you can create custom lesson sets for your students or organization without touching any code.
If you’re teaching NVDA to beginners — whether in a state agency, a school, or a private practice — this tool was built with your workflow in mind.
Download and Get Started
Download NVDA Coach v1.3.2 — Free, no account required. Also available in the NVDA Add-on Store (Tools, Add-on Store).
View the source code, report issues, or contribute translations on GitHub.
Questions or feedback? Reach me at info@tonygebhard.me.
NVDA 2024.1 or later required. Works on any Windows system running NVDA — no internet connection needed after install.
NVDA Coach is open source software licensed under GPL v2. Contributions, translations, and custom lesson development are welcome. Learn more on the NVDA Coach page.
Tony Gebhard 