I received permission from Nimer regarding the following letter:

Hello NVDA community,

First, I hope you are staying safe and healthy.

One day in early 2012, I came across a question posed on an NVDA list (it could have been this list which was hosted on a different forum platform then): can NVDA read Korean? That question led to an adventure that span nine years: translations, writing documentation, founding an international gathering of a community, releasing countless add-ons, moderating several NVDA lists and communities, and learning to incorporate lessons I have learned from the community in the next chapter of my life. In the midst of contributions, I recently hinted that I plan to retire from the community, and that golden opportunity has come:

On May 10, 2021, I was offered and accepted admission to master of arts (graduate school) program in communication studies at California State University, Los Angeles after graduating with highest honors (summa cum laude) from the same university.

After observing discussions between graduate students and thinking about balancing between graduate seminars, coaching speech and debate teams, and NVDA code contributions, I decided that school should take highest of highest of priorities. Graduate school is harder than undergraduate (college) education, especially when adding responsibility of teaching and coaching students competing in collegiate speech and debate tournaments. As much as I love programming and contributing to NVDA community, I cannot forget my immediate responsibilities of being a student and public speaking coach.

Therefore, I’m retiring from NVDA community contributions, effective September 1, 2021. This means:

• I do have work to finish which might end up in NVDA as early as 2021.2, and I plan to dedicate this summer to completing outstanding pull requests.
• I’m handing over most of my add-ons to the NVDA add-ons community for further maintenance. I do plan to maintain Add-on Updater and Windows 10 App Essentials – Add-on Updater is needed until NVDA comes with add-ons store, and Windows 10 App Essentials is needed to respond to ever-changing nature of Windows 10 ecosystem and to keep up with changes in NVDA development from time to time.
• For NVDACon attendees and organizers, I will not be able to (and I really cannot) participate in NVDACon for a while.
• For add-ons community, I will be stepping down as your chief admin and add-on reviewer this summer (details will be sent to add-ons list).

 

Several thank you’s:

• Mick and Jamie: for starting it all fifteen years ago – April 2006 signaled the birth of a movement, which endures today.
• NV Access staff, past and present: so many discussions, teaching me about life, programming, and group work.
• Mesar Hameed: for teaching me about NVDA translation process and making sure community add-ons website was ready for the world in 2013.
• Many NvDA users and enthusiasts in South Korea: for giving me an updated picture on Korean blindness community and help formulating strategies on translations and outreach nine years ago.
• Many translators: for helping me adjust to the NVDA community when I was a novice translator in 2012.
• Thousands of users: for teaching me many things – forum discussions, direct feedback, and countless other venues.
• Nimer and NVDA Users list moderators, past and present: many collaborations and helpful advice.
• For users of my add-ons: countless feedback, megabytes of debug logs (all were destroyed after analyses because they contain private information), and so many other things that made add-ons useful to this day.
• NVDA supporters outside this forum: for your continued enthusiasm and support.
• Microsoft engineers and fellow Windows Insiders: many opportunities to connect and learn from.
• Folks from Mozilla, Google, and other organizations: for meeting new friends and colleagues.

 

One advice for future NVDA contributors: listen a lot. You can’t write effective add-ons and NVDA pull requests without listening to what others have to say. Before writing Python, sit down and have a conversation with users. Collaboration is the key, especially when talking to people online.

 

Although I’m retiring as a code contributor, I look forward to helping the NVDA community in other ways. Until then, graduate school is calling me – feel free to reach out if you seek advice on accessibility advocacy, programming in general, public speaking, and what not.

 

Before I close, I would like to take this time to invite resident high school and college students to invest in public speaking, or if you want, compete in speech and debate tournaments. You can’t just sit and ask others to advocate for you – you must do it yourself at some point in your life. One way to do so is learning public speaking and debate skills, and one venue is through competing in high school or college speech and debate tournaments. What strengthened my own advocacy skills was competing in speech tournaments, which also provided opportunities to tell the world about NVDA project – I even talked about NVDA and accessibility advocacy at a national speech tournament.

 

Advocacy will be important, especially as the world moves onto digital ways to accomplish more tasks: virtual reality, artificial intelligence, biometrics, web-based workplace, and telehealth. As high school and college students, you are in a place to inform and persuade people about baking accessibility into products. Right now, there aren’t many blind students competing in high school or college speech and debate tournaments, and I want to sincerely ask you to change the big picture. I’m willing to coach public speaking events (see the message header for contact email); this speech coaching offer from a nationally recognized former speech competitor and now an apprentice coach extends to any blind high school or college student (not only on NVDA Users list, but also in other communities).

 

Farewell, NVDA community. Thank you for teaching me many lessons over the last nine years, and for giving me opportunities to make a difference in the lives of many as an undergraduate college student and a volunteer code contributor. Love you all, and stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Joseph S. Lee

NVDA Certified Expert, 2019

Volunteer translator, code contributor, and add-ons reviewer, NVDA screen reader project (June 2012 to September 2021)

Founding chair, NVDA Users and developers Conference (NVDACon) (March 2014 to April 2016)

Member, NVDA Council

Former moderator, NVDA Users list (2013 to 2016)

Hi List,
I am   using;
www. https://nnels.ca/ <https://nnels.ca/welcome-nnels>
more these days.
It is an  national network  of equitable library services.
It is available to all print disabled Canadians with a  local library  card.
When I do a search   on this web site, I find myself pressing the letter “h”  for headings  til  I get to the first result.
When I get to the first result, nvda says “heading llevel 3”.
Is there a key press, combo I can press to jump to the first “heading level 3”  without  going through all the previous headings?
Please, don’t kick me off the island,  because I did not find the answer to my question in the quick start guide.
Cheers,
Monte

Hi Clement,
I expect you will need to download and install the HIMS USB Driver:
http://www.himsintl.com/upload/HIMS_USB_Driver_v25.zip
This zip file has one executable file, but the installation consists of
two drivers which run one after the other, so be sure to see it through
to the end.
Thanks
Sam


On 12/05/2021 10:24 am, Clement Chou wrote:

Hi all. I'm trying to connect my braille sense polaris to use as a
display with NVDA. There's no specific driver for Hims displays, so I
set it to automatic and connected the polaris in terminal mode. But it
doesn't seem to be working, even though all the settings look right.
Am I missing something here? It seems to be connecting to my computer
just fine.

Hi all. I'm trying to connect my braille sense polaris to use as a
display with NVDA. There's no specific driver for Hims displays, so I
set it to automatic and connected the polaris in terminal mode. But it
doesn't seem to be working, even though all the settings look right.
Am I missing something here? It seems to be connecting to my computer
just fine.

Enjoy your brake.
Member: Virginia Association of Blind Students www.nfbv.org
Student of: Hadley Institute for the Blind www.hadley.edu

On May 11, 2021, at 08:32, Akshaya Choudhary <acsociopath@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hello Joseph,

Your contributions will be missed. Thank you for everything, and many
congratulations for your new opportunities.
--
Regards,
Sociohack

Hi Jean,

 

I suspect that the Bluetooth speaker itself is laggy.  This occurs because it is Bluetooth Version 4 or less.

 

All the best

 

Steve

 

--

To subscribe to our News and Special Offers list, go to https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe

 

Computer Room Services

77 Exeter Close

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Hertfordshire

SG1 4PW

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E: steve@...

W: https://www.comproom.co.uk

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Gene
Sent: 09 May 2021 22:22
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Bluetooth speakers with Windows

 

Since neither add-on solves the problem, I am suspicious that the problem isn’t the usual one.  Anything that keeps the sound card active, such as Silenzio, as I understand it, should solve the problem and I would expect the Add-on Brian referenced to solve it as well.

 

We need more information.  does the problem occur when and only when there has been no audio for a time or does it occur at other times?  We assumed the problem occurred after a period of no audio but since the expected solutions don’t work, we have to see if our assumptions are correct.

 

Gene

-----Original Message-----

From: Kevin Cussick via groups.io

Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2021 4:14 PM

To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

Subject: Re: [nvda] Bluetooth speakers with Windows

 

that did not work for me either.

On 09/05/2021 11:31, Steve Nutt wrote:
> No, but I think Silenzio will.  That add-on is not great, I tested it.
>
> All the best
>
> Steve
>
> --
> To subscribe to our News and Special Offers list, go to https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe
>
> Computer Room Services
> 77 Exeter Close
> Stevenage
> Hertfordshire
> SG1 4PW
> T: +44(0)1438-742286
> M: +44(0)7956-334938
> F: +44(0)1438-759589
> E: steve@...
> W: https://www.comproom.co.uk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Kevin Cussick via groups.io
> Sent: 08 May 2021 23:01
> To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
> Subject: Re: [nvda] Bluetooth speakers with Windows
>
> well for me this addon did not fix the blue tooth audio cutting off words.
>
> On 08/05/2021 15:14, Brian Vogel wrote:
>> Because of how Windows handles power management (and sleeping) for
>> Bluetooth.  There's actually an add-on to address this issue:
>>
>>
>>    BluetoothAudio
>>    <https://addons.nvda-project.org/addons/BluetoothAudio.en.html>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Brian -Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 20H2, Build 19042
>>
>> /Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win
>> unless you hate them.  And then you destroy yourself./
>>
>>          ~ Richard M. Nixon
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

On May 11, 2021, at 08:32, Akshaya Choudhary <acsociopath@...> wrote:

Hello Joseph,

Your contributions will be missed. Thank you for everything, and many congratulations for your new opportunities.
--
Regards,
Sociohack

Hello,
Thanks for all your contributions making NVDA better; It goes without
saying - you did a fantastic job there! Not only that, your efforts in
Windows 10 development and tutoring are also unforgetable! Thank you
for all advices, guidelines and tutorials given to the blind community
around the world! I wish you good luck anytime and anywhere in your
future! :-)
Best regards,
Paulius

Nicholas Stevens wrote:

Are there any invoice programs which work well with NVDA?

Some of the web based accounting solutions do, like waveapps.com, which is free. Overkill if all you need is invoicing, but most people need more.

Luke