The list of features below is a subset of the full list of new features for NVDA. I am simplifying and explaining the feature set in an attempt to help nontechnical people appreciate what’s new for NVDA. This list was retrieved from NvAccess and edited here.

What’s New in NVDA 2023.1

A new option has been added, “Paragraph Style” in “Document Navigation”. This can be used with text editors that do not support paragraph navigation natively, such as Notepad and Notepad++.

There is a new global command to report the destination of a link, mapped to NVDA+k.

Support for annotated web content has improved. Press NVDA+d to cycle through summaries when annotations are reported.

Tivomatic Caiku Albatross 46/80 braille displays are now supported.

Support for ARM64 and AMD64 versions of Windows has improved.

There are many bug fixes, notably Windows 11 fixes.

eSpeak, LibLouis, Sonic rate boost and Unicode CLDR have been updated. There are new Georgian, Swahili and Chichewa braille tables.

Note:

• This release breaks compatibility with existing add-ons.

New Features

• Microsoft Excel via UI Automation: Automatic reporting of column and row headers in tables.
  • Note: This is referring to tables formatted via the “Table” button on the Insert pane of the Ribbon. “First Column” and “Header Row” in “Table Style Options” correspond to column and row headers respectively.
  • This is not referring to screen reader specific headers via named ranges, which is currently not supported via UI Automation.
• An unassigned script has been added to toggle delayed character descriptions.
• Added an experimental option to leverage the UIA notification support in Windows Terminal to report new or changed text in the terminal, resulting in improved stability and responsivity.
  • Consult the user guide for limitations of this experimental option.
• On Windows 11 ARM64, browse mode is now available in AMD64 apps such as Firefox, Google Chrome and 1Password.
• A new option has been added, “Paragraph Style” in “Document Navigation”. This adds support for single line break and multi line break paragraph navigation. This can be used with text editors that do not support paragraph navigation natively, such as Notepad and Notepad++.
• The presence of multiple annotations are now reported. NVDA+d now cycles through reporting the summary of each annotation target for origins with multiple annotation targets. For example, when text has a comment and a footnote associated with it.
• Added support for Tivomatic Caiku Albatross 46/80 braille displays.
• New global command: Report link destination. Pressed once will speak/braille the destination of the link that is in the navigator object. Pressing twice will show it in a window, for more detailed review.
• New unmapped global command : Report link destination in a window. Same as pressing NVDA+k twice, but may be more useful for braille users.

Changes

• Updated LibLouis braille translator to 3.24.0.
  • Major updates to Hungarian, UEB, and Chinese bopomofo braille.
  • Support for the Danish braille standard 2022.
  • New braille tables for Georgian literary braille, Swahili and Chichewa.
• Updated Sonic rate boost library to commit 1d70513.
• CLDR has been updated to version 42.0.
• eSpeak NG has been updated to 1.52-dev commit f520fecb.
  • Fixed reporting of large numbers.
• Java applications with controls using the selectable state will now announce when an item is not selected rather than when the item is selected.

Bug Fixes

• Windows 11 fixes:
  • NVDA will announce search highlights when opening Start menu.
  • On ARM, x64 apps are no longer identified as ARM64 applications.
  • Clipboard history menu items such as “pin item” can be accessed.
  • In Windows 11 22H2 and newer, it is again possible to use mouse and touch interaction to interact with areas such as the system tray overflow window and “Open With” dialog.
• Suggestions are reported when typing an @mention in in Microsoft Excel comments.
• In the Google Chrome location bar, suggestion controls are now reported when selected.
• When requesting formatting information, colors are now explicitly reported in Wordpad or log viewer, rather than only “Default color”.
• In Firefox, activating the “Show options” button on GitHub issue pages now works reliably.
• The date picker controls in Outlook 2016 / 365 Advanced search dialog now report their label and value.
• ARIA switch controls are now actually reported as switches in Firefox, Chrome and Edge, rather than checkboxes.
• NVDA will automatically announce the sort state on an HTML table column header when changed by pressing an inner button.
• A landmark or region’s name is always automatically spoken when jumping inside from outside using quick navigation or focus in browse mode.
• When beep or announce ‘cap’ for capitals is enabled with delayed character descriptions, NVDA no longer beeps or announces ‘cap’ twice.
• Controls in tables in Java applications will now be announced more accurately by NVDA.
• Some settings will no longer be unexpectedly different when used with multiple profiles.
  • The following settings have been addressed:
    • Line indentation in Document formatting settings.
    • Cell borders in doc formatting settings
    • Show messages in braille settings
    • Tether Braille in braille settings
  • In some rare cases, these settings used in profiles may be unexpectedly modified when installing this version of NVDA.
  • Please check these options in your profiles after upgrading NVDA to this version.
• Emojis should now be reported in more languages.
• The presence of an annotation is no longer missing in braille for some elements.
• Fixed an issue where config changes not save correctly when changing between a “Default” option and the value of the “Default” option.
• When configuring NVDA there will always be at least one key defined as an NVDA key.
• When accessing the NVDA menu via the notification area, NVDA will not suggest a pending update anymore when no update is available.
• Remaining, elapsed and total time is now reported correctly for audio files over a day long in foobar2000.
• In web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, alerts such as file downloads are shown in braille in addition to being spoken.
• Bug fixed when navigating to the first and last column in a table in Firefox
• When NVDA is launched with –lang=Windows parameter, it is again possible to open NVDA’s General settings dialog.
• NVDA no longer fails to continue reading in Kindle for PC after turning the page.

Start Your Update

If you’re running NVDA while reading this, perform the following steps to update it right now!

1. Press NVDA+N.
2. Press the letter H, or arrow down to Help.
3. Press the letter C, or arrow down to Check for update…

Enjoy your new NVDA!

Qapla!