NVDA Remote

NVDA’s Remote Access lets one computer take the controls of a PC. NVDA Remote makes your Mac that computer: a native macOS client, built for VoiceOver first, that sends your keyboard to the PC and brings NVDA’s speech, beeps, and sounds back to the Mac. The Mac is always the one in control. The other way round is out of reach: no public API gives access to VoiceOver’s speech.

The app is in beta, on its way to version 1.0. Everything described here works, but a few rough edges may remain. It is an independent client, not affiliated with NV Access, the makers of NVDA.

Features

• Connected in one click. The nvdaremote:// link from NVDA’s “Copy link” connects straight away; otherwise, the key is all it takes. The public relay nvdaremote.com is the default, and another relay, or a PC hosting the connection itself, works too. Your last five connections stay within reach.
• NVDA speaks on the Mac. Its speech comes out in the system voices, stops the moment NVDA cuts itself off, and switches language when NVDA asks. The rate goes from 100 to 650 words per minute.
• Its beeps and sounds as well. Progress bars, browse mode, focus mode, errors: all of it plays on the Mac. The app’s own sounds — connecting, clipboard, switching between Mac and PC — can be turned off separately, and the PC can fall silent while you work on the Mac, just as in NVDA.
• One shortcut hands over the keyboard. Control-Command-R gives the keyboard to the PC, then back to the Mac. A high beep: the PC has it. A low beep: the Mac does. While you are in control, every key goes to the PC, VoiceOver commands included; coming back releases any key still held down on the PC.
• The Mac keyboard, translated for the PC. Control is Ctrl, Option is Alt, Command is the Windows key. Caps Lock, Right Option, or fn serves as the NVDA key, and the keypad drives NVDA’s desktop layout. Letters follow the character they type, so an AZERTY Mac drives an AZERTY or QWERTY PC correctly, and punctuation follows the PC layout picked in Settings, French or US.
• The clipboard goes both ways. Text copied on the PC lands in the Mac clipboard; Control-Command-C sends the Mac clipboard to the PC. Both shortcuts work from any app and can be changed in Settings.
• NVDA on your braille display. While you control the PC, NVDA drives your display directly: its exact cells, routing and panning keys, and braille keyboard, with the bindings of NVDA’s HID braille driver. VoiceOver keeps running and gets the display back as soon as you return to the Mac. For HID displays over USB or Bluetooth, such as the Brailliant BI X series.
• You always know where things stand. The connection status is announced to VoiceOver; when the app is in the background, its own voice steps in for the important messages.
• In the menu bar, the Dock, or both. Closing the Connection window (Command-W) tucks the app into the menu bar, where you can connect, switch the keyboard, send the clipboard, mute the PC, or open Settings.
• Two permissions, and no Mac App Store. To capture the keyboard, the app needs Accessibility and Input Monitoring, and asks for them from its Keyboard settings. A sandboxed app cannot get Accessibility, so NVDA Remote ships outside the Mac App Store, signed and notarized by Apple.
• A beta that keeps itself current. Through Sparkle, the app checks for updates at launch and once a day, and “Check for Updates…” looks right away. A beta build stays on the beta channel unless you turn off “Receive beta versions” in Settings: it will tell you itself about the next beta, and then about version 1.0.
• Problems are reported from the app. Help, then Contact the Developer, to report a problem, suggest an idea, or ask a question. A problem report carries a few technical details — versions, settings, connection state — but never your channel key or the address of your own server.
• What is not there yet. Pitch, rate, and volume changes inside NVDA’s speech are ignored, and so is spelling character by character. Braille works with HID displays only: those VoiceOver drives through a brand driver or over a Bluetooth serial link cannot be taken yet.
• Free, in two languages. English and French, with any other system language falling back to English. A universal binary, Apple Silicon and Intel alike. Written in Swift, under the GPL version 2 or later, like the NVDA sounds it carries.