hi5 / nvda-autohotkey

NVDA and AutoHotkey - Text to Speech (TTS) and Braille from AHK scripts

NVDA and AutoHotkey

This repository was prepared as there wasn't much information available on how to use AutoHotkey with NVDA.

You need:

• NVDA, the free and open source Screen Reader for Microsoft Windows, more information at https://www.nvaccess.org/ and https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda
• NVDA Controller DLL files: http://www.nvda-project.org/nvdaControllerClient/nvdaControllerClient_20100219.7z if they are not available on the NVDA website you can download them below as well.
• AutoHotkey, the free and open source automation scripting language for Windows, more information at https://www.autohotkey.com/ (downloads and forum).
• nvda.ahk

Tested with nvda_2019.2.1 and AutoHotkey version 1.1.32 (both 32 and 64 bit).

Usage

You can either copy and paste the code from nvda.ahk in your script or use the #Include command https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/_Include.htm

#include nvda.ahk

Place nvdaControllerClient64.dll and nvdaControllerClient32.dll in the same folder as your script.

Notes - Tips

1. NVDA itself may interrupt nvdaSpeak() so you may need to accommodate for this in your script by using a Sleep command, nvdaCancel() or a combination of both - see Tip: nvdaSpeak() may be interrupted by nvda speaking window title, problem and solution proposed
2. If NVDA can't see a programs buttons or menus, perhaps you can try using a number of AutoHotkey commands such as MouseClick, Send {Appskey} or {Rbutton} to bring up context menus or preparing a AutoHotkey Menu or Inputbox to get simple user feedback. NVDA can see AutoHotkey Menus and GUIs so that might help - an example using MouseClick, InputBox and Menu here https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=307440#p307440

Functions

• nvdaSpeak(text) - speak the text
• nvdaCancel() - cancel speak or braille message
• nvdaBrailleMessage(text) - send braille message, untested
• nvdaRunning() - check if NVDA is running, returns 0 if so

Example

nvdaSpeak("Your accessibility script has been started.")

; Note that NVDA itself may interrupt nvdaSpeak() - if that causes a problem try to solve it with a Sleep or nvdaCancel() - see Notes-Tips

variable:="This is a test"
nvdaSpeak(variable)

; The clipboard is a special variable, see https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Clipboard.htm
nvdaSpeak(clipboard)

; The hotkey syntax can be found here https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Hotkeys.htm
^1:: ; ctrl+1
nvdaSpeak("You pressed control + 1")
Return

; press Alt+S to cancel speak/braille
!s::nvdaCancel() 

#include nvda.ahk

NVDA Controller Client (DLL files)

The NVDA Controller Client API allows an application to communicate to NVDA, in order to do such things as speak text or braille a message.

The client API is implemented as a dll (dynamic link library). The functions in this dll can be called from any programming language that supports looking up and calling of any symbol in a dll (such as ctypes in Python), or by linking to it, for languages like C and C++.

License LGPLv2.1 - see license.txt in the 7z file.

Download from this repository:

• nvdaControllerClient_20100219.7z