If you sit in the space between sighted and blind, you probably already know what I am about to say. There is no ideal solution for people who need both a powerful screen reader and serious magnification support on Windows. I have been looking for one for years. Recently, I decided to run an experiment. Could I build an acceptable daily setup using only free tools? The short answer is, barely, and not without compromise. Let me walk you through what I found.
A Brief History of What Came Before
I used Supernova magnifier and screen reader. I stuck with it until I lost enough sight that I really needed a screen reader to carry more of the load. That is when I transitioned away, because Supernova’s screen reader on the web just is not up to snuff compared to other screen readers. With that said, I want to be fair. Supernova is the most rock solid, configurable screen magnifier and screen enhancer on Windows. ZoomText holds no comparison. If we were judging on magnification alone, or Magnification with basic screen voicing functionality, Supernova would still be my daily driver.
I switched to System Access from Serotek a number of years ago. The magnification was minimal compared to Supernova, but it was also very responsive, and that trade off was worth it because the screen reader was as good as JAWS, and the magnification worked seamlessly with the screen reader in the most responsive and fastest way I had experienced. NVDA at the time was not yet worth talking about. I did things with System Access that had never been done with other screen reader setups back then. I performed full installs of Windows without sight. I remotely supported family members. I did tech support on sighted peers and family members’ PCs, something I was having less success at as I lost vision prior to the switch, so being able to remotely tech support again was compelling. The responsiveness of their hacked down implementation of the NeoSpeech engine was fast, responsive, and clear even at fast speeds. I grew very fond of it.
System Access navigation on Windows was often faster than any other screen reader I had used. They implemented first key navigation, like pressing B for button, more reliably on non-web based screens than any competitor. If you have ever tried to jump by element type in a desktop application and watched your screen reader skip items that are clearly buttons, you understand why this mattered. System Access just got you there. They also used the same keyboard commands as JAWS, so moving between these products was seamless. You did not have to relearn a whole command set just because you switched tools. For someone who supports other users and regularly has to work with multiple screen readers, that kind of consistency is gold.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. Serotek end of lifed System Access. I continued to run it as my daily driver, but more and more screens and sites read less reliably as the web evolved past it.
During the transition I switched to Freedom Scientific’s ZoomText Fusion. Like anyone who runs this product knows, it is far less stable than any other option, more laggy, and does not always read items on the screen either. But it got the job done when I needed both magnification and a screen reader running together.
My General Requirements and setup
To situate you, here is where I am coming from. I run Windows with high contrast enabled and the resolution cranked down so everything on screen is larger by default. I force a black background on everything because, like many low vision users, bright backgrounds are not my friend.
With the black backgrounds, I have enough vision to see windows open, to notice when items receive focus with focus highlighting, and to get important context clues from the screen about the interface. If I magnify to 6X I can read text, but it is a strain on my eyes, so I use magnification in a very limited fashion. As with all low vision users, I want to use what sight I have. I also rely on the focus and highlighting features of a magnifier to give me context that a screen reader alone does not provide.
I am not a casual user, and my requirements reflect that.
- I work in a multi-lingual environment, so I regularly need to read and write in English and French.
- I am in technology and often have to do highly technical tasks. I remote onto servers, work in control panels, deploy things, read code or HTML, and so on.
- I support family, friends, people at work, and people in other settings. I have a solid understanding of Supernova, Fusion, NVDA, JAWS, Narrator, and many adaptive technology products for other disabilities. I regularly have to use or support these.
- I need to be able to work in M365 and Word with track changes, comments, and other types of content.
In other words, I am not the person who just needs to read an email and check the weather. I am the person who needs to remote onto a server, sort out a configuration problem, and then turn around and work through a Word document full of track changes and comments from people across three different organisations all without my tools getting in the way.
The Experiment: Free Tools Only
After a bit of research to see what had changed in the last bit, heree is what I landed on:
- Windows Magnifier for magnification
- NVDA as the screen reader
On paper, this is a compelling combination. Both are free, both are actively maintained, there is an add-on by a 3rd party for NVDA to integrate the 2 products and NVDA has a passionate community behind it.
Let us start with the good news
The Good
- The basic magnifier features in Windows Magnifier are reliable. full screen,tracking, focus highlighting, the fundamentals all work and do not crash on you.
- NVDA is an excellent screen reader. I have enormous respect for what the NVDA community has built. It is genuinely good.
- The add-ons made it very livable as a screen reader. This is where NVDA shines. The community has filled gaps that the core product leaves open.
- As an example, the Numpad Nav add-on allows you to use the numeric keypad the same way you would with JAWS or System Access. If you are a long term screen reader user, this is the kind of thing that makes you weep with gratitude. Muscle memory is a precious thing.
- The Magnifier add-on allowed magnifier actions to be announced by NVDA. So when I zoomed in or changed modes, NVDA told me what happened. Small touch, big improvement.
The Text to Speech Hunt
Here is where the free experiment started to unravel. I need to talk about voices.
The 2 built in free options: eSpeak is painful to listen to. I say that with respect for what it is and what it does, but it is the truth. The Microsoft OneCore voices are watery and difficult to listen to at fast speeds, and they are far from responsive. If you are a power user who runs a screen reader at high rates, you need a voice that can keep up without turning into a puddle.
This meant I had to shell out money for additional voices, which meant it was no longer a free choice. The hunt for a text to speech engine of choice began. To start, there are less choices in terms of French options. In both languages, voices, speaking style, pronunciation, and other factors are highly personal, and I am no exception. Here is where I landed on the options I tried.
- Acapela is passable. Not my first choice, I found myself having to work harder than I’m used to when listening to it read but it is workable.
- Vocalizer is watery. Same problem as the OneCore voices for my ears.
- Eloquence is reliable and is what most long term screen reader users will fall back on. It is not pretty, but it gets the job done and it gets it done fast.
- BlastBay Studio’s text to speech engine was an interesting middle ground. I find myself occasionally switching to it.
- I also found a couple of interesting enthusiast projects, including one to port Google’s engine to NVDA and Windows. It was fun to play with. I appreciate the creativity and effort of the community.
I am still hunting. The voice question may never be fully settled, and I have made peace with that.
The Cons
Now for the parts that made me want to throw something.
- The Windows Magnifier feels like it was meant for casual use. It was not designed with users who run both a screen reader and a screen magnifier in mind. You can feel that in every interaction.
- There is no way to keep the magnifier window out of the alt tabbing order. You cannot toss it to the system tray. You cannot prevent it from being a floating window that gets in the way. You minimise it and it comes back. It is just there, taking up space and focus, whether you want it or not.
- I found no way to toggle magnification on and off without unloading the magnifier entirely. This is a common way magnification users want to work. You turn mag on for spot checking, then turn it off for navigation. With Windows Magnifier, you have to either unload it or drop magnification down to 1X manually by hitting the lower magnification keyboard combination multiple times. That takes time and is inefficient. As a low vision user, you do not need things that slow you down. You already have enough interface things to deal with
- Focus jumps. Sometimes you are fighting with both products at once, trying to figure out who has focus and why your keystrokes are going to the wrong place.
- There are no application specific settings for the magnifier, and no context specific configurations. One magnifier profile fits all, whether you are reading code or writing an email. I can live with this but when the end result is so imprefect it’s just 1 more thing
- Working with Track changes and comments while running both products is just not there. I constantly found myself reverting in frustration to Fusion when performing these tasks. Fusion is not my favorite product by a long shot, but when it comes to Word with track changes and comments, it at least lets me get through the work without losing my mind.
And Narrator
I should mention Narrator, since someone will ask. I did spend a little time with this combination and it was no different from magnifier and NVDA only you get a sub par screen nreader added on top of the equation. Narrator is not up to snuff. It has improved over the years, and I give Microsoft credit for that, but it is not a solution for a power user who needs magnification and a robust screen reader working together. It is fine for a pinch. It is not fine for a daily driver if you do what I do.
Where This Leaves Us
In the end, the free combination of Windows Magnifier and NVDA is a barely tolerable experience. It is not on par with any commercial product that combines both functions. The individual pieces are strong. NVDA is a genuinely excellent screen reader. Windows Magnifier does the basics reliably. But the integration between them is where the whole thing falls apart, and integration is exactly what a low vision user needs most. Every issue, every bounce on the screen, every unwanted change of context eats a limited pool of reserves and can leave one with headaches, eye strain and a much slower experience than expected.
Here is the uncomfortable truth I have arrived at after all of this. There is no real solution for people who sit between sight and no sight. Not if you need a powerful screen reader and magnification support working together as one. The commercial products each have their flaws. Supernova has the best magnifier but a screen reader that lags behind for power users and on the web. Fusion has both but is unstable and laggy. The free route gives you excellent individual tools but asks you to glue them together yourself, and the glue is weak.
I am not giving up on the experiment. I am still hunting for the right voice, still tweaking add-ons, still looking for that configuration that lets me work without fighting my tools. But I wanted to share where I am, because I suspect I am not the only one sitting in this gap, looking for a bridge that has not been built yet.
If you have found something that works, I would genuinely love to hear about it. Drop a comment below and let us learn together.