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Testing with JAWS and NVDA - which versions are best?

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From: Sarah Jevnikar
Date: Aug 23, 2017 3:36PM

Hi everyone,
I'm about to start a project where previous accessibility tests have been run. I've been asked to give end-user feedback on complaints raised by the client who is concerned that WCAG 2.0 Level A failures are occurring.

These prior tests used several versions of both JAWS and NVDA. I'm running JAWS 17 but also have 16 on my system, but tests were run with 16 and 18. Does it make sense to run tests with both versions? I'm not sure how many have upgraded to JAWS 18 given the price and existing compatibility.

As for NVDA, the original tests were run with 2016.3, 2016.4, and 2017.3. I'm running 2017.3 on my machine, but am wondering if I need to test with the older versions. In my anecdotal experience it would appear that NVDA users tend to keep their software up to date but I don't want to miss things.

Added to this, I know the recent versions of browsers (Chrome, Firefox and IE) that were used to test, but these versions were released after JAWS 16 and NVDA 2016, so either tests have been happening since last year, or happening recently with old versions of screen readers. If the former, then proper notes about which version of SR has problems with which version of browser have not been kept to my knowledge.

Does anyone have any thoughts on which SR versions to use?

Thank you,
Sarah