I tried NVDA because Jaws wasn't handling certain things on the web very 
well. Learning a new screen reader took a couple of attempts (old dogs 
and new tricks). I was persistent only because Jaws kept not-doing those 
things well. Now I'm a big fan of NVDA though I'm only an intermediate user.

That said, I have to admit that eSpeak has been one of the barriers for 
me. I'm finally at the point where I can tolerate it, so I expect it to 
start growing on me in the next year or two, but it's been a weird and 
unexpected struggle. I like Eloquence, so I figured that one robot would 
be as good as another, but no. anyway, I've stuck with eSpeak because, 
for one reason or other, the other free voices haven't worked for me 
either, and I can't quite bring myself to pay a hundred dollars for 
vocalizer or three hundred dollars for Ivona and one or two others.

Recently I tried NVDA with my Windows 8 voices, and I've been pleasantly 
surprised. On my laptop, which is actually a dinky little netbook, these 
voices are sluggish, but on my desktop, which has middling specs, the 
combination is great.


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