NV Access Weekly Update Mourns Rui Fontes, Previews NVDA 2026.2 Beta 7

NV Access, the organization behind the free and open source NVDA screen reader, published its weekly "In-Process" blog update on July 20th, 2026. This week's edition opens with sad news for the screen reader community and follows with several development updates.

Vale Rui Fontes

The update leads with news of the passing of Rui Fontes, described by NV Access as a legend within the NVDA community. NV Access did not provide further biographical details in this post, but framed his loss as significant to the wider community of NVDA users and contributors.

NVDA 2026.2 Beta 7

NV Access confirmed the release of NVDA 2026.2 Beta 7, the latest beta build in the run-up to the next stable version of the screen reader. As with prior betas, this release is aimed at users and testers who want to try upcoming features and fixes ahead of general availability.

Characters Per Line

The update also touches on a feature or setting related to characters per line, an area that typically affects how text is presented or wrapped for braille display and speech output users. NV Access included an accompanying image showing this setting within the NVDA interface.

Introducing Access Point System

NV Access used this week's post to introduce something called the Access Point System. Details on what this system does were not elaborated on beyond the introduction itself in the material Voice of the Blind has reviewed.

Accessibility Repair Tool

Rounding out the update, NV Access mentioned an Accessibility Repair Tool. As with the Access Point System, the blog post introduces the tool by name without expanding on its function in the excerpt available.

Voice of the Blind will continue to follow NV Access's weekly updates and will report further details on the Access Point System, the Accessibility Repair Tool, and the NVDA 2026.2 release as more information becomes available.