Proton VPN Accessibility for NVDA

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Proton VPN Accessibility is an add-on for the NVDA screen reader that makes the Proton VPN app for Windows usable with NVDA. Proton VPN leaves many of its buttons, options and tabs without a name, so NVDA only says "button". This add-on gives them names, reads settings with their current state, and tells you when your protection changes.

This add-on is made by InfiArtt. It is not made or endorsed by Proton AG.

How this add-on came about

I'm Rafli, and I use NVDA every day. When I installed Proton VPN on Windows, I found much of it hard to use: NVDA said "button" for most of the main window, the settings options had no names, and the country tabs read out long internal names.

So I opened NVDA MCP, our add-on that lets an AI assistant see what NVDA sees, and worked through Proton VPN with Claude Code, an AI coding assistant. Through NVDA MCP it read Proton VPN's accessibility tree, listed every control NVDA could not name, opened each settings page and flyout to see what was missing, and wrote the fixes. We loaded each change into my running NVDA and checked what NVDA would say before moving on, until the whole app read properly. That session became this add-on.

What it does

  • Names unlabeled controls. Settings, NetShield, Kill switch, Port forwarding, Split tunneling and the title bar Menu are read by name. Each country, city and profile has a "Connect to" button, a "Servers in" button and a "More options for" button.
  • Reads values with their labels. NVDA says "VPN IP, 159.26.115.101" and "Server load, 22%" instead of just the number, and "Current traffic" reads the download and upload speeds without the chart's axis numbers.
  • Reads settings with their state. In Settings, NVDA says "Kill switch, Off" and "Protocol, Smart".
  • Names options. The protocol, NetShield level, NAT type and network driver options have names, and the protocols that appear twice say which group they are in, such as "WireGuard, Reliability (TCP)".
  • Adds explanations. Options and switches get Proton VPN's explanation as their description, such as "Protects your IP address by disconnecting you from the internet if you lose your VPN connection". NVDA reads descriptions when "Report object descriptions" is on, in NVDA's Object Presentation settings.
  • Reads flyouts and messages when they open. Pressing VPN IP, Server load or the Profiles information button reads the whole flyout, not just the link inside it.
  • Announces protection changes. When Proton VPN shows Protected, Unprotected or Connecting while it is the active window, NVDA says so.
  • Makes settings rows work with NVDA's activate command. Rows such as Protocol and NetShield now open when activated from object navigation, not only with Enter.
  • Fixes names. The country tabs and list headings no longer read internal names such as "ProtonVPN.Client.UI.Main…ViewModel".

Commands

Command Keys What it does
Report Proton VPN status NVDA+Shift+V Says whether you are protected, the server you are connected to and for how long. Works while Proton VPN's window is active.

You can change the keys in NVDA's menu: Preferences, Input gestures, Proton VPN category.

Requirements

  • NVDA 2025.1 or later. Tested with NVDA 2026.3.
  • Proton VPN for Windows version 5. Tested with version 5.1.9.

Installing

  1. Download the latest protonVpnAccess-<version>.nvda-addon from Releases, or install Proton VPN Accessibility from NVDA's Add-on Store once it is there.
  2. Open the file. NVDA asks whether to install the add-on; choose Yes.
  3. Restart NVDA when it asks.

Known limits

  • The add-on reads Proton VPN's own text, so names follow the language of Proton VPN. Words the add-on adds, such as "Connect to", follow the language of NVDA.
  • Proton VPN may change its window in an update. If a control stops being read correctly after an update, please open an issue and say which Proton VPN version you use.

Reporting problems

Open an issue at github.com/InfiArtt/protonvpn-nvda/issues. Say what you pressed, what NVDA said and what you expected it to say, and include your NVDA and Proton VPN versions.

Building from source

On Windows, from the repository folder:

  1. python -m venv .venv
  2. .venv\Scripts\python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
  3. .venv\Scripts\python -m pytest
  4. .venv\Scripts\python build_addon.py, which writes dist\protonVpnAccess-<version>.nvda-addon.

To try changes without installing, turn on NVDA's developer scratchpad (NVDA Settings, Advanced), copy addon\appModules\protonvpn_client.py to %APPDATA%\nvda\scratchpad\appModules\, switch to Proton VPN and press NVDA+Ctrl+F3 to reload. Reload while Proton VPN is the active window; otherwise NVDA keeps the previous code for it.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 InfiArtt. This add-on is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. See COPYING.txt.