James Teh

James helped build NVDA, used by blind and low-vision people worldwide, and OSARA, which makes audio production more accessible. At Mozilla, browser fixes and guidance on accessibility review support engineers in making interfaces work reliably with assistive technology. These contributions combine practical tools, open-source collaboration and clear engineering guidance to make accessibility part of software quality.

James Teh is a Software Engineer at Canva, having previously served as Accessibility technical lead at Mozilla and co-lead developer at NV Access. Starting in 2006, collaboration with Mick Curran led to the creation of NVDA, an open-source screen reader for Windows that reads on-screen content aloud. The project grew into an international community of contributors, with Microsoft reporting in May 2024 that NVDA was used by more than 250,000 people across 175 countries.

At Mozilla, engineering efforts connected browser behaviour with the tools disabled people use to access software. In 2020, James introduced a formal process for requesting accessibility reviews, encouraging teams to seek guidance during requirements and design phases and apply accessibility criteria when assessing release readiness. Key engineering contributions also addressed missing accessibility information in Firefox, resolved in Firefox 114.

Open-source contributions also extend to digital audio. James helped develop OSARA, a plug-in connecting NVDA with the REAPER digital audio workstation to make recording and editing accessible to blind and low-vision musicians. Regular technical writing clarifies how browsers and screen readers handle labels and content, helping web developers diagnose and prevent accessibility regressions.