VPN questions

Hi Greg,

I'd imagine you will get a handful of suggestion for a VPN service to use. If you are seeking for a pay service, I am currently using SurfShark as my go to VPN these days. Very accessible to use and I find the speed good. There are others great alternative that are in the top tier VPN services such as Nord and Express VPN. It will all be based in what you can afford.

Proton VPN does offer a free service with a limit of 500MB a day that you can also check out but as like with any other free services that it will be slower than the paid services. My other top choice of a free service is Windscribe VPN as this also offers a 10GB limit per month usage. Both apps are pretty accessible to use.

Good luck with your VPN hunt!

- AnonyMouse

I have used Private Internet Access, Tor guard and now Express VPN. I am satisfied with Express VPN. It's not 100 percent accessible, but it is very usable. Additionally, you can get the extension for browsers such as chrome and Brave to be able to enable and disable the VPN as well as change locations.

Why I switched to Express is because they offer split tunneling. When I had P I A and tor Guard I was not able to split tunnel. That may have changed now in 2020 though I am not sure. All 3 are alright though. With Tor Guard it was a very long process for them to disable my account and the process was not accessible. It took about 5 times for me to explain to the System Admins that I could not click the Disable Account button because it was not accessible with screen readers.
It all depends on what your looking for features wise and how much you are willing to pay. Express VPN has more features, but is definitely on the more expensive end compared to others, but I would highly recommend it.

Additionally before signing up for one make sure you do research on them and look to see if they have had security breaches in the past. Some ones that are cheaper or free also fall under the front of data brokers and are probably selling off your browsing history to third party companies.

is this accessible on windows?

Is this accessible on Windows?

Yes Surf Shark is accessible

It answers one of my most urgent questions.

Dennis, their Windows app is problematic and not really accessible - especially in the Settings area. It even feels heavy and crashed JAWS a couple of times here. So I'd call it more or less usable not truly accessible like, say, ExpressVPN's app for Windows.

Is Express VPN more accessible? I did notice the settings part of surf shark had unlabeled buttons.

Yes, Dennis. In fact, it offers the most accessible Windows VPN app I've ever worked with, and I've tested a dozen of such apps!

Just about to sign up for a VPN service. wondering if Express VPN or Nord VPN are still usable/accessible? I'll be using on Mac, Windows, IOS, iPad OS. Also, would be interested to know which plan people are currently on, as there are some excellent deals on both Express and Nord at the minute.

My memory of Nord is that it was not fun, but was mostly usable. Express was similar but I left it for other reasons.
I’m now using Proton. It has a few niggles too, but for what I need at least, is working nicely.

thanks for this Dave. Not sure if you have tested this, but would you have any insights into how well, or otherwise, it behaves with 5Live commentaries?

I have not, but am happy to check.

Hide.me is also pretty accessible. The free plan is good if you only use VPN occasionally. Both the iOS and the Windows apps are pretty accessible with screen readers. The free plan doesn't even require an account, although you have to reactivate it monthly or something. Not a big problem if you don't use VPN regularly.
I've not tried the paid plan though, since I didn't feel the need for it.

Ok tried Proton VPN and I must say the iOS version seems accessible. However, Dave in particular have you used this on the windows version? It is shocking. JAWS 2023 is all but impossible to use with it NVDA and Narrator work but most of the time you just get "button" and nothing else. So how are you using it?

I’ve never used it on Windows so didn’t know that. I’ve only used it on iPhone and iPad.
So that is definitely a good health warning to be aware of.

Have 30 days and can get a full refund. Paid a 2 year subscription as it was only around £2.39 a month. However, may see if any other ones work better on windows as it really is impossible to use with any real knowledge of what the heck is going on. Unless of course someone has any ideas. I'd hoped there at least may have been shortcut keys but I don't think there is although for their mail app apparently there are which seems strange. Even the tab key with my JAWS version does absolutely nothing. Hence I tried the other two screen readers with very little success. Oh well back to the drawing board I think.

Yes, overall the Proton suite is a bit hit and miss. Proton VPN works well on iPhone and iPad as mentioned. On Mac, it appears accessible at first glance, but I need to investigate further as I’m having an issue selecting buttons. But I’ve only needed it on iPhone and iPad to date.
I use Proton Drive on iPhone, iPad and Mac and it’s working well for me. So those two services are where I get my value.
In an ideal world I’d have used Proton Mail too, but it doesn’t support third party mail clients (except via a bridge app on desktop), and the Proton Mail app is rubbish with VoiceOver. So I’ve gone to Fastmail for email instead.
So yeah, Proton have some work to do, but can work for you depending on what you need.