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Yes, though the accessibility for desktop environments varies and is not as well developed as other OSes. Some things to get more info:

1. speakup is a kernel module to access the console.
2. yasr is a userspace console-based screen reader.
3. emacspeak is an emacs extension which presents an audio interface to emacs. It's contextually aware and can be used to do lots of things.
4. Orca is an x-based screen reader which works with GTK and, I think, some Qt programs, as well as Firefox and the OpenOffice derivatives.

There is an entire Linux distro for blind and low vision users.

http://vinuxproject.org/

I've been using Ubuntu for about a year now. I used it for years before switching to a Mac and recently have come back to Linux because I don't like the direction Apple is going with their desktop OS. Windows doesn't have the tools I need to set up a proper development environment for the type of programming I do - at least not with the same efficiency I get on Linux.

I've used Linux (Slackware and Gentoo) exclusively for 11 years back when I was just legally blind and young and thought that Microsoft and Apple were the ultimate evil until I switched to MacOS in 2011 and never looked back. I was a pure console user back then; the only graphical application I used was the browser (Netscape and Firefox), but I can't see myself doing that again since I find the console very hard to use with a screen-reader. Perhaps with a Braille display the console would be easier to use, but I struggle a lot with Braille, reading at around 2 words per minute, and that's when I don't get stuck. So as a fully blind person I stay away from Linux and terminals.