Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Anyone use linux? (self.Blind)
submitted by theawesomeaquarist
I recently installed opensuse kde and i need accessibility software
I have tried orca but doesnt work for everything can someone help?
I have tried orca but doesnt work for everything can someone help?
AndAdapt 2 points 3y ago
For a distribution try vinux... But regardless of distribution install emacs and emacspeak.
FeelingCeiling 2 points 3y ago
Vinux died a death long ago.
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
Any mainstream distros
Thats not ubuntu
Thats not ubuntu
bscross32 2 points 3y ago
I would say use Ubuntu if this is your first linux distro, preferably ubuntu mate.
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
I hate ubuntu any others youd recommend
Fedora?
Fedora?
bscross32 1 points 3y ago
never used it, Arch perhaps. Though Arch is definitely a very different experience.
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
Im thinking manjaro
Basically arch with easier install
Basically arch with easier install
bscross32 1 points 3y ago
Yeah that'd work. Me personally, I love building my own system so I prefer just Arch.
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You have to be careful what desktops you choose, and if you're picking a distro that uses a desktop that isn't accessible. I remember a few years ago trying mint, and the cinnamon guys ripped all the universal access stuff out. I know only of Gnome and Mate that work well. Others have told me that XFCE is fine also. I don't think KDE is very accessible though.
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You have to be careful what desktops you choose, and if you're picking a distro that uses a desktop that isn't accessible. I remember a few years ago trying mint, and the cinnamon guys ripped all the universal access stuff out. I know only of Gnome and Mate that work well. Others have told me that XFCE is fine also. I don't think KDE is very accessible though.
TheBlindCrafter 2 points 3y ago
I don't have any help but I didn't want you to be alone. I run Debian, though, not Suse. Debian stable might have some?
TheFake_VIP_yt 1 points 3y ago
KDE is slowly becoming accessible, but it's really not there yet and you have to get sighted assistance to tweak the settings. I'd go with absolutely any distro that uses either Mate or Gnome. XFCE is another option but it's desktop icons and file manager (Thunar) aren't at all accessible, so you'll need to install pcmanfm or similar if you want a graphical file manager. LXDE also works pretty well, but I've only done limited testing on a Debian 10 system with it. Window managers like i3 are doable as well, but you need to do some fiddling with speech-dispatcher (if on arch at least), GTK_MODULES and tweak some gsettings and gtkrc values. I've done this before, so don't hesitate to reach out to me if you need to.
I've written **some** of this up in some articles on my website, namely $1
Sidenote: one hopes that he doesn't promote his website and social platforms too much in this sub. I almost always do it to help people, not to plug my own content, but I feel it comes across a little pushy sometimes.
I've written **some** of this up in some articles on my website, namely $1
Sidenote: one hopes that he doesn't promote his website and social platforms too much in this sub. I almost always do it to help people, not to plug my own content, but I feel it comes across a little pushy sometimes.
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
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I've been using $1 for about 15 years, it's basically a more user-friendly version of Ubuntu, and it's great. It comes with Orca screen reader pre-installed by default.
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I find Orca to be just fine, but if you need any help with any specific commands, just let me know. There's also an Orca mailing list that I'm subscribed to, and they're very helpful.
I've been using $1 for about 15 years, it's basically a more user-friendly version of Ubuntu, and it's great. It comes with Orca screen reader pre-installed by default.
​
I find Orca to be just fine, but if you need any help with any specific commands, just let me know. There's also an Orca mailing list that I'm subscribed to, and they're very helpful.
bscross32 1 points 3y ago
Wait, the last time I tried mint, they had ripped orca as well as everything else universal access related out of the desktop. It was an empty panel in that area. This is not the case now?
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
I'm running the latest 19.3 version of Linux Mint MATE< and yeah, Orca still comes with it. I generally download the latest version and do a re-install every 6 months or so because I'm OCD like that, and nothing has changed from my experience.
I guess it was about 4 years ago the Linux Mint dev team put a huge amount of resources into making LM accessible, and as far as I'm concerned, they did an excellent job. They've never removed any of the accessibility features, at least not that I'm aware of.
Yes, it does still come pre-installed with Orca. My only beef with Orca is that it doesn't work very well when booting via USB, and constantly turns on/off every few seconds although will sometimes stay on for a few minutes. This makes installing yourself blind a pain, but aside from that, I love my Linux Mint. Allows me to do my job without issue at least.
Just make sure to get the MATE edition. I remember accidentally trying Cinnamon once, and that was a train wreck. Came with Orca, but I wasn't able to navigate it at least. MATE works great though.
bscross32 1 points 3y ago
Oh that was the issue then, was using cinnamon.
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
Oh yeah, I accidentally ended up with Cinnamon once. It was a shit show, and couldn't use it at all.
MATE on the other hand works like a charm, give it try. You will probably be pleasently surprised.
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
What about screen reader for terminal
Sweet_Budget 1 points 3y ago
Tdsr is pretty good
It crashes occasionally though and bash_profile won't apply when using it but bashrc will
It crashes occasionally though and bash_profile won't apply when using it but bashrc will
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
Orca has a feature called "flat review". Assuming you have Orca in desktop mode at least, you just press the dash key on the numpad while in terminal. From there you can use the numpad to navigate through the lines and words within terminal. Keyboard shortcuts are:
- dash to enter / leave flat review
7 = Up one line
9 = Down one line
6 = One word to the right.
4 = One word to the left
3 = One character to the right.
1 = One character to the left.
There's no way to select and copy / paste within terminal though, which can be a pain. You just need to save the desired output to text files and open it up in text editor when needed. You can read the terminal screen just fine though.
Linux Mint MATE edition works great though, or at least I like it. Same goes for Orca. I'm a software developer myself, so am always in terminal, plus connected to various servers via SSH, and I can get around just fine. Reading server logs are a bit of a pain I guess, but then again, so is being blind.
Hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.
MaybeAnIdiot2 1 points 3y ago
Apologies for the late reply, but Orca does have the ability to copy and append text to the clipboard when in flat review, but the commands are not assigned a keybinding by default. I set them to use Caps-Lock+- and =, respectively.
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
Oh cool, found it. Thanks, I never checked out the key bindings before, and didn't know it was in there.
That will make my work life a little easier. Was getting tired of having to write a PHP or Python script to write a field from a database row to a text file every time I wanted it in my clipboard.
Thanks again!
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
Im reading the documentation and know how to do basic things how do i actually get it to talk im using numpad to select text and its not talking
BenandGracie 1 points 3y ago
I ran Linux as my main system from 2012 until the end of 2019. I returned to Windows because Linux accessibility wasn't meeting my needs.
For startting out, I would run Ubuntu-Mate. If you hop on your favorite search engine and search for Ubuntu-Mate accessability, you should find all the information you need.
For startting out, I would run Ubuntu-Mate. If you hop on your favorite search engine and search for Ubuntu-Mate accessability, you should find all the information you need.
modulus 1 points 3y ago
Agree on Ubuntu Mate. KDE/Qt lags behind GTK-based accessibility.
YashSonkiya 1 points 3y ago
same, I am a Computer Science student. and want to install Linux but can not do it because their are no accessable solutions available.
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