Hi.
I'm trying to get a machine set up with a recent version of Orca for a blind
friend. We've been advised that Ubuntu is currently the best distribution to
choose for getting an up-to-date version (ie: with as many features, and
working as well as possible).
1. First question - is this correct, or should we be doing something else to
get the most functional version of Orca possible?
We're using a Braille display (ie: we prefer not to use speech), which is
supported by BRLTTY (it's a Papenmeier Compact 40-cell display).
Things seem to be difficult to get going in a reliable way, though:
I have installed Ubuntu 11.04 as standard (ie: I did not select a Braille
display or any other accessible features to do the actual installation - I am
sighted).
After installing, I logged in under my friend's username, and selected
Accessibility Features on Login, made sure Orca was selected, and told Orca we
wanted Braille.
I also selected password confirmations as normal dialogue boxes, so that
these should work on the Braille display.
The first problem we encounter is how to log in. We start the machine, I can
see the GRUB menu (my friend can't, so blind dual-boot still appears to be not
an option), the machine starts up X, and a login dialogue box appears.
The Braille display says Screen not in text mode - the login prompt is not
shown.
2. Second question - how do we get the login prompt shown on the Braille
display so that my friend can log in quietly?
As a workaround I recorded an audio clip of Please enter username, return;
password, return and set this as the System ready sound (I spent some time
setting it up as the login sound, only to find that this is played *after*
the user logs in, not at the prompt telling them to log in...).
So, my friend now knows when to enter her username and password, and can log
in.
Orca starts up, with speech, and announces that it is running and the
Preferences button is active.
Nothing appears on the Braille display (except Screen not in text mode from
when X started while BRLTTY was already running).
I have to restart BRLTTY, and then also restart Orca, for the Braille display
to become functional.
3. Third question - what have we misconfigured here, which stops Orca from
showing Braille as soon as it starts up? (We can hear the standard BRLTTY
startup bleep, and we see Screen not in text mode, so we know BRLTTY is
running and driving the Braille display correctly).
Having restarted things for my friend, she can now start navigating the menus,
and I've been helping her by reading the Orca / Gnome documentation at
http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/2.32/gnome-access-guide.html
This tells us we can use Alt-F1 to get to the Applications menu; this works.
It doesn't appear to tell us how to get to the Status bar menu which I can
see in the top right corner of the screen - the one with icons for wireless
networking, volume control, and particularly important, the shutdown / logout
/ restart menu button (the one which to a sighted user looks like a power
switch icon).
4. Fourth question - is this the correct documentation we should be using for
the keyboard navigation keys, and how do we get to the logout / shutdown menu
without the mouse working?
Oh, yes, while I'm thinking about the mouse, the computer we're using has a
touchpad, which of course does all sorts of undesirable things when randomly
touched by a blind person typing. Since I'm a fairly advanced Linux user, I
set up sudoers to allow my friend's user ID to run rmmod without a password,
and then put sudo rmmod psmouse into the list of applications to run at
login time for her username - however this seems rather advanced for an
average blind user; is there some more standard way of saying disable the
touchpad when Iog in?
Getting back to Orca, I've selected the laptop keyboard layout, therefore
CapsLock is the Orca Modifier key. CapsLock-S disables or enables speech, as
expected. It also leaves CapsLock turned on after pressing it (or off if it
was on beforehand) - in other words, CapsLock is still acting as the standard
toggle, it isn't being fully captured by Orca, even though on an older version
of Orca (whatever came with Debian Lenny, I can't recall the version number)
the CapsLock key worked correctly as an Orca Modifier, and did not leave
CapsLock turned on after you had used some Orca function.
5. Fifth question - is this a known bug, or something we've misconfigured? How
can we get the CapsLock key to act as an Orca modifier without leaving capitals
turned on afterwards?
I know there's more - my friend has been exploring the menus as much as she
can given the documentation we've found so far, and she's commented that
various things seem to be either very slow, or don't appear to respond
properly, but I'd rather see if we can get some answers to these basics before
going into detail about other things which might just
