&legalnotice; This section describes how to enable and use the accessibility tools which are included with Ubuntu. You must enable the assistive technology services before you are able to use many of the accessibility tools available in Ubuntu. Press SystemPreferencesAccessibilityAssistive Technology Preferences. Tick Enable assistive technologies and then press Close and Log Out. Log back in to Ubuntu. The assistive technology services will be started automatically. Once basic assistive technology support is enabled, it is possible to start accessibility services such as the screenreader, screen magnifier and on-screen keyboard. A screenreader reads the text on the screen, such as the label on the currently-selected button. To enable the screenreader: Ensure that assistive technology support is enabled (see Enabling accessibility tools). Press SystemPreferencesAccessibilityAssistive Technology Preferences. Under Screenreader and magnifier, tick Start screenreader and magnifier at log in. Press Start to start the screenreader immediately. A screen magnifier magnifies a section of the screen around the mouse pointer, making it appear larger in another area of the screen. Ensure that assistive technology support is enabled (see Enabling accessibility tools). Press SystemPreferencesAccessibilityAssistive Technology Preferences. Under Screenreader and magnifier, tick Start screenreader and magnifier at log in. Press Settings. The settings window may take a short while to appear. Select the Magnifier tab and tick Enable magnifier. Press Apply. The screen magnifier will be started after a short delay. Desktop themes which use high-contrast colors are available. These make many on-screen items easier to see. Press SystemPreferencesTheme. Select High Contrast Inverse or High Contrast Large Print Inverse. The theme will be changed instantly. Additional high-contrast themes are available from various sources: Several additional themes are available from the gnome-accessibility-themes-extras package. The GNOME Art website has a collection of high-contrast themes available. It is possible to change certain settings so that items on-screen appear larger and so are easier to see. Press SystemPreferencesFont. Press Details... to show the Font Rendering Details. Increase the Resolution. A value of 150-180 dots per inch should appear quite large on most computer screens. Press Close to apply the new resolution, if it has not been applied already. Ensure that assistive technology support is enabled (see Enabling accessibility tools). Press SystemPreferencesAccessibilityAssistive Technology Preferences. Under On-screen keyboard, tick Start on-screen keyboard at log in. The on-screen keyboard will start automatically when you next log in. Press Start to start the on-screen keyboard immediately. There are several ways in which you can modify the behaviour of the keyboard in order to make it easier or more practical to use. Press SystemPreferencesAccessibilityKeyboard Accessibility. Tick Enable keyboard accessibility features. Enable the individual features that you would like to use. Sticky Keys allows you to type keyboard shortcuts by only pressing one key at a time, rather than having to hold down several keys at once. For example, rather than holding down CtrlC to copy some text, you could just press Ctrl and then C in sequence. Repeat Keys causes several letters to be typed when you hold down a key for a while, rather than just one. It is enabled by default, but people who find that they accidentally type the same letter more than once can adjust the timing or turn off the feature to prevent this problem from occurring. Slow Keys will only allow letters you type to appear on the screen if you hold the key down for at least a certain time. This helps to prevent the accidental mis-typing of keys. For example, accidentally brushing against a key should not cause that letter to be typed on the screen. Bounce Keys causes duplicate key presses within a certain time to be ignored. For example, if your finger accidentally bounces on a key, the letter will only be typed once. Toggle Keys causes the computer to beep when a toggle key on the keyboard is pressed. Toggle keys include Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock. The computer will beep once when a toggle key is turned on, and beep twice when it is turned off. Mouse Keys allow you to move the mouse pointer by using the numerical keypad on your keyboard, if it has one. For example, pressing the 8 button causes the mouse pointer to move up. Mouse keys only works if Num Lock is turned off on your keyboard. Text-to-speech applications are able to take text and read it to you by using a synthesized voice. Festival is one such application. Install the festival and esound-clients packages. Press AltF2 and type gksudo gedit /etc/festival.scm, then press Run. Add the following lines to the end of the file and then press Save: (Parameter.set 'Audio_Command "esdplay $FILE") (Parameter.set 'Audio_Method 'Audio_Command) (Parameter.set 'Audio_Required_Format 'snd) To test the text-to-speech system, press ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal, type festival and then press Return. Type (SayText "Hello") into the Terminal and press Return. The computer should say Hello. It is possible to install additional voices for use with Festival. Open the Synaptic Package Manager, search for festvox and then install a package from the list of results.