Hi. I think that ubuntu 11.04 is not the better choice. First there is the problem related to the CapsLock ke. Yes, it is a bug. Ubuntu 11.04 uses unity as the default interface and I think that there are problems regarding accessibility.
In myopinion you should try ubuntu 10.10 or try vinux, http://vinuxproject.org/. On 08/03/2011 11:10 AM, Antony Stone wrote: > 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 be a consequence of a > sub-optimal configuration. > > Sorry about the length of this email, but I wanted to give as good a > description as possible of what we're doing and what seems to be happening; I > hope someone can help shed some light on how to get things working better. > > By the way, if the answer is "reinstall Ubuntu following the instructions at > http://XYZ"; then that's no problem; we have nothing significant set up on the > machine so far, and reinstalling to get things working as intended would be > fine. > > > Thanks in advance, > > > Antony. > -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
