Re: [orca-list] Can Orca read online help?

[Willie Walker <William Walker Sun COM>]

Hi Deborah:

We're definitely not a RTFM crowd here, and appreciate all constructive 
comments and questions.  Thanks for chiming in.

Thanks also for the clear description of the problem.  It definitely 
helps!  The help utility (yelp) definitely has some accessibility 
issues.  I believe it uses an older version of the Gecko HTML rendering 
engine, which is quite problematic.  :-(  Right now, our focus has been 
on the evolving Gecko engine for Firefox, so we may have inadvertently 
caused some breakage in yelp.  We'll need to look into that.

Having you come into this fresh along with your skills as a technical 
writer will be very useful!  One thing I'd like to do is keep on 
refactoring the Orca WIKI: http://live.gnome.org/Orca to make it easier 
to find the stuff people want to find.  If you have ideas for this, 
please contact me off line.  In addition, a distilled accessibility how 
to for Orca users is a great idea, and it would be great to get content 
like that on the WIKI.  Do you have time to help create such a thing?

Thanks!

Will

Deborah Norling wrote:
> mike coulombe wrote: 
> > Hi, in the system I can read the about ubuntu, but when reading the 
> > about gnome all I hear is pain.
>
> I am having the same problem, but perhaps can describe it more clearly. I am
> test-driving Orca with speech and Braille.
>
> I'm using the beta of Feisty Fawn, that runs Orca with Espeak. I haven't
> installed it, am test-driving the live CD until I know what I am doing. I
> can't tell you which beta it is; downloaded it three days ago, but can't get
> the "about ubuntu" to read anything. Uname -a simply gives the kernel
> version.
>
> After some futzing I did get Braille working, though it doesn't appear that
> this beta loads brltty by default.
>
> Using the keystrokes documented in both the Gnome users' guide and the
> Accessibility guide, I am able to navigate the desktop and both panels. I am
> able to navigate directories and files. I'm able to use some applications
> and not others. 
>
> I can call up menu choices, like "About Ubuntu" and "About Gnome" and also
> navigate the topics and subtopics of the online help. But any time a help
> window with text appears, or a simple text file opens in the file manager,
> Orca simply says "layered pane" or "frame" often reading a title presumably
> in that frame. I don't seem to be able to actually read any of the text,
> even with flat review and certainly not with the arrows or tab key.
>
> I thought at first, this was a multi-paned window and so I've tried F6 and
> Alt-f6 but nothing appears to happen.
>
> I continue to RTFM,  and I've read that I'm supposed to turn on a caret
> preference for help if I want to have a cursor; and there's something called
> "caret navigation" that's activated (presumably toggled) by pressing F7. F7
> doesn't seem to do anything either, and I'm still fooling with help
> preferences.  Perhaps I'll figure it out, and the lack of a cursor is the
> problem, but it is frustrating not to know whether a silence from Orca is an
> inaccessible app, a bug in the feisty Fawn beta or simply my own ignorance.
>
> I honestly think the average user won't be able to get up to speed simply
> reading the Gnome accessibility guide. Pointers to other documents would be
> welcome. It is too bad that web casts of this year's presentations at CSUN
> aren't available.
>
> I'd love to improve the documentation, as soon as I know what I'm doing
> myself! I used to be a technical writer, and I am an advanced MS Windows
> user; I do feel comfortable with console Linux but know nothing about X.
>
> If this list is not the appropriate place for this thread, just let me know.
>
> --Debee
>  
> P.S. I can understand and read German, if tutorials in that language exist.
> But I can't write German!
>
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