[orca-list] Orca and Ubuntu 9.04

["Cearbhall O'Meadhra" <omeadhrac ncad ie>]

Hello,

I am a new user of Ubuntu and Orca. So, please forgive any silly questions
that I might have. I promise I will learn quickly!

I finally managed to install Ubuntu using the automatic install with sighted
guidance from my very obliging children. This was the first disappointment.
I had hoped that Ubuntu could have been installed by a blind person without
sighted assistance. It would be nice to install the system in a totally
non-visual way.

I really like Ubuntu and look forward to learning all about and how to avail
of its great potential.

My specific aim is to use Zotero in Mozilla Firefox to carry out academic
research and Orca is the only screen reader that I have found that is
capable of  providing access to the controls of Zotero. Given that Zotero is
fast becoming the leading support technology for academic research among
sighted researchers, this is a major plus for Orca and should allow visually
impaired researchers to compete on a more equal footing.

I do, however, have a problem with Orca and how it speaks. I was alerted to
the Pulse-audio problem early on and have applied all the suggested cures
for removing Pulse-audio  but Orca has not improved. 

My problem is that Orca does not complete any of the words that it speaks.
For example, in the application menu list The last consonant or syllable is
stopped and it sounds as if it is being cut off by something.

I have also found that when I press down-arrow in the applications list,
Orca reads most of the application name at first but then reads broken parts
of the next item on the list. An up-arrow will bring up a whole item that
was not spoken under the down-arrow.

Any ideas of what I can do now?

I should mention that I am running Ubuntu on a HP Compacc with an 80g hard
disk with 30g  spare capacity. I have also 800m ram available. I cannot
think that memory is a problem

Yours sincerely, 
 
Cearbhall E. O'Meadhra
 
"Good design enables - Bad design disables"
 
Tel: +353 1-2864623 Mob: +353 83 3323487 Em: omeadhrac ncad ie