Re: [orca-list] Vinux 1.3 Released!

[Luke Yelavich <themuso ubuntu com>]

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On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 09:45:41AM EST, Paul Hunt wrote:
> Hi Luke,
>
> I agree on this one too.
>
> I was wondering if there will be any significant improvements in  
> accessibility in the forthcoming release of Ubuntu (Jaunty)?
>
> I'm not talking about newer versions of packages such as Orca etc but 
> what about the accessibility problems with the current Ubuntu releases 
> such as the need for creating the .orbitrc file and modifying the sudoers 
> file to get speech for apps that need to be run with sudo?  Not to 
> mention the apps that don't work when run from the Gnome menus even with 
> these modifications? And what about the Ubuntu installer - will its 
> accessibility be restored (I haven't tried this but people say its 
> broken)?  These are significant accessibility issues that non computer 
> geeky types shouldn't have to deal with.

The .orbitrc file could possibly be a security risk. Exactly why I can't remember, but I remember discussing 
this with some fellow Ubuntu developers, and they didn't like that file being created, even for accessibility 
installs. I'll reconsider adding this now, since a better solution has not presented itself, and it has been 
quite a while since this discussion was had, over a couple of years ago at least I think.

As for the installer, this should be fixed as of the latest alpha release, alpha 4, 
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jaunty. I spent a couple of days a few weeks back fixing it, but only for install 
mode only. I.e, when the live CD boots, press enter to pass the language selection, press down arrow once to 
choose the install Ubuntu option, press F5 and choose your accessibility profile, then press enter to boot 
the system. For best results, I suggest you perhaps wait a day, and fetch a daily cd image, 
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current, as espeak uses PortAudio 19 now, so ALSA will be used.

> Also, is the implementation of pulse changing significantly?  It 
> currently poses problems for anyone wanting to run apps like espeakup to 
> get software speech output from the speakup screen reader since Pulse 
> only kicks in when Gnome starts.

Now that Espeak will use Alsa via PortAudio 19, I have been pondering killing PulseAudio for accessibility 
installs, since I know it does no good for good speech latency, however since the way PulseAudio starts has 
changed somewhat from hardy, I need to think rather carefully about the best approach to do this, to the 
point where some configuration hooks will have to be put into the pulseaudio package itself to honour this 
setup. However, that is made easier because I am also the Ubuntu PulseAudio maintainer. :) Hopefully that 
will help users who use speakup with software speech.

Luke
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