[orca-list] Current State of total Accessible of the Gnome desktop with Orca

[Keith Hinton <keithint1234 gmail com>]

Hi all.
For a while I have been comparing the accessibility of Windows and
other GUI environments with taht of the Gnome desktop and the Orca
screen reader.
I understand at some point that Gnome will apparently use Speech-Dispatcher.
Well, I have some general questions:
1. Isn't Speech-Dispatcher a dead project now? I have not heard one
word from the developers of this program for Linux lately on Speakup's
mailing list, or this one.
2. When you compare particular accessibility with Windows and Orca in
the Gnome desktop, I am curious why:
1. Why does Orca do some functionality currently different from say
JAWS on Windows?
I.e. Interacting with a Combobox or opening a listbox with alt-down
arrow in Windows is a bit different with Orca.
2. Does Orca/Gnome developers have any plans on making Skype work at
all under the Linux environment?
3. Will Orca ever be able to offer a hotkey for the user to redraw the screen?
4. What is the responsiveness of Gnome-Speech these days? Last I heard
it was being compared to that of Speech-Dispatcher due to instant
feedback.
presently, the only way I've made Linux accessible at all beyond
Speakup, is that of X-Windows, and the VMware environment for all
Windows functionality of applications that don't work.
I'd like to find out the present state of accessibility in the future
operations and rappid development of Gnome.
What can users of Orca expect to see, or currently have available?
I am staying away from any of the Linux OS systems due to a lack of
VOIP applications, and the fact that although Speakup is good on the
Console, I still don't think Orca is yet there.
Orca needs to get to a much higher degree of Pidgen accessibility:
For instance, Orca doesn't currently in that application support
reading an incoming message in the MSN protocol, for istnance, even if
the user is not foccused in that Window.
an audio sound is presented, but no speech output of an incoming message.
Perhaps some monitoring-specific functionality could be developed into
the Gnome desktop?
Thanks.
Regards, --Keith