[orca-list] Introduction and questions

[jerome schatten <romers shaw ca>]

Greetings to the Orca list.


In my quest to bring email and the internet to my blind from birth
friend of 40 years, I have been working on a system that uses Ubuntu 9.1
and Orca. So far, the results with Firefox and Orca work reasonably
well, and I think my pal will be able to handle that OK. My man lives
alone and most of the time has little sighted help. 


For email, I've tried Alpine and am just in the process of getting Mutt
working. Alpine seems problematical in that there are so many screens,
and not everything makes Orca speak. It seems far more complex than I
had anticipated from a navigational point of view.


I am fully sighted, and have been testing things by memorizing the key
bindings and then closing my eyes and trying to accomplish the various
tasks involved. Not easy!


Now I am at a crossroads: Should I keep plugging away at Alpine or is
there a better solution?   I thought the Mutt user interface presets a
less complex user experience, but it doesn't seem to speak the links in
the menus. Am I wrong in confining myself to text based email clients?
Are there other sensible options?


So what are folks using for email clients -- I need to focus my energies
onto something that will work reasonably well instead of experimenting
continually with new programmes.


Thanks for any suggestions,
Jerome