Bryen,Seems everyone's interested in Zoomtext or at least the equivalent of Zoomtext. Is Zoomtext's equivalent Orca or is there something else. ZoomText is an incredibly powerful desktop screen magnifier that over the past ~2 decades gained a tremendous set of features - including some speech output capabilities (in the "magnifier/reader" product). I believe the most recent releases introduce scripting capabilities. Orca is not a direct equivalent to ZoomText. Orca is a stronger screen reader than ZoomText, and not as strong a screen magnifier. Some of the more interesting features in ZoomText not present in Orca include:
The AEGIS-funded ATRC work on GNOME Shell magnification is our path toward providing much of the functionalities I listed above, plus things ZoomText is not capable of today. For example, "App Reader" (and "Doc Reader") like functionality could be system wide, thanks to the AT-SPI. Having magnification tied into the shell means we can provide different, magnified (or otherwise visually enhanced) renderings of things otherwise already built into the shell (e.g. window switching). And given the ease with which zoom regions can be created in GNOME Shell, having app-specific and situation-specific magnification layouts which combine Orca's approach to scripting with AT-SPI knowledge means we could provide application- or task- specific magnification layouts for improved efficiency and productivity. Of course, it is easy to handwave about the wonderful future. What we need to do is get there! Second question... Is there a port of Orca to other platforms like Windows or Macintosh? No. Nor would it make sense. Orca depends upon AT-SPI, and that doesn't exist on Windows or Macintosh. IAccessible2 exists on Windows - the closest equivalent to AT-SPI - but it isn't universal there as it is on GNOME. NVDA is the closest thing to an "Orca port" on Windows: an open source screen reader written in Python that uses published APIs (vs. screen scraping) to obtain the necessary information to re-present the screen to blind users in speech & Braille. Regards, Peter Thanks, Bryen M Yunashko GNOME-A11y Outreach _______________________________________________ orca-list mailing list orca-list gnome org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca. The manual is at http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions Netiquette Guidelines are at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelines Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp --
 Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal Phone: +1 650 5069522 500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94065 
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