Re: [orca-list] Various questions about Orca and the linux world

[Krishnakant Mane <krmane gmail com>]

Just one quick comment,
Sonar although designed for blind people, is actually based off of 
manjaro which is a general purpose distro.
It just has some extra features needed by blind people, so it is not 
really a totally custom made distro, just that some additional things 
are there.
happy hacking.
Krishnakant.On 10/13/2014 05:14 PM, Øyvind Lode wrote:
> You don't need a Braille display to install Debian.
> Download the net install image and boot it up.
> It will beep when at the boot prompt and at this point press "s" and hit enter.
> You will now be able to install Debian using Speakup using software speech via eSpeak/eSpeakup.
> Speakup with software speech will start automatically when your new installation boots up.
> I don't use a graphical desktop, so I cant answer these questions.
> But I'm considering trying out Linux as a desktop system at some point.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: orca-list [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Vincenzo Rubano
> Sent: 13. oktober 2014 12:15
> To: orca-list gnome org
> Subject: [orca-list] Various questions about Orca and the linux world
>
> Hi all,
>
> my name is Vincenzo and I am a blind Italian computer science student. Looking for various information about 
> linux, I came across this list and I decided to subscribe.
>
> Starting from this year, I’ll need to use linux for various projects at university; however, before beginning 
> to test various distros, I’d like to ask you some questions. I am a novice in the linux world. I only have 
> experience with Mac OS X (my primary system) and Windows.
>
> 1. First off, I was wondering wether anyone managed to get any linux distro with AT features enabled working 
> on a single-board computer, like the Raspberry P or the Banana-p. Was the machine usable, or did it have too 
> much latency/was it too slow to let you be productive?
>
> 2. Searching for information, I came across two distros that claims to be designed with accessibility in 
> mind: Vinux and Sonar. Honestly, I noticed that these distros are popular only among blind users and could be 
> considered something like a custom product for blind people. Since I don’t like this philosophy, I was 
> wondering wether anyone had experience with “mainstream” linux distros and could recommend me what distro to 
> start with.
>
> 3. Since my classmates and professors at university are going to use Debian, I’d like to know wether anyone 
> knows what the most critical accessibility issues in Debian are and if there are some workarounds to bypass 
> them. For instance, I read that Debian can be installed by a blind user on his own only if he has a USB 
> Braille Display plugged-in during the first boot, so that Debian can enable Brltty and switch automatically 
> to the text-based installation. However, I learnt that orca on this distro must be downloaded separately 
> after the installation. Is that correct?
>
> 4. In some pages on the Vinux website, I read that Orca works better with Speech dispatcher than with Gnome 
> speech (which is the default speech engine in Gnome, if I understood correctly). Can you confirm that? If so, 
> how hard switch from Gnome Speech to speech dispatcher is?
>
> 5. From what I’ve understood, the most critical points to get an accessible GUI in a distro are the login 
> manager and the window manager. Do you have any recommendations about which ones to pick/avoid?
>
> 6. Last but not least, do you know wether Orca works properly with gnome-terminal? If not, is there any 
> alternative to make it accessible for a blind user?
>
> Thank you in advance for your help. Sorry for asking so much questions, but I’d like to make productive tests 
> instead of wasting time on something someone else already figured out. I do believe that putting together all 
> the information we have it could be even easier to communicate our issues with mainstream distro maintainers 
> and, maybe, get their interest in fixing them.
>
> Looking forward to hearing back from you.
>
> Cheers
>
> Vincenzo.
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> 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
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> orca-list gnome org
> https://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
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp