Re: [orca-list] text console use

[Janina Sajka <janina rednote net>]

Hi, Didier:


I have to add my strong agreement, but maybe it's because I, too, have
been using computers since the early 1980's--when there was no graphical
desktop to be had. I suspect younger folks simply have no clue about the
cli. I suspect for many of them it's like a foreign country with an
incomprehensible language.

I sometimes play a what if game with myself. How might my life today be
different had I studied kernighan and ritchie rather than Applesoft
Basic at San Francisco State University in the 1980's? What if I'd
learned vim and latec back then rather than WordPerfect 5.1?

Of course the reasons for these choices were greatly dictated by the
availability of those options in a pre-Linux world. Back then very few
people had direct access to any kind of Unix system, except perhaps by
modem where access was metered by the minute--a very expensive
proposition for someone on a strict budget.

And, I must close by noting in Orca's defense that I sometimes forget
that I'm using Firefox and not Lynx when I tab to an input field and
issue a Ctrl-U. I mean I'm surprised to see the source-view, because I'd
forgotten I wasn't in Lynx! <grin>

Janina

Didier Spaier writes:
> Funnily I would tend to ask the opposite question: why a blind person would need a graphical environment?
>
> I know at least one blind Slint users who never use one.
>
> I believe that most things done in a graphical environment can also be done in a console, often with a 
> better productivity. This stands for blind as well as sighted people.
>
> A few examples: for writing you have a lot of text and code editors like nano, emacs and vim, mutt for 
> emails, lynx and links for web browsing, mplayer to listen to music, vlc to listen to movies, crafty to 
> play chess, games like freeswipe or scribble, the list goes on and on.
>
> Actually the first personal computer I used nearly 40 years ago didn't have a graphical environment, maybe 
> that's why I am used to text mode.
>
> Best,
>
> Didier
>
> On 10/12/18 7:48 PM, Michael Weaver via orca-list wrote:
> > I don't know if this is the right list to ask on as it is not strictly Orca but it is about text 
> > screenreaders but is text console use still necessary. I am not quite clear on this point. The reason is 
> > that you can use the terminals in gnome, Mate or maybe other desktops like mate-terminal from an alt F2 
> > run prompt which is why I ask about text consoles, your CTRL ALT F1 to F6 which don't speak with Orca so 
> > need a different screenreader.
> >
> > Just curious with projects like Fenrir.
> _______________________________________________
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> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
> Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
> GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org

-- 

Janina Sajka

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa