Re: [orca-list] Programatically detecting if Orca is running

[Nolan Darilek <nolan thewordnerd info>]

Thanks, checking for this key looks like a good solution. This is just a 
game engine, so I'm less concerned with 100% accuracy, and more 
concerned that someone launching a game and having had accessibility 
enabled at one point launches my custom screen reader. I'd rather 
someone get the screen reader and have to turn it off, than them *not* 
get it but need it. So perhaps I should have said, I want to know that 
someone has requested that a screen reader run, not that it's actively 
running. Sorry for potentially mis-stating.

On 4/13/20 7:39 AM, Alex ARNAUD wrote:
> Le 13/04/2020 à 14:29, Nolan Darilek a écrit :
> > Put another way, how does/will Chrome know that 
> > --force-renderer-accessibility isn't necessary and that a screen 
> > reader is running? I promise it won't be by grepping the process 
> > table for "orca" or looking for config files (no offense to those who 
> > suggested either, but my point is that there's probably an API in 
> > place for this and I'm hoping for a pointer to it.) 
> Hello Nolan and all,
>
> There is unfortunatly no general way to determine if Orca is running 
> or not.
>
> Firefox and probably Chrome are checking if org.a11y.Status.IsEnabled 
> is present, see this commit message for details: 
> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/commits-list/2011-August/msg06285.html
>
> Orca is setting this flag when running the first time and the ezoom 
> screen magnifier too but it doesn't imply Orca runs at the time of 
> checking. The only way to ensure Orca is running is unfortunately 
> checking process, other way could work but couldn't. You could try by 
> yourself, launch Orca, check org.a11y.Status.IsEnabled, kill orca and 
> check again. Orca couldn't disable isEnabled after stopping because it 
> couldn't know if there is another assistive technology enabled.
>
> Best regards.