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HELP ME!!! Speech is NOT WORKING on Ubuntu Jaunty
Before you are tempted to post a note to every mailing list on the planet, like every other user has done, please read this. Speech and audio integration is not working well on Jaunty. You need to install with the blindenss profile (see also the Ubuntu notification about this.
If you have not installed your machine using the blindness profile, you can perform a workaround:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-accessibility/2009-May/003493.html
If this fails, simply go into the terminal (usually alt-f2 and type "gnome-terminal") and give the command "sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio", then restart gnome with the command: "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart". You must enter your password when you use the sudo command, usually only the first time.
I personally found that this solved the problem better than the work around above.
About Orca
Orca is a free, open source scriptable screen reader. Using various combinations of speech, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop). The development of Orca has been led by the Accessibility Program Office of Sun Microsystems, Inc. with contributions from many community members.
Please join and participate on the Orca mailing list: it's a helpful, kind, and productive environment composed of users and developers. The mailing list archives also contain a great history of discussions. We try to capture the information on this WIKI, but we encourage you to search the archives for more information.
Operating system distributors -- please read the Smoke Test for information on verifying Orca works well with your distribution.
Anyone with an interest in improving the GNOME Desktop Accessibility Guide (user section), please review the latest edits and direct all corrections, suggestions, etc. to vpalexander@gmail.com - your input is greatly appreciated!
Does Orca work with Skype?
Read the answer to this and many other frequently asked questions on the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Audio Guides
Darragh Ó Héiligh has created several audio guides for Orca. This is a fantastic contribution (THANKS!)!!! The audio guides can be found at http://www.digitaldarragh.com/linuxat.asp and include the following:
Download/Installation
As of GNOME 2.16, Orca is a part of the GNOME platform. As a result, Orca is already provided by default on a number of operating system distributions, including Open Solaris, Fedora, and Ubuntu.
Please also refer to the Download/Installation page for detailed information on various distributions as well as installing Orca directly from source.
Configuration/Use
The command to run orca is orca. You can enter this command by pressing Alt+F2 when logged in, waiting for a second or so, then typing orca and pressing return. Orca is designed to present information as you navigate the desktop using the built-in navigation mechanisms of GNOME. These navigation mechanisms are consistent across most desktop applications.
You may sometimes wish to control Orca itself, such as bringing up the Orca Configuration GUI (accessed by pressing Insert+Space when Orca is running) and for using flat review mode to examine a window. Refer to Orca Keyboard Commands (Laptop Layout) for more information on Orca-specific keyboard commands. The Orca Configuration GUI also includes a "Key Bindings" tab that allows you to get a complete list of Orca key bindings.
Please also refer to the Configuration/Use page for detailed information. Storm Dragon's blog also contains useful tips on using Orca.
Accessible Applications
Orca is designed to work with applications and toolkits that support the assistive technology service provider interface (AT-SPI). This includes the GNOME desktop and its applications, OpenOffice, Firefox, and the Java platform. Some applications work better than others, however, and the Orca community continually works to provide compelling access to more and more applications.
On the Accessible Applications page, you will find a growing list of information regarding various applications that can be accessed with Orca as well as tips and tricks for using them. The list is not to be a conclusive list of all applications. Rather, the goal is to provide a repository within which users can share experiences regarding applications they have tested.
See also the Application Specific Settings page for how to configure settings specific to an application.
How Can I Help?
There's a bunch you can do! Please refer to the How Can I Help page for detailed information.
More Information
Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ
Mailing list: orca-list@gnome.org (Archives). There is also a Spanish language list for linux users who are blind: tiflo-linux@yahoogroups.com. More information about this list can be found at the Tiflolinux wiki. For helping and improve / get support on Ubuntu Accessibility please join to Ubuntu Accessibility mailing list. See the previous postings on the Ubuntu Accessibility archives. For helping and improving Debian Accessibility please join to Debian Accessibility mailing list.
Bug database: GNOME Bug Tracking System (Bugzilla) (current bug list ) Report a new bug
Design documents: User Experience Specification
The information on this page and the other Orca-related pages on this site are distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
