Translations of this page: English, Portuguese Brazil, Spanish (external link)
Contents
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!
Audio Guides
Darragh Ó Héiligh started the movement for making audio tutorials introducing new users to gnu/linux with orca. He has not only produced several tutorials of his own, but has provided a home at lalrecordings.com for other users to contribute their own audio tutorials on a variety of computer and technology related subjects. The linux section contains several useful audio guides including:
* Installing and using the Vinux distrobution (a gnu/linux release oriented towards users of accessible technology)
* Installing and using the Ubuntu distrobution. (one of many common linux distrobutions including the gnome desktop and orca)
* Disabling Pulse audio in Ubuntu. (Some recent development versions of Ubuntu have presented users minor technical bugs in audio support; this guide walks users through correcting these problems should they occur)
* Using pigeon with orca. (the default gnome instant messenger client)
Visitors to the site can make suggestions for new tutorials they would like to find and members may submit their own recordings for display through the lalrecordings website. Check the site for the newest up-to-date information.
Other members have also produced their own audio guides concerning various topics related to orca.
Krishnakant has begun to undertake an extensive tutorial introducing users to the basics of orca's screen reading capabilities and some general features of gnome's built-in accessibility. The current files may be found at his site http://kk.hipatia.net/public/orca-tutorials/. These guides provide a wealth of information to necomers to gnu/linux and coputer accessibility in general.
Michael Whapples has produced instructional materials walking users through the installation of GRML with the use of the speakup screan-reader and the download and configuration of the gnome desktop and orca. Currently, only the instilation of GRML has been recorded as an audio guide; textual instructions have been provided for obtaining and configuring the graphical gnome desktop.
Also, Ashley Cox has produced an audio tutorial concerning the installation of the Vinux distribution.
A note to Windows users. Most guides are produced in .mp3 format. To listen to the few produced in .ogg, you might need to download and install a compatible codex for the Windows Media Player or use an alternate listening program such as Winamp.
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 a Spanish language list for GNU/Linux users who are blind: tiflo-linux@yahoogroups.com. More information about this list can be found at the Tiflolinux wiki. There is also a portuguese language mailing list about orca and GNU/Linux in general, linvox@yahoogrupos.com.br, and a website, linuxacessivel.org with some tutorials and documentation. 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. For OpenSolaris, please join the OpenSolaris accessibility 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.
