LXDE & ORCA RESEARCH

The messages starting at the following links suggest the following

Klaus, of Knoppix fame, says that one should configure a windows manager to use keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys so that the mouse does not have to be used. He believes that a audible text menu is best.

As of July 2009, LXDE is not entirely Orca compliant. The problem is that parts of lxpanel can not be used without a mouse.

http://www.mail-archive.com/lxde-list@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00245.html


Set up a fresh install of Puppy 431 . Installed lxde pet. It installed okay, but presented me with a grey screen on reboot.

XFCE stuff

Question does XFCE use the same GTK mottle, whatever that means, as Gnome and if so will it run Orca?

According to the following message, Xfce 4.4 does, and should run Orca.
[url]https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-accessibility/2008-February/002660.html[/url]

It’s worth looking into.

According to the following link, Orca did give the welcoming message under XFCE but nothing further.
http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com/msg02633.html

The following says that orca will work with Firefox, while in Xfce, but Orca is terminated when Firefox is closed.

From the message:
By default Xfce does not set the required environment variable to make gtk use the accessibility backend (atk -> gail), i've created a bug [1] for that, because that is indeed quite important. To enable this in the toolkit you can do 2 things: 1) Create a .gtkrc-2.0 file in your home-directory and add the line: gtk-modules="gail:atk-bridge" 2) Export a environment variable GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2010-January/msg00218.html

An answering message suggests that at-spi needs to be installed at startup It also suggests using Lxde.

Basic Low level pup.

Was playing around with this last night. Worked fairly well when I wanted to read some web pages.

basic low vision pup

This could be classified as a quick and dirty solution slapped together in a few hours. Okay, it was slapped together in a few hours. But it may fill a need until a better solution is found.

What you’ll need

Puppy 2.17

[url]http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppy Linux/[/url]

Puppy 2.14x or Puppy 3.01 may work. Puppy 217 is the one I tested it in.

Jwmspeak

[url]http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=625861976&t=27287[/url]

I could not get Jwmspeak to work in Puppy 431. I am not a programmer and one may be able to get it working.

Mcewanw’s Foksyf eye r system can be added to any puppy.

[url]http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1068304027&t=26184[/url]

Virtual Magnifier Glass

[url]http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1571973517&t=37641[/url]

This is how I did it.

1 -- install a fresh copy of Puppy 2.17

2 -- install the magnifier

3 -- install foksyf eye r get it working

4 -- install jwmspeak

Quick and easy Foksyf eye r.
1-- install the pets. If you are using Puppy 431 you need the patch. I used 217 so only installed the core pet.

2 -- open a terminal and type in “foksy setup”

3 -- reboot Puppy

4 -- open a terminal and type in “ifoksy”

The program will start working and will read your keystrokes.

5 --in the terminal, type “foksy” to get the menu.

Note I found foky to be rather temperamental. In that it did not like --
I -- being interrupted closing down the terminal
Ii -- having two instances of foksy working in two terminals. The first one worked, the second one did not.
Iii -- It did not like being shut down, with the terminal window closed and then reopened for another session.

Each time I had to reboot Puppy

Foksy installs espeak on your system, which Jwmspeak needs to operate. Which is why I left it to last.

Using it

Real simple.

1 -- make sure you have a terminal window with Foksy menu working in it. In fact, take it one step further. Type in ‘p’ to get to the paste menu. Leave the window open.

2 -- get the magnifier working. It’ll be in the Utilities menu.

3 -- Do whatever it is you were going to do.

4 -- If you wish something read out to you highlight it. Go over to the Foksy terminal and type in “sx” Espeak will start speaking.

Jwmspeak will read the menu items, and identify any open windows.

Jwmspeak is louder than foksy
_________________
http://dwjkerr.bravejournal.com/

I put these on the Puppy forums but thought I should make a copy here

What do you mean by low vision Puppy. Do you just need a magnifier, or text to speech.

If you just wish something to read the menus, try Jwmspeak as the window manager.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=625861976&t=27287


LightHousePup has, I believe, a setting which can be used to increase the font size.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1989535997&t=47588

Mu’s KDE3.58 sfs doesn’t seem to be around any more, but if you can find a KDE that can be installed, KDE’s accessibility stuff, Kttsd and Ksayit works fairly well.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=140610083&t=30061

I tried it in Puppy 4.x and it works pretty well.

Lighthousepup does have a KDE sfs. No idea if it will work in standard Puppy.

Mcewanu’s Foksyf eye r system can be added to any puppy.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1068304027&t=26184

Eldy works well. I’ve never tried it, under that name anyway, But I like Noob
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=436852957&t=49117

I believe Lobster has included Eldy in one of his Tmxxine editions.

Wow has made a gnome sfs in which Orca can be made to work, at least partially. I don’t know if it is still available. That version worked with 3.01. This works in Puppy 4.00

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1059748108&t=27864

Edbrowse is a nice program if you can live without graphics and a very steep learning curve.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=2019540118&t=26863

Regarding Orca, Knoppix has been able to get it working with LXDE or their lastest distro. I have no idea how. There’s attempts to get Orca working with XFCE.
_________________

programs to use

bc-1.06.95.pet.................calaculator
cdp-0.33.13.pet................cd player
cdw-0.2.4.pet..................cd writer
ctorrent-dnh3.3.pet............torrent client
e3-2.7.0-1.pet.................text processor
dotpuphandler-0.0.4-2.pet......dotpup installer
ncurses-5.6.pet................ncurses libraries
sane-backends-1.0.19.pet.......scanner programs
gocr.pup.......................Optical Character Reader
herrie.pet.....................MP3 player
yafc.pet.......................FTP client
ytree.pet......................filemanager
index.zip......................flat filer
irssi.x.pet....................irc chat client
java1506.pup...................java
freetts........................speech engine
yasr...........................screen reader
brltty-3.10....................soft brailler
clacct.........................Command Line Accountant
aspell.........................spell checker
alpine 1.10.pet................email client
links-2.2.0....................text web browser
firelog........................Internet Utilities
Simplebashbu...................Backup script

Puppy with KDE accessability

This does work with Puppy 410 Retro.

What you need:

1 - Mu's KDE sfs file from
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=351544344&t=26151
It includes KDE's accessibility stuff.
Rename the file to kde_version.sfs I used kde_410.sfs as I was using Puppy 410.

2 - Flite
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/wmd04r/puppy/flite-1.3.pet
Festivial or freetts can be used.


Configuring the system

Open a terminal and type kttsd.
Click on ADD and Talker and select the speech system.
Close the kttsd window.

From the Menu, select utilities and ksayit
Click on configurte
Close the window.
A red mouth should appear on the lower left corner.

Copy anything you wish spoken to the KLIPPER program.
Click on the red mouth and then on say.

MCvox where are you

MCvox is a Midnight Commander with support for braille and speech output. It is, or rather was, part of the Oralux project that was abandoned some years ago. Two days of searching with Google, Bing, Metasearch and Dogpile have come up with several sites that have claimed to have links where MCvox can be downloaded, but all seem to link to Oralux's site, or sites that are not available. Either way, I have been unable to find MCvox.