[nfbcs] Information on Ubuntu Orca and Braille support

[Tami Jarvis]

Mike,

Your project is doable! Welcome to the learning curve. /smile/

Starting out with Vinux, as John B. suggests is a good idea, I think. 
Since Vinux, like Linux, is free, you can just do that if you want to.
That way you can get used to the differences of linux without having to 
do a lot of work just to get up and going with accessibility. I didn't 
do that but just dove right in and figured it out as I went along. Which 
shows that any fool can learn Linux, I guess. /lol/

To start, here are a couple of links:

https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/

https://wiki.gnome.org/Orca

http://www.ubuntu.com/

I would suggest reviewing/learning the slightly different vocabulary for 
Linux first if you need to. I found that little things like "meta key" 
through me off, but I hadn't used linux/unix since before the desktop 
guis that use that. If you are more up on the lingo than I was, then 
you're good. /smile/

As I recall, in the older versions of Ubuntu, the Unity desktop has some 
accessibility flaws, or things that can be irritating. You can use the 
GNOME desktop in fallback mode, though, which makes life easier. If you 
decide to go ahead, write me off list if you need the exact steps how to 
do that and I'll dig them out of my so-called brain.

I found that learning a few keystrokes a day and wrangling with the 
concepts of linux accessibility worked best for me. I learn best if I 
know how a thing works so that I can use it, so that's why I did it that 
way. If you do better just learning how to use it, you may not need to 
make yourself so crazy. /smile/

The Orca mailing list is a great place to ask questions, and so is the 
brltty list. I can give you those if you are interested, too.

LibreOffice/OpenOffice are fairly intuitive if you're used to the MS 
Office products.

Tami


On 08/06/2013 04:54 AM, Mike Jolls wrote:
> I recently resurrected an old PC that has Ubuntu 8.04 loaded on it.  My objective is to see if I can use this as a notetaker and connect a USB Braille display such as Focus 40 Blue to it for a less expensive alternative to purchasing something like a traditional Apex or BrailleNote notetaker.  I'm hoping that I can use the Open Office software that comes with the Ubuntu release and the accessibility features such as the Braille TTY terminal software to allow normal notaking activities and pair it with a Braille display for a workable solution to word processing, email, etc.  I don't know anything at all about Unix/Linux at this point which I understand is what Ubuntu is based on, so I'm sort of in the dark as to where to start doing research to see if my goal is attainable or if I'm going down a bunny trail that leads to a dead-end.
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> Does anybody have any experience doing a project such as this?  What do you need to learn and in what order?  And how good is the Braille support under Ubuntu/Orca/BrailleTTY?  Or am I just going down a dead-end?  I understand this version of Ubuntu (8.04) supports the Focus 40 Blue and the Pacmate 40 cell display .. I already have the Pacmate display but I intend on purchasing a Focus 40 blue unit.  If I abandon this project, then i'm looking at additionally spending money on a new laptop and a Windows 8 copy of Jaws.  As I say, I'm trying to accomplish my goal and save some money in the balance.
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>   Any experience that anybody can offer would be appreciated.
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