[NFBCS] Linux Screen Readers

[Doug Lee]

The only suggestion I'd make to that description is that level B, or full-screen access, is possible via ssh
and similar connections but may suffer from delays. I've used full-screen top, full-screen editors, and
various text browsers that way for years.

On Sun, Aug 21, 2022 at 11:02:59AM -0700, NFBCS mailing list wrote:
	hello Bryan.  A couple of random thoughts here about screen reader access to Linux, Unix
and X Windows.

1.  When I think of screen reader access to Unix, and I'm using Unix as the general term here
to refer to all types of Unix, including Linux, BSD, Solaris,  etc. I envision three levels of
access:

A.  Basic command line access.  This is line oriented access where there is no two dimensional
screen formatting and all the data is presented in a linear fashion.  When people talk about
command line access on these lists, and when I've spoken with screen reader developers, i.e.
Freedom scientific, this is what they seem to mean when they talk about access to the command
line.  This is also the access that VoiceOver on the Mac provides to the terminal window, and
what Jaws and NVDA provide in the command window under Windows.

B.  Two dimensional terminal access.  This is access to a text based window which provides two
dimensional cursor addressing, allowing for screen layouts and formats.  If you want to use an
editor that gives you a view of more than one line at a time, you need this level of access.
You also need this level of access if you want to use curses based programs like: lynx,
midnight commander, some versions of top, etc.

C.  Access to X windows.  This is access that would let you use the graphical elements of programs
which function as X Windows clients.

If one is using Jaws, NVDA or VoiceOver to access Unix systems remotely via ssh, then only
level A access is achievable, unless specific ssh clients are used which give the screen reader
more details about what the terminal is doing, assuming the screen reader knows how to access
those details.

Level B can be achieved by using self-hosted screen readers, i.e. where you're typing directly
on a Unix machine, rather than accessing it remotely through a network connection, by using
screen readers like Speakup on Linux or Yasr on other Unix platforms.  

As Jim pointed out up thread, the only way to achieve level C access at this time is by using
Orca.  Actually, there was an alternative X Windows screen reader project, I believe it was
called LcR, but its development stopped a long time ago and it is no longer relevant to this
discussion, as far as I'm aware.

	As to the value of creating a new X capable screen reader, I believe it would be useful,
but its value would be limited in the sense that once you achieve access level B to a Unix
system, its usually more efficient to work in that environment than to work in the graphical
environment.  The exception would be when one must use tools that don't provide a command line
alternative to the graphical environment.  Under Windows and Mac OS X, there are many tools
that do not provide this alternative, rendering screen access to the graphical environment very
valuable.  Since most X based programs, are, at some level, built off of command line tools,
the number of graphical only utilities is much less than in the Windows or Mac world.  The
exception is the graphical browser.  Since Orca provides access to Firefox, much of the
pressure to improve Orca is removed.  That isn't to say that it isn't worth doing, but that is
why, I believe, Orca's development has stalled.

	As someone who has worked almost exclusively in the Unix environment for over 30 years, I
can say that if you are comfortable with access level B, above, you will find very little is
not accessible in the Unix world.  Jim is a long time user of the X Windows environment, and it
would be good for him to say how much time he spends in the graphical environment versus how
much time he spends in a text based window in that graphical environment.  I'm guessing, and I
hope he'll verify, that he uses basically two programs: a text based terminal window, and a web
browser window.  Today, both of those are accessible with native self-hosted screen readers.  

	If you're using Unix and you don't have level B access to that Unix environment, then
you're abilities to work in that environment in an efficient manner are severely limited.  I
encourage you to work to get level B access, use it for a year, and then think about the state
of the access world for the Unix world again.  Yes, it could be better, but it isn't as bad as
some would make it out.  and, just in case some are mis-reading me, I'm speaking to everyone
who read this far, not just Bryan.  

-Brian

under Unix.


-- 
Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
"No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your
right to grow." --Alice Walker