[NFBCS] Linux Screen Readers

[Mike Gorse]

Oh, interesting; I didn't know about the new Rust-based screen readers.

Brian, my suggestion would be to try using Orca if you haven't already and 
also look at the projects that Nikita mentioned. I think that that would 
give you a better idea of what needs improvement and what direction you 
want to take if you would like to help with development.

-Mike

On Mon, 22 Aug 2022, Nikita via NFBCS wrote:

> Hi Bryan,
>
> The main screen reader for Linux graphical environments is Orca. It is open source project, so you might want to consider contributing to its development.
> The development of Orca is carried out in Python.
> Here is its official repository - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/orca/
>
> Also last year, two open source projects appeared to develop a new screen reader for Linux from scratch.
> Both projects focus on Rust as their primary development language. Possible addition of plugins in the Lua language.
> You can explore the existing prototypes of these projects and join one of them.
> The more active of the two projects is the Odilia (former Yggdrasil). Here is its official website - https://odilia.app/
> and organization on GitHub - https://github.com/odilia-app/
> Less active of the two projects is the Harpoon. Here is its repository - https://github.com/hjozwiak/harpoon/
>
> If you think you have a completely new perspective on solving Linux GUI accessibility issues, you can start your own screen reader project, but putting together another full-fledged team of like-minded people will be quite difficult. At least in the absence of funding.
>
> Also an important part of efforts to improve the accessibility of Linux graphical user interfaces  is the refinement of infrastructure technologies such as AT-SPI or Wayland (actively developed alternative for X.org), as well as the GUI frameworks, graphical environments and applications themselves.
>
> Sincerely, Nikita.