[nfbcs] Some questions about the linux world

[Ryan Mann]

Hello.  I can answer a couple of your questions.  I have been trying a main stream distribution of Linux called Ubuntu Mate.  Orca works pretty well with Gnome Terminal, or in my case Mate Terminal.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 13, 2014, at 5:31 AM, Vincenzo Rubano via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> my name is Vincenzo and I am a blind Italian computer science student. Looking for various information about linux, I came across this list and I decided to subscribe.
> 
> Starting from this year, I’ll need to use linux for various projects at university; however, before beginning to test various distros, I’d like to ask you some questions. I am a novice in the linux world. I only have experience with Mac OS X (my primary system) and Windows.
> 
> 1. First off, I was wondering wether anyone managed to get any linux distro with AT features enabled working on a single-board computer, like the Raspberry P or the Banana-p. Was the machine usable, or did it have too much latency/was it too slow to let you be productive?
> 
> 2. Searching for information, I came across two distros that claims to be designed with accessibility in mind: Vinux and Sonar. Honestly, I noticed that these distros are popular only among blind users and could be considered something like a custom product for blind people. Since I don’t like this philosophy, I was wondering wether anyone had experience with “mainstream” linux distros and could recommend me what distro to start with.
> 
> 3. Since my classmates and professors at university are going to use Debian, I’d like to know wether anyone knows what the most critical accessibility issues in Debian are and if there are some workarounds to bypass them. For instance, I read that Debian can be installed by a blind user on his own only if he has a USB Braille Display plugged-in during the first boot, so that Debian can enable Brltty and switch automatically to the text-based installation. However, I learnt that orca on this distro must be downloaded separately after the installation. Is that correct?
> 
> 4. In some pages on the Vinux website, I read that Orca works better with Speech dispatcher than with Gnome speech (which is the default speech engine in Gnome, if I understood correctly). Can you confirm that? If so, how hard switch from Gnome Speech to speech dispatcher is?
> 
> 5. From what I’ve understood, the most critical points to get an accessible GUI in a distro are the login manager and the window manager. Do you have any recommendations about which ones to pick/avoid?
> 
> 6. Last but not least, do you know wether Orca works properly with gnome-terminal? If not, is there any alternative to make it accessible for a blind user?
> 
> Thank you in advance for your help. Sorry for asking so much questions, but I’d like to make productive tests instead of wasting time on something someone else already figured out. I do believe that putting together all the information we have it could be even easier to communicate our issues with mainstream distro maintainers and, maybe, get their interest in fixing them.
> 
> Looking forward to hearing back from you.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Vincenzo.
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