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## page was renamed from Orca
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~-[[DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation|Translation(s)]]: none-~ ~-[[DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation|Translation(s)]]: [[de/Orca|Deutsch]] - English - [[es/Orca|Español]] - [[fr/Orca|Français]] - [[it/Orca|Italiano]] -
[[pt_BR/Accessibility/Orca|Português (Brasil)]] -~
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= Orca =
This article mentions some details about Orca ([[DebianPkg:GNOME-ORCA]]) in
Debian. Orca is the graphical screen reader for the GNOME environment.

This article explains the Orca screen reader for graphical desktop environments
such as GNOME, MATE and others. The official documentation is at https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ .
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If you have enabled accessibility during the  Debian installation and also
installed a desktop system, accessibility is enabled by default.
If you have enabled accessibility during the Debian installation and also
installed a desktop system, accessibility is enabled by default and Orca was installed for you automatically.
This only works for GNOME, Mate, Cinnamon and Unity at the moment, but can be activated manually. See
[[accessibility#Autostart_Of_Orca|the section on autostarting Orca]].
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=== Installation and configuration on a usual Debian system === === Installation on an existing system ===
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 1. {{{sudo aptitude install gnome-orca}}} (you can also install gnome-mag, if you need also magnification)
 1. Type as the user {{{ orca -t }}}
 1. Answer all questions. After this, Orca will automatically start at user session start.
  * If it doesn't, see the [[accessibility|main accessibility page]].
 1. In a terminal, type {{{sudo apt install orca}}}, to install orca.
  * If you are using one of GNOME, Mate, Cinnamon or Unity, the next steps should not be required for you.
 1. In a graphical session, open a terminal or press {{{Alt+F2}}} and type {{{orca -s}}} to start the setup. If you are unable to do so, it is best to enable [[accessibility#Autostart_Of_Orca|the autostart of Orca]] and run the setup with Orca support with the command {{{orca -r -s}}}.
 1. In the following dialogs, you can select the options you like, including Orca modifier, etc. After this procedure, Orca should start automatically.
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== Using Orca (applications) == === Autostart of Orca ===
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A list of supported applications can be found at
http://live.gnome.org/Orca/AccessibleApps.
==== GNOME ====

Orca can be configured to start automatically in the Gnome user session by hand by running these lines as a normal user:

{{{
eval $(dbus-launch); export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.a11y.applications screen-reader-enabled true
}}}

==== MATE ====

Orca can be enabled to start automatically in the MATE user session by hand by running these lines as normal user:

{{{
eval $(dbus-launch); export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.a11y.applications screen-reader-enabled true
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.mate.interface accessibility true
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.mate.applications-at-visual startup true
}}}

==== XFCE ====

The accessibility support for XFCE has to be enabled manually.
This can be achieved either by clicking the "Enable assistive technologies"
checkbox in the XFCE accessibility settings, or by running this command in an X session:

{{{
   xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -n -t bool -p /general/StartAssistiveTechnologies -s true
}}}

Alternatively you can put the following into
{{{$HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml}}}:

{{{
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="StartAssistiveTechnologies" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
</channel>
}}}

The file might already exist. If you haven't configured XFCE yet, you can replace the content of this file with the above excerpt. Please note that this will drop your XFCE session configuration.
If you don't want to lose your existing XFCE session parameters, just add another
"general" property, it will look like this:

{{{
<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="splash" type="empty">
    ...
  </property>
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="FailsafeSessionName" type="empty"/>
    <property name="StartAssistiveTechnologies" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
  <property name="sessions" type="empty">
    <property name="Failsafe"
    ...
  </property>
</channel>
}}}

For now, orca will not autostart. The
simple workaround is to just drop the "OnlyShowIn" line in
/etc/xdg/autostart/orca-autostart.desktop , or to add XFCE to it.

==== LXDE and LXQT ====

For now, orca does not start automatically. The
simple workaround is to just drop the "OnlyShowIn" line in
/etc/xdg/autostart/orca-autostart.desktop. Alternatively, LXDE or LXQT can be added at the end of this line.


=== Magnification ===

Orca does not offer magnification itself, however a variety of solutions exist, which are documented [[accessibility#Full_Screen_magnification_support|here]].
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Orca currently mainly supports Firefox (DebianPkg:iceweasel) to access web pages. You can use text browsers in the terminal as well, but they have obviously less comfort. Orca works on multiple browsers with a varying degree of support.
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The only difference on Debian is that you need to use Iceweasel instead of Firefox. The standard GNOME web browser Ephany is not accessible.  * Gecko-based browsers: These include DebianPkg:firefox-esr and have the best support and are hence recommended.
 * !WebKit-based browsers: They work to a certain degree, but cannot be considered production-ready with Orca yet. You need to press F7 in those browsers to activate caret browsing.
 * Text-mode browsers: These run in a terminal and offer basic browsing capabilities, but lack support for Javascript and other modern web technologies. Examples include DebianPkg:w3m and DebianPkg:elinks.
  * Orca does not interact with them nicely, it is better to run BRLTTY for screen reading. For this a new instance is started as a normal user process which does the screen reading and connects to an already existing BRLTTY instance: {{{"brltty -b ba -x a2 -X type=terminal -s no -N -r"}}} .
  * It also makes sense to disable braille and optionally speech in Orca for the current application. Press {{{OrcaKey + control + space}}} for the application-specific dialog.
  * You can configure BRLTTY to emit speech, see the documentation at http://brltty.app/doc/Manual-BRLTTY/English/BRLTTY-4.html#ss4.2 .
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Please see the main [[accessibility]] page, where GNOME-speech and speech-dispatcher are discussed. Orca does not itself interact with the speech synthesizer, but uses a backend service called DebianPkg:speech-dispatcher to access various speech synthesizers. If you want to add or configure a synthesizer, please see [[accessibility#Speech-Dispatcher|the Speech-Dispatcher section of the general accessibility page]].

== Orca plugins ==

The package DebianPkg:orca-sops provides a plugin system together with a selection of default plugins. It also contains a guide to help getting started with plugin development.
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If you don't want to compile Orca from source but still try a newer version (at your own risk), you can use the version from experimental. For this, you have to configure [[AptPreferences|apt-pinning]]. Add a experimental-source of Debian, update your package lists and run If you don't want to compile Orca from source but still try a newer version (at your own risk), you can try using the version from unstable (or if available, from experimental). For this, you have to configure [[AptPreferences|apt-pinning]]. Add a Debian unstable / experimental-source of Debian, update your package lists and run
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sudo aptitude -t experimental install gnome-orca sudo aptitude -t unstable install orca
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WARNING: Experimental really means experimental.

NOTE: You might have to reconfigure Orca, since a new mechanism for the configuration handling was introduced in Orca.

NOTE: It is possible, that after this the gdm greeter is not any longer able to start Orca at the login screen.
WARNING: unstable and experimental don't have their names without reason!
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 * [[accessibility]] - The Debian wiki page (about accessibility) with some hints also related to Orca  * [[accessibility]] - The Debian wiki page (about accessibility) with some hints also related to Orca and BRLTTY

Translation(s): Deutsch - English - Español - Français - Italiano - Português (Brasil)


This article explains the Orca screen reader for graphical desktop environments such as GNOME, MATE and others. The official documentation is at https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ .

Setup

Debian installer

If you have enabled accessibility during the Debian installation and also installed a desktop system, accessibility is enabled by default and Orca was installed for you automatically. This only works for GNOME, Mate, Cinnamon and Unity at the moment, but can be activated manually. See the section on autostarting Orca.

Installation on an existing system

If you installed Debian without accessibility features, you should do the following steps:

  1. In a terminal, type sudo apt install orca, to install orca.

    • If you are using one of GNOME, Mate, Cinnamon or Unity, the next steps should not be required for you.
  2. In a graphical session, open a terminal or press Alt+F2 and type orca -s to start the setup. If you are unable to do so, it is best to enable the autostart of Orca and run the setup with Orca support with the command orca -r -s.

  3. In the following dialogs, you can select the options you like, including Orca modifier, etc. After this procedure, Orca should start automatically.

Autostart of Orca

GNOME

Orca can be configured to start automatically in the Gnome user session by hand by running these lines as a normal user:

eval $(dbus-launch); export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.a11y.applications screen-reader-enabled true

MATE

Orca can be enabled to start automatically in the MATE user session by hand by running these lines as normal user:

eval $(dbus-launch); export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.a11y.applications screen-reader-enabled true
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.mate.interface accessibility true
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.mate.applications-at-visual startup true

XFCE

The accessibility support for XFCE has to be enabled manually. This can be achieved either by clicking the "Enable assistive technologies" checkbox in the XFCE accessibility settings, or by running this command in an X session:

   xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -n -t bool -p /general/StartAssistiveTechnologies -s true

Alternatively you can put the following into $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="StartAssistiveTechnologies" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
</channel>

The file might already exist. If you haven't configured XFCE yet, you can replace the content of this file with the above excerpt. Please note that this will drop your XFCE session configuration. If you don't want to lose your existing XFCE session parameters, just add another "general" property, it will look like this:

<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="splash" type="empty">
    ...
  </property>
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="FailsafeSessionName" type="empty"/>
    <property name="StartAssistiveTechnologies" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
  <property name="sessions" type="empty">
    <property name="Failsafe"
    ...
  </property>
</channel>

For now, orca will not autostart. The simple workaround is to just drop the "?OnlyShowIn" line in /etc/xdg/autostart/orca-autostart.desktop , or to add XFCE to it.

LXDE and LXQT

For now, orca does not start automatically. The simple workaround is to just drop the "?OnlyShowIn" line in /etc/xdg/autostart/orca-autostart.desktop. Alternatively, LXDE or LXQT can be added at the end of this line.

Magnification

Orca does not offer magnification itself, however a variety of solutions exist, which are documented here.

Browsing

Orca works on multiple browsers with a varying degree of support.

  • Gecko-based browsers: These include firefox-esr and have the best support and are hence recommended.

  • WebKit-based browsers: They work to a certain degree, but cannot be considered production-ready with Orca yet. You need to press F7 in those browsers to activate caret browsing.

  • Text-mode browsers: These run in a terminal and offer basic browsing capabilities, but lack support for Javascript and other modern web technologies. Examples include w3m and elinks.

    • Orca does not interact with them nicely, it is better to run BRLTTY for screen reading. For this a new instance is started as a normal user process which does the screen reading and connects to an already existing BRLTTY instance: "brltty -b ba -x a2 -X type=terminal -s no -N -r" .

    • It also makes sense to disable braille and optionally speech in Orca for the current application. Press OrcaKey + control + space for the application-specific dialog.

    • You can configure BRLTTY to emit speech, see the documentation at http://brltty.app/doc/Manual-BRLTTY/English/BRLTTY-4.html#ss4.2 .

Other speech synthesizers

Orca does not itself interact with the speech synthesizer, but uses a backend service called speech-dispatcher to access various speech synthesizers. If you want to add or configure a synthesizer, please see the Speech-Dispatcher section of the general accessibility page.

Orca plugins

The package orca-sops provides a plugin system together with a selection of default plugins. It also contains a guide to help getting started with plugin development.

Newer, experimental versions of Orca

If you don't want to compile Orca from source but still try a newer version (at your own risk), you can try using the version from unstable (or if available, from experimental). For this, you have to configure apt-pinning. Add a Debian unstable / experimental-source of Debian, update your package lists and run

sudo aptitude -t unstable install orca

WARNING: unstable and experimental don't have their names without reason!

See Also