Introduction and using Orca with Debian sound systems

[James AUSTIN <james.londonsw15@gmail.com>]

Hello

I am currently running Debian Stretch under VirtualBox on Win 10 and will set the same system up on Mac OS. I am quite experienced using the command line, though i am currently a casual Linux user with plans to use it exclusively eventually.  I love the fact that Debian includes both Orca and Speakup out of the box. However, I have encountered a small problem running Orca on a fresh install of Stretch.

I have installed MATE, as i am under the impression that it is currently the most accessible desktop environment. I have modified speechd.conf to use ALSA because Pulse appears not to work with Orca. Now Orca works but Speakup does not.

I am wondering if this is because of my use of a VM? If I had Debian installed on a physical system, might things work differently?

Can anyone offer any advice please?

Thank you
Best wishes
James