In both Debian and in Slint, you don't have to even configure the console screen reader, it comes pre-configured.
Also with Slint, arguably the most accessible of them all, you have the choice of various screen readers in console:
espeakup (Console screen reader connecting espeak-ng and speakup)
fenrir (Modular, flexible and fast console screen reader)
speechd-up (Console screen reader connecting Speech Dispatcher and speakup)
Now, just to be clear, I'm not talking about a the orca screen reader working in a terminal. I'm talking about a real console screen reader working in text mode console even with NO X Windows running.
Nothing works better than a good console screen reader - the trade off is that you don't have graphics, but if you cannot see, that's not so much of a trade off. I do wish there were more good console programms like a Linux WordPerfect - I have my old DOS WordPerfect working under DOSBox. I'd pay for a working Linux version of a text word processor.
Best wishes,
David
rather than make something new, we should really concentrate on orca because its built into most popular distributions except manjaro and open suse. because quite frankly a new to linux user would rather use orca than fiddle about with a console based screen reader like fenrir, luckily I switched to debian because the version of orca it provides is better than that provided by ubuntu, by that works properly with mate unlike ubuntu
On 12/12/21 04:59, Pawel L. wrote:
> Hi,
> I think that the blind Linux community would benefit more from
> consolidating the knowledge of talented programmers and creating one,
> but maximally complete screen reader.
>
> I am sure that it would be better for all of us to effectively support
> the development of ORCA, as is the case with NVDA in Windows, than to
> start new projects.
>
> There are many ideas out there, but usually nothing comes of it.
>
> Take care,
> Pawel
Just to put in my own two cents as a developer - supporting an existing
project and starting an alternative project are not mutually exclusive.
One of the great things about open source is that the lessons learned
from one project can pretty easily be applied to a different project.
There are many reasons why it might work better to start a new project
rather than contributing to an existing one. You might want to
experiment with concepts that the maintainers of the existing project
are not interested in, you might find the existing code base too
confusing to start contributing to, you might want to simplify the code
base or work in a different language that you are more familiar with.
This allows people to experiment, or at least get familiar, with the
specific issues surrounding a project. The best aspects of the new
project can either be implemented as a patch or pulled into the main
project by its maintainers if they see a clear benefit.
I'm interested in the comparison to NVDA, though. I don't know the
history of the development of that project, or what the main differences
in developer acceptance are between NVDA and ORCA. Do you find Windows
open source development to be less chaotic than Linux in general, or
just in this project specifically? It could make an interesting history.
Thanks,
Aaron