I have had this problem also.
Many users especially blind users need to use both graphical user interface with ORCA and seamlessly switch back and forth to Console with speakup running.
Console is much faster than MATE terminal inside a Graphical X server session and we still have many users who just run CONSOLE sessions unless forced to use X Graphical sessions.
Many of the CONSOLE applications needed for us to be productive have been abandoned or don't even exist or if they do, they aren't as useful as their graphical counterparts.
I guess I long for the days of WordPerfect for DOS.
Regards,
David Ring