Re: Speech synthesizer install
On 9/6/25 22:02, Aaron Chantrill wrote:
I'm wondering what the reason is for not including a spoken prompt when
the debian installer first starts up which could instruct users to press
's' and 'enter' to start the install with speech synthesis. I've seen a
lot of instructions that say to press 's' at the main installer menu to
start the installer with speech synthesis, but they don't mention that
this only selects the option, and you still have to press enter to start
the install.
Only true on legacy bios.
The only sound during the installer boot process is the
bios beep, so one has to just keep pressing 's' and 'enter' and hope for
the best. If you press 's' just before the menu comes up, and then
'enter' just after, then you end up in the GUI installer with no idea
what's happening. A simple spoken "Welcome to the Debian installer"
message or even just a beep
The numbers of beep indicates in what type of bios you are in and when
to press keys.
The wiki ([1]) is pretty clear with the exception of UEFIs bios which
are not starting after 30 secs.
when the installer starts and then reading
the names of different menu options as they are selected or just when
the "install with speech synthesizer" option is selected seem like they
would go a long way toward making the experience more inclusive without
bothering sighted users too much.
You should take this to upstream Grub.
Would it be possible to create a version of the installer that just
boots straight into the speech synthesizer installer and skips the menu?
You could remaster the iso to change the boot menu to your liking.
[1] https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility#Debian_installer_accessibility
--
John Doe
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