[orca-list] Urgent: Linux accessibility help

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Geoff:

Quick response just on a couple of your questions for now ...

1.)	Forget RHEL. While you may succeed at running Orca under RHEL,
running Speakup in a console won't be available. People have tried with
RHEL over the years, but have not been successful afaik. Fedora would be
OK, but not RHEL.

	For that reason, I'd stick with Ubuntu. Frankly, it's a bit
	amusing to have RHEL equated with Ubuntu, because Fedora and
	Ubuntu is arguably the more logical pairing.

	2.)	I'm unaware of anyone using IBM Notes under Linux
	accessibly. It's probably, though, that they've made Notes
	accessible under Windows. IBM has many screen reader dependent
	employees, and they do rely on Notes, afaik. I'll try to ask for
	you and report back.

	Good luck!

	Janina

Geoff Shang writes:
> Hi,
> 
> I've just started a new job and have run into some accessibility issues that
> may not be solvable under Linux.  I would like to solve it this way though
> so I'm posting here for help.
> 
> Here are the requirements:
> 
> 1.  Authorised Linux releases are Ubuntu 14.04 and RHEL 7.2.  That's it.
> 
> 2.  I am required to use IBM Notes (formerly Lotus Notes) for email.
> 
> Here's what happened:
> 
> I got a laptop with Ubuntu 14.04 installed.  I don't know if speech was
> activated during the install, so I don't know if the desktop environment has
> been optimised for Orca.
> 
> IBM Notes 9.01 doesn't talk at *all*.  The only keystroke I can get to talk
> is alt-tab.
> 
> There is also a web UI for the email, but I can't open the email messages in
> Firefox (enter does nothing).
> 
> But I think the Firefox issue may be due to Firefox 46 being installed which
> I suspect is current Firefox rather than the version that came with Ubuntu
> 14.04.  The menus don't talk either, and the apt cache shows both Firefox 46
> and 28.
> 
> Other than this, Firefox is quite responsive.
> 
> Of more concern is the fact that Orca is version 3.10.3, which I believe is
> pretty ancient and lacks a lot of improvements.
> 
> Unity is 7.2.6 which may or may not be the version that shipped with Ubuntu
> 14.04 and which may or may not work well with Orca 3.10.3.
> 
> So my questions, in no particular order, are:
> 
> 1.  How is Ubuntu 14.04 generally for desktop accessibility?
> 
> 2.  Would RHEL 7.2 be any better?
> 
> 3.  Does IBM Notes work with Orca at all?  I would expect it to but it's not
> working here right now.
> 
> 4.  Would the Ubuntu Accessibility PPA be of any help with any of this?  I
> don't know how receptive IT would be to using it but it might be easier than
> arguing for Ubuntu 16.04.
> 
> I also welcome any off-list comments on Mac and Windows accessibility of IBM
> Notes, in case I have to go that way.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help that anyone may provide.
> 
> Cheers,
> Geoff.
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
> Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
> GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina at rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa