Screen reader advice for a Linux sysadmin

Wed Feb 28 16:11:06 UTC 2018

Hello  Schoepp,

I can answer all of these questions for you and I will present a few of my own for you.

Your Questions:
I am still interested how people are able to work in the Mac 
terminal with VoiceOver successfully and productively. Are there any 
settings for the Mac terminal that make VoiceOver support better or dou 
you use another screenreader for the Mac terminal and not VoiceOver? 
Answer:
I am curious what commands or functions you found to not work in the Mac terminal? I use the Mac osX terminal running bash every single day and have no problems at all. The only screen reader available for Mac is Voiceover and it works perfectly in the terminal or any other application on the Mac. To answer your question, no I only use Voiceover in the terminal on my Mac.

How ofthen do you work in the Mac terminal, are you also working 
remotely on other systems via ssh and which tools are you using? 
Answer:
Yes I absolutely use SSH every time I am on my computer because my Ubuntu 16.04 machine is actually running on an Amazon Web Services instance in the cloud. I do all my Cyber Security development, pen testing, and server admin remotely between my Mac terminal and AWS linux box via SSH.

The only tool I use for any of this is my terminal. The built in SSH support through bash is all I need..

Do you 
use the latest Mac OS version or which system  is running on your Mac? 
Answer:
Yes I am always running the latest Mac osX to make sure I am up-to-date with security and running the latest tools.

Do you use also a brailledisplay on the Mac and in the terminal?
Answer:
I do in deed us a Braille display on my Mac with no problem. I have a Focus 40 Blue and it works great. I will admit that I do not know Computer Braille yet but I would very much like to learn it so I can use Braille when developing software. It is on my to learn list for sure...

My questions:
1. I am running Ubuntu 16.04 on my HP laptop but with little success in the terminal due to things not being spoken. I am running Orca as the screen reader. Can you provide some tips or how toos for making my terminal access and over all Linux experience more accessible?

2. You said "After using a Mac for a few weeks at work I was very disappointed. 
Especialy the VoiceOver support in the terminal is not more then 
rudimentary compared to the things you can do with a screenreader on a 
linux system."

Can you share with me what troubles you had with accessing the terminal on a Mac with Voiceover? I can issue any command, access the output, grep, redirect stdout to a file, use home brew to access external packages, and SSH. If you had any issues with these functions please let me know and I can help out with that off list if you are still interested. 

I would also like to know how in fact you perform some of these exact tasks using Linux in the terminal because this is what Ineed to access for the work I am doing.
• copy stdout text
• switch between several terminal windows
• copy and paste text from outside program i.e Fire fox

Thanks and I look forward to your reply. 

textbased environment and orca in Mate.

Bryan Duarte | software engineer

ASU Computer Science Ph.D Student
IGERT Fellow
Alliance for Person-centered Accessible Technology (APAcT)
Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC Lab)
National Federation of the Blind of Arizona | Affiliate Board Member
National Association of Blind Students | Board Member
Arizona Association of Blind Students | President
Phone: 480-652-3045

> On Feb 28, 2018, at 1:52 AM, Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bryan,
> 
> On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 12:12:06PM -0700, Linux for blind general 
> discussion wrote:
>> 
>> I use Mac due to its high quality screen reader, easy to use 
>> interface, and access to Unix terminal.
> 
> I had the same idea a few years ago and thought that a Mac would be the 
> best solution for my needs. A Mac has a modern and easy to use 
> graphical interface and has also all things which are needed if you have 
> to work in a textbased terminal. I am also a linux admin since 15 years 
> and for my work I have to use a terminal most of the time, but sometimes 
> a modern browser or other tools are needed that are running in graphical 
> mode.
> 
> After using a Mac for a few weeks at work I was very disappointed. 
> Especialy the VoiceOver support in the terminal is not more then 
> rudimentary compared to the things you can do with a screenreader on a 
> linux system. Because of this I switched back to a linuxbased system and 
> I am using Debian on a laptop now with brltty and espeak in the 
> textbased environment and orca in Mate.
> 
> But I am still interested how people are able to work in the Mac 
> terminal with VoiceOver successfully and productively. Are there any 
> settings for the Mac terminal that make VoiceOver support better or dou 
> you use another screenreader for the Mac terminal and not VoiceOver? 
> How ofthen do you work in the Mac terminal, are you also working 
> remotely on other systems via ssh and which tools are you using? Do you 
> use the latest Mac OS version or which system  is running on your Mac? 
> Do you use also a brailledisplay on the Mac and in the terminal?
> 
> Cheers and all the best from Munich,
> 
>  Schoepp
> 
> 
> -- 
> Christian Schoepplein - <chris (at) schoeppi.net> - 
> http://schoeppi.net
> 
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