raspberry pi for screen reader users

[Linux for blind general discussion]

...

I was also told itwould be possible for me to purchase last year's model 
and all I would

loose would be some input options as a result of not purchasing 
thecurrent model.


Maybe, but since they're the same price, I personally don't see any 
advantage in buying the previous model. The Raspberry Pi 3 has a faster 
processor, and the 32-bit software runs faster on the 64-bit A53 
processor than it does on the 32-bit A7 in the Raspberry Pi 2, even 
though they run at nearly the same clock speed. As far as input, I think 
the only difference is onboard wifi and bluetooth, which you will need 
to plug into USB ports or your hub to use with the Raspberry Pi 2, but 
then again, you'll need a plugin wifi adapter if you will only have 
access to the 5GHz band.


Another OS option for you is F123Light. I wouldn't call it ready for 
prime time just yet, but it is stable enough for testing, and we could 
certainly use some more technical users who can test for user 
friendliness as well as stability. Grab the latest English image from

https://public.f123.org/F123Light-English-18.08.30.img.xz

verifiable using

https://public.f123.org/F123Light-English-18.08.30.img.xz.sha1sum

First you can verify the integrity of the file using the sha1sum 
utility, as long as both the img.xz and the img.xz.sha1sum files are in 
the same folder.

sha1sum -c F123Light-English-18.08.30.img.xz.sha1sum

Then if you have Linux on the computer where you downloaded the files 
and you can get root permissions via sudo, you can verify the location 
of your card reader with an inserted MicroSD card using

lsblk

Then run

xzcat F123Light-English-18.08.30.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdx bs=2M

replacing the x in sdx with the last letter of the /dev/sdx device where 
your card is inserted. Get a cup of coffee or a snack and wait for the 
prompt to return. This will give you an OS that will work in the 
Raspberry Pi that comes right up talking, complete with a non-technical 
menu that covers most functions in a user friendly way. Hope this helps.

~Kyle