early warning I hope

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I've never used Arch or any of its derivatives, so I can't really help
with the original poster's problem... though I would've thought the
old Kernel would've been left in place and sighted assistence could be
used to select it from GRUB or whatever alternative boot loader one is
using.

I do find the harsh criticism of Arch as an accessible Linux option
and the recommendation of Debian Stable and Ubuntu instead a bit
eyebrow raising though. Seems like half the issues people have on the
Orca Mailing list come down to Debian Stable and Ubuntu(and especially
18.04) having out-of-date accessibility stacks, and from what I've
heard over the years from various sources, Arch seems to be the most
popular alternative to Debian as a base for custom,
accessibility-focused distros.

Admittedly, I'd probably recommend Debian stable to a sighted Linux
newbie, but accessibility is one area where Debian's focus on
stability over cutting edge does more harm than good... I'd probably
recommend Knoppix running in Adriane mode to a blind person interested
in learning Linux, but it's been years since there were any official
Knoppix images with Adriane as the default boot option, and while it's
a one line edit to a single text file within the ISO to make Adriane
the default, I know no means of directly editing an ISO, and the
method I've been using to make Adriane DVDs of mount, copy, edit,
rebuild, burn is rather involved... Plus, Knoppix is only really
designed with live use in mind, so while it's amazing for system
rescue or having a portable copy of Linux, it's not the best for a
primary OS.