Distros and VMs

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I've run into something really, really weird with my setup and was 
wondering if anyone could explain what's going on.

Essentially, I can boot any Ubuntu based distro fine, get Orca talking. 
but the moment I go to run any of the distro installers from a live 
session, nothing at all. You heard right. Nada. None of the Orca keys 
work. It's as if there is something blocking the Orca keypresses. I'm 
using things based off of 18.04, such as Ubuntu, Zorin, Pop_OS! (which 
worked okay after tweaking)