1orca(1) orca(1)
2
6 orca - a screen reader / magnifier
7
9 orca [-s] [--gui-setup] [--setup] [-t] [--text-setup] [-n] [--no-setup]
10 [-u dirname] [--user-prefs-dir=dirname] [-e [speech|braille|braille-
11 monitor|magnifier|main-window]] [--enable=[speech|braille|braille-moni‐
12 tor|magnifier|main-window]] [-d [speech|braille|braille-monitor|magni‐
13 fier|main-window]] [--disable=[speech|braille|braille-monitor|magni‐
14 fier|main-window]] [-?] [--h] [--help] [-v] [--version] [-q] [--quit]
15 Orca is a screen reader for people with visual impairments, and pro‐
18 vides alternative access to the desktop by making use of speech synthe‐
19 sis, braille, and magnification support on the platform.
20 In addition, orca only provides access to applications/toolkits that
22 support the assistive technology service provide interface (AT-SPI),
23 which include GTK, Mozilla, Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, StarOffice,
24 Java/Swing, etc.
25 The following options are supported:
28 -s When starting orca bring up the GUI configuration dialog. You
30 can also use --gui-setup or --setup to specify this option.
31 -t When starting orca initiate the text-based configuration. You
35 can also use --text-setup to specify this option.
36 -n When starting orca force the application to be started without
40 configuration, even though it might have needed it. This is
41 useful when starting orca via something like gdm. You can
42 also use --no-setup to specify this option.
43 -u When starting orca, use dirname as an alternate directory for
47 the user preferences. You can also use --user-prefs-dir to
48 specify this option.
49 -e When starting orca, force the enabling of the supplied
53 options. You can also use --enable to specify this option.
54 -d When starting orca, force the disabling of the supplied
58 options. You can also use --disable to specify this option.
59 -? Show the help message of this release of the orca program.
63 You can also use -h or --help to specify this option.
64 -v Return the orca version number. You can also use --version to
68 specify this option.
69 -q Quit orca. You can also use --quit to specify this option.
73 In order for this "Accessible GNOME Desktop" to be accessible to users
78 who are blind or have low vision, users will need to employ an assis‐
79 tive technology (AT) that exposes the graphical desktop information
80 encoded in the GNOME Accessibility Framework.
81 Customers with blind employees/students need to have the ability to
83 adapt and customize their assistive technology solutions - both to
84 improve the efficiency of their blind users (to help make up for disad‐
85 vantages inherent in not being able to "see" the entire screen immedi‐
86 ately at a glace), and also to "work around" poorly designed and not
87 particularly accessible applications that their blind users need to
88 use.
89 orca is an extensible assistive technology that provides end-user
91 access to applications and toolkits that support the GNOME Accessibil‐
92 ity Framework. It has been designed with direct continual feedback from
93 its disability user community.
94 orca uses a "scripting" approach to easily allow customization per
96 application and provides the ability for each user to further customize
97 their AT environment based on their own preferences. The "scripting"
98 approach of orca provides a much more adaptable and compelling assis‐
99 tive technology solution than existing AT for the JDS desktop.
100 Functionally orca has to do 4 major things:
102 1. Present information to the user via speech synthesis (text-to-
104 speech), or refreshable braille (hardware connected to serial or
105 USB port), or a magnified image on the user's display.
106 2. Acquire information from the applications and desktop graphical
109 display via the GNOME Accessibility Framework.
110 3. Track events occurring in the applications and desktop graphical
113 display via the GNOME Accessibility Framework.
114 4. Intercept and optionally consume user input events from the system
117 keyboard and the buttons on a refreshable braille display. Based on
118 the input, orca will either pass the event on to the application
119 for normal processing, execute Orca-specific commands (such as
120 reading the next line in the display or panning the braille dis‐
121 play), or perform operations on application objects (such as click‐
122 ing buttons or modifying text areas).
123 orca will also:
126 · be a collection of building blocks that comprise screen reading
128 and magnification technology, including use of text-to-speech,
129 braille input/output, magnification logic, screen reading logic,
130 keyboard and mouse interception modules, and event coalescing.
131 ·
133 be developed with the standard GNOME build environment.
134 · support multiple braille displays.
136 · support the gnome-speech module for text-to-speech.
138 · intercept keyboard & mouse events through the GNOME Accessibility
140 Framework and other supported X mechanisms.
141 · support the gnome-mag module to provide end-user magnification of
143 the screen between 2 and 16 times magnification in integer incre‐
144 ments.
145 · render its own graphical user interface using GTK+ widgets.
147 · provide a scripting mechanism, giving it the ability to customize
149 how each application on the JDS desktop is handled by orca.
150 · provide further customization on a per-user basis.
152 Orca provides a set of its own keyboard commands. Note that you can
155 always enter Orca's "learn mode" while running Orca by pressing
156 Insert+F1. When in learn mode, Orca will intercept all keyboard and
157 braille input events and will tell you what the effect of them would
158 be. To exit learn mode, press the escape key.
159 · Commands for adjusting speech parameters
161 - Insert-right arrow
164 increase speech rate
166 - Insert-left arrow
170 decrease speech rate
172 - Insert-up arrow
176 raise the pitch
178 - Insert-down arrow
182 decrease the pitch
184 · Flat review commands
187 - Numpad-7 move the flat review cursor to the previous line,
190 and read it.
191 - Numpad-8 read the current line.
195 - Numpad-9 move the flat review cursor to the next line, and
199 read it.
200 - Numpad-4 move the flat review cursor to the previous word,
204 and read it.
205 - Numpad-5 read the current word. Double tap on Numpad-5 to
209 spell word, triple tap on Numpad-5 to get military
210 spelling.
211 - Numpad-6 move the flat review cursor to the next word, and
215 read it.
216 - Numpad-1 move the flat review cursor to the previous char‐
220 acter, and read it.
221 - Numpad-2 read the current character.
225 - Numpad-3 move the flat review cursor to the next character,
229 and read it.
230 - Numpad-slash perform a left mouse click at the location of the
234 flat review cursor.
235 - Numpad-star perform a right mouse click at the location of the
239 flat review cursor.
240 - Numpad-plus speaks the entire document.
244 - Numpad-Enter perform a "where am I" operation.
248 - Numpad-Delete bring up the Find dialog.
252 Note: the above commands apply when working with objects as well as
256 when working with text. For example, if the flat review cursor were
257 positioned on a menu bar, pressing the read current line command would
258 speak the names of all visible menus. Similarly, pressing read next
259 word would speak the object to the right of the flat review cursor on
260 the same line, or move flat review to the next line if no more objects
261 were found.
262 · Miscellaneous functions
264 - Insert-F1
267 enter learn mode (press escape to exit)
269 - Insert-f
273 speak font and attribute information for the current charac‐
275 ter.
276 - Insert-space
280 launch the Orca Configuration dialog.
282 - Insert-Control-space
286 reload user settings and reinitialize services as necessary.
288 - Insert-s
292 toggle speech on and off
294 - Insert-F11
298 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell, or whole
300 row.
301 -Insert-q
305 quit orca.
307 · Commands for debugging
310 - Insert-F3 report information on the currently active script.
313 - Insert-F4 cycle through Orca's various debug levels.
317 - Insert-F5 prints a debug listing of all known applications
321 to the console where Orca is running.
322 - Insert-F7 prints debug information about the ancestry of the
326 object with focus.
327 - Insert-F8 prints debug information about the application
331 with focus.
332 Note, in order for the last three commands to be of use, Orca needs to
336 be started from a virtual console or via gnome-terminal. Output is sent
337 to the console only (i.e., it is not sent to speech or braille).
338 The following exit values are returned:
341 0 Application exited successfully
343 1 Application exited with error
347 2 orca cannot parse its command line options.
351 The following files are used by this application:
356 /usr/bin/orca orca executable
358 ~/.orca/user-settings.py user's personal configuration settings
362 for orca
363 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
368 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
371 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
372 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
373 │Availability │SUNWgnome-a11y-orca │
374 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
375 │Interface stability │External │
376 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
377 orca online reference manual.
380 Latest version of the GNOME Accessibility Guide for your platform.
382 Latest version of the GNOME Desktop User Guide for your platform.5
384 Written by Rich Burridge, Sun Microsystems Inc., 2006-2007.
387 5 Mar 2007 orca(1)