Re: [orca-list] Getting orca to speak using mate desktop in arch?

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

This is the screen reader package I have. ArchLinuxARM and x86_64 Arch
Linux both call it orca, and it shows that it is in only the gnome
package group.

Repository      : extra
Name            : orca
Version         : 40.0-1
Description     : Screen reader for individuals who are blind or
visually impaired
Architecture    : any
URL             : https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
Licenses        : LGPL
Groups          : gnome
Provides        : None
Depends On      : gtk3  at-spi2-atk  python-atspi  python-dbus  python-
xdg  speech-dispatcher  liblouis  brltty  xorg-xmodmap  gsettings-
desktop-schemas  gst-plugins-base  gst-plugins-good
Optional Deps   : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 1973.39 KiB
Installed Size  : 15624.90 KiB
Packager        : Arch Linux ARM Build System
<builder+seattle archlinuxarm org>
Build Date      : Wed 24 Mar 2021 06:40:08 PM EDT
Validated By    : MD5 Sum  SHA-256 Sum  Signature

So I was wrong about having to explicitly specify that speech-
dispatcher be installed, because orca does pull it in as a dependency.
But there is no other screen reader package for the MATE desktop other
than Orca, and it does need to be explicitly specified to be installed
alongside the mate and mate-extra package groups, as it is not listed
as a member of either group. A speech synthesizer also must be
installed explicitly, as these are all optional dependencies, not
required dependencies, so speech-dispatcher will not get them
automatically.

It is also worth noting that the accessibility toggle shortcut is
disabled in MATE's keyboard shortcuts by default, meaning that it is
unbound. I set mine to alt+super+s, because that matches GNOME's
default, and I recently discovered that the KDE Plasma desktop also
enables the screen reader toggle and binds it to the same key
combination by default. As long as there is no conflict, F4 could
toggle accessibility, but this is not a default in MATE nor anywhere
else that I am aware of, although I believe lightdm-gtk-greeter mapped
the screen reader to one of the function keys some years back.
~Kyle