orca(1) 							   User Commands							   orca(1)

NAME

       orca - a screen reader / magnifier

SYNOPSIS

       orca [--gui-setup] [--text-setup] [--no-setup] [--disable=options] [--enable=options] [--user-prefs-dir] [--help] [--version] [--quit]

DESCRIPTION

       orca  is a screen reader for people with visual impairments, and provides alternative access to the desktop by making use of speech synthe-
       sis, braille, and magnification	support on the platform.

       In addition, orca only provides access to applications/toolkits that support the assistive technology service provide  interface  (AT-SPI),
       which include GTK, Mozilla, Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, StarOffice, Java/Swing, etc.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -s, --gui-setup, --setup

	   When starting orca bring up the GUI configuration dialog.

       -t, --text-setup

	   When starting orca initiate the text-based configuration.

       -n, --no-setup

	   When  starting orca force the application to be started without configuration, even though it might have needed it. This is useful when
	   starting orca via something like gdm.

       -u, --user-prefs-dir=directory

	   When starting orca, specify the directory as an alternate directory for the user preferences.

       -e, --enable=speech|braille-monitor|magnifier|main-window

	   When starting orca, force the enabling of the supplied options.

       -d, --disable=speech|braille-monitor|magnifier|main-window

	   When starting orca, force the disabling of the supplied options.

       -?, -h, --help

	   Show the help message of this release of the orca program.

       -v, --version

	   Return the orca version number.

       -q, --quit

	   Quit orca.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       In order for the "Accessible GNOME Desktop" to be accessible to users who are blind or have low vision, users will need to employ an assis-
       tive technology (AT) that exposes the graphical desktop information encoded in the GNOME Accessibility Framework.

       Customers  with	blind  employees/students  need  to have the ability to adapt and customize their assistive technology solutions - both to
       improve the efficiency of their blind users (to help make up for disadvantages inherent in not being able to "see" the entire screen  imme-
       diately	at a glace), and also to "work around" poorly designed and not particularly accessible applications that their blind users need to
       use.

       orca is an extensible assistive technology that provides end-user access to applications and toolkits that support the GNOME  Accessibility
       Framework. It has been designed with direct continual feedback from its disability user community.

       orca uses a "scripting" approach to easily allow  customization per application and provides the ability for each user to further customize
       their AT environment based on their own preferences.  The "scripting" approach of orca provides a much more adaptable and compelling assis-
       tive technology solution than existing AT for the JDS desktop.

       Functionally orca does 4 major things:

       1.  Present  information  to  the  user	via speech synthesis (text-to-speech), or refreshable braille (hardware connected to serial or USB
	   port), or a magnified image on the user's display.

       2.  Acquire information from the applications and desktop graphical display via the GNOME Accessibility Framework.

       3.  Track events occurring in the applications and desktop graphical display via the GNOME Accessibility Framework.

       4.  Intercept and optionally consume user input events from the system keyboard and the buttons on a refreshable braille display. Based	on
	   the input, orca will either pass the event on to the application for normal processing, execute orca-specific commands (such as reading
	   the next line in the display or panning the braille display), or perform operations on application objects (such as clicking buttons or
	   modifying text areas).

       orca will also:

	 o  be a collection of building blocks that comprise screen reading and magnification technology, including use of text-to-speech, braille
	    input/output, magnification logic, screen reading logic, keyboard and mouse interception modules, and event coalescing.

	 o  be developed with the standard GNOME build environment.

	 o  support multiple braille displays.

	 o  support the gnome-speech module for text-to-speech.

	 o  intercept keyboard & mouse events through the GNOME Accessibility Framework and other supported X mechanisms.

	 o  support the gnome-mag module to provide end-user magnification of the screen between 2 and 16 times magnification  in  integer  incre-
	    ments.

	 o  render its own graphical user interface using GTK+ widgets.

	 o  provide a scripting mechanism, giving it the ability to customize how each application on the JDS desktop is handled by orca.

	 o  provide further customization on a per-user basis.

       orca  provides  a  set  of  its	own  keyboard commands.  Note that you can always enter orca's "learn mode" while running orca by pressing
       Insert+F1. When in learn mode, orca will intercept all keyboard and braille input events and will tell you what the effect  of  them  would
       be. To exit learn mode, press the escape key.

	 o  Commands for adjusting speech parameters

	    - Insert-right arrow

		increase speech rate

	    - Insert-left arrow

		decrease speech rate

	    - Insert-up arrow

		raise the pitch

	    - Insert-down arrow

		decrease the pitch

	 o  Flat review commands

	    - Numpad-7	    move the flat review cursor to the previous line, and read it.

	    - Numpad-8	    read the current line.

	    - Numpad-9	    move the flat review cursor to the next line, and read it.

	    - Numpad-4	    move the flat review cursor to the previous word, and read it.

	    - Numpad-5	    read the current word.

	    - Numpad-6	    move the flat review cursor to the next word, and read it.

	    - Numpad-1	    move the flat review cursor to the previous character, and read it.

	    - Numpad-2	    read the current character.

	    - Numpad-3	    move the flat review cursor to the next character, and read it.

	    - Numpad-slash  perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

	    - Numpad-star   perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Note:  the  above  commands  apply when working with objects as well as when working with text. For example, if the flat review cursor were
       positioned on a menu bar, pressing the read current line command would speak the names of all visible menus. Similarly, pressing read  next
       word  would  speak  the	object	to  the  right of the flat review cursor on the same line, or move flat review to the next line if no more
       objects were found.

	 o  Miscellaneous functions

	    - Insert-F1

		enter learn mode (press escape to exit)

	    - Insert-f

		speak font and attribute information for the current character.

	    - Insert-space

		launch the orca Configuration dialog.

	    - Insert-Control-space

		reload user settings and reinitialize services as necessary.

	    - Insert-s

		toggle speech on and off

	    - Insert-F11

		toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell, or whole row.

	    -Insert-q

		quit orca.

	 o  Commands for debugging

	    - Insert-F3     report information on the currently active script.

	    - Insert-F4     cycle through orca's various debug levels.

	    - Insert-F5     prints a debug listing of all known applications to the console where orca is running.

	    - Insert-F7     prints debug information about the ancestry of the object with focus.

	    - Insert-F8     prints debug information about the application with focus.

       Note, in order for the last three commands to be of use, orca needs to be started from a virtual console or via gnome-terminal.	Output	is
       sent to the console only (i.e., it is not sent to speech or braille).

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0	Application exited successfully

       1	Application exited with error

       2	orca cannot parse its command line options.

FILES

       The following files are used by this application:

       /usr/bin/orca		       orca executable

       ~/.orca/user-settings.py        user's personal configuration settings for orca

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWgnome-a11y-orca	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface stability	     |Volatile			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       attributes(5)

       orca online reference manual.

       Latest version of the GNOME Accessibility Guide for your platform.

       Latest version of the GNOME Desktop User Guide for your platform.5

NOTES

       Written by Rich Burridge, Sun Microsystems Inc., 2006, 2007.

SunOS 5.11							    12 Nov 2007 							   orca(1)