PDF version of this manual.

Introduction

This document is structured as follows:

launching a live session in accessibility mode

the Whisker menu

accessibility apps

visual and audio aids

sound management functions

accessibility utilities

mouse emulation functions

Launching the system in Live mode

This manual briefly introduces the first accessibility functions for the blind and partially sighted persons, that are now available in Emmabuntüs since the versions Debian Édition 6 1.00 and 5 1.05.

When you arrive on the Emmabuntüs GRUB main installation menu, you first see a list of options with their respective shortcuts in square brackets.
For example, pressing the I key will take you directly to the Italian sub-menu, and pressing Backspace will take you back to the main menu.
After the various language options there is now the Speech Synthesis On/Off option, whose shortcut is the letter S.

When you press the S key to activate this function, you will hear an audio indication that is none other than the letter S in Morse code (3 short beeps).

If you press the S key again, you will deactivate this voice synthesis function and you will hear the Morse code of O (3 long beeps).

We can then use the G shortcut to go to the English language sub-menu.

You will then hear an audio indication corresponding to the letter G in Morse code.

Finally, we’re going to use the T shortcut to try out Emmabuntüs in a live session and in accessibility mode. Here, too, you will be given audio information in the form of a familiar little melody.

Opening the accessibility interface

Now we wait for the system to finish loading, and once it has, the new accessibility feature will open a first window to allow blind and visually impaired users to configure the main settings for their environment.

The system will read the text located at the top of this window to inform blind and visually impaired users of the shortcuts they can use in this interface.

After that, this window will no longer be open, unless the user explicitly requests to change its configuration via the applications menu or the Alt Super A shortcut.

This window has three distinct tabs: Audio for blind users, Visual for partially sighted users, and a Help for both.

Accessibility interface, Audio tab

Note 1: For better visibility of images in the rest of this document and whenever possible, screenshots were taken using a dark theme and the Luciole font.

Note 2: There are three main actors that can speak: Orca, some Emmabuntüs functions themselves, and the e-book reader.

Each of these actors can speak with a different voice in order to maximize the user’s listening comfort depending on the context and their specific needs.

The very first feature that a blind user will need to activate is the Orca screen reader. To do this, as explained by the speech synthesizer, simply press the Alt Super O shortcut key so that the screen reader allows the blind user to navigate this accessibility window. When the user presses this shortcut, the system immediately informs them in audio mode. Please note, however, that activating Orca only applies to this window, and if you want Orca to be permanently activated, particularly when the system starts up, you will need to check the Activate Orca box, which is the first one on this tab.

The button below the Orca activation button shows us which speech synthesizer is currently activated (Svox Pico by default) and allows us to access its detailed configuration.

To somewhat simplify the life of blind users, this version of Emmabuntüs includes three predefined speech synthesis profiles, initialized with the voice corresponding to the system language. The default profile is Pico, when profile 1 is Mbrola, and profile 2 is espeak. You can use the shortcut Orca X to switch from one profile to the next.
Emmabuntüs sound information follows the default profile configuration, which must not be destroyed.
By going to the Voice tab, the user can change the speech synthesis of the active profile and its various settings.

Under the Orca configuration button, you will find the button for updating in parallel all profiles defined in Orca:

This window allows you to update all your profiles defined in Orca with the same global settings, as listed in this window, to ensure some consistency between the different speech synthesizers present in the system.

Next is the Piper button, which allows you to install this new speech synthesis and choose a language and one or more synthetic voices. Piper, although slower than the other synthesizers available, offers better diction and seems more appropriate for reading long texts with the eBook reader.

The first thing to do is to install Piper on your system since it’s not part of the distribution.

The installation process can take some time. Be patient.

The next thing to do is to select the language for this new speech synthesis, using the drop down list

Then by clicking on the small arrow to the left of a voice, you can listen to a short sample.

and once you have made your selection, press the Download button to download and install the selected voice.

then you have the options to trash it or can select it:

Now you are given one minute to check this new configuration and accept it, otherwise the system will revert to the previous configuration :

The next button in this audio tab will be used to define which voice synthesis you want to assign to the e-book reader. An empty entry will mean that you want to use the default system synthesis.

Back in the sound tab of the accessibility settings, below this fourth button are seven check-boxes with relatively standard options that should suit everyone, but users can always change them according their own needs. For example, you can uncheck the Internet Status Information option if you don’t want the system to inform you about your connection status every time you start your system up. Or you can uncheck the Updates Status option.

The last three check-boxes in this tab concern the activation of the Caja desktop, the activation of the Dock, and the activation of automatic connection.

Accessibility interface, Visual tab

This tab is primarily intended for visually impaired users and allows them to configure the additional accessibility features made available to them.

Here, actions are performed using the mouse, and if the user feels the need, they can immediately activate the Compiz magnifying glass to improve the visibility of this window. To do this, use the Alt Super C shortcut.

The change in appearance of the three buttons at the top right of the window indicates that Compiz has been successfully launched:

You can then zoom in using the Control Up Arrow shortcut, and zoom out using the Control Down Arrow shortcut.

The first thing a visually impaired person should do is activate the Compiz function, because even if it is currently active, it will no longer be active when they leave this window.

Once Compiz is activated, there is a button that allows you to access its detailed configuration settings.

Visually impaired users can click on the Modify Themes button to apply visual changes directly, see their effects immediately, and customize them more effectively.

Visually impaired users can then change the appearance of the cursor by selecting Maya-Orange, for example, and increase its size to 50.

You can also change the theme to [HighContrast] for a contrast that is more suitable for the visually impaired, choose another font [Luciole] from a list of fonts specifically selected for people with visual impairments, and possibly change the contrast of the icons.

Accessibility interface, Help tab

The upper part of this tab contains audio help, while the lower part contains visual help.

When you click on an audio help item, the ebook-speaker application launches and the system reads aloud the text of the requested help.

The H key displays the keyboard shortcuts, where you will see, for example, that the Space bar allows you to pause or resume listening.

At the bottom of this Help tab, you will find buttons to display the various help files in PDF format in a Firefox window.

Accessibility interface, validation

Once you have finished configuring the accessibility interface, you will need to click on the OK button at the bottom right of this window to ensure that your configuration is taken into account.

The Compiz magnifying glass

If Compiz is running, visually impaired users can use the magnifying glass by repeatedly pressing Control Up Arrow to increase the zoom and then, for example, open the applications menu using the button at the very top left of the screen.

In this zoom configuration, the Whisker menu occupies the full height of the screen.

Sound volume

A number of keyboard shortcuts have been added in this accessibility version, particularly for listening. One of them, for example, is the Alt Shift Up Arrow shortcut, which will increase the volume by 10%, and the system will immediately inform us in audio mode of this action on the volume strength.

This is thanks to the audio information function that we have activated in the interface to make it easier for blind people to use the machine.

If the user does not wish to have this audio information, they can return to the configuration interface and untick this option. In our example, by pressing the Alt Shift Up Arrow shortcut again, the sound volume will be increased by 10%, but the user will no longer have the audio information relating to the execution of this command.

And to shut down the system, simply use the Alt S shortcut.

The Caja desktop

One of the accessibility features is to use the Caja desktop instead of the traditional xfdesktop desktop in the Xfce environment.

In this desktop configuration, you can type a letter on the keyboard to bring up the first icon beginning with that letter, then use the navigation arrows on the keyboard to browse the others, and Orca will read the name of the selected icon each time.

To take full advantage of this feature, you can create shortcuts on the desktop that point to the commands you want to launch quickly.

To do this, simply navigate in Whisker (Super S) to the desired command, then open the context menu by pressing the menu key or Shift F10 and select the Add to Desktop command.

Here, the calculator icon in accessibility mode landed on the desktop, and typing the letter C on the keyboard will automatically select it.

If there are several icon names beginning with the same letter on the desktop at that moment, you will need to navigate a little to find it.

Places

At the top left of the screen, in the taskbar, there are buttons that open either the Whisker Applications menu (Super S) or the Places menu (Shift F6), which is actually a list of important and directly accessible folders.

The Places menu allows you to navigate directly to the folders that are most important to the user, with Orca reading the name of each folder as you go down the list

Whisker menu

In order not to confuse old users too much, the Whisker menu remains unchanged when the system is not in accessibility mode, and presents its classic category grouping together accessibility applications, some of which will be detailed later in this document, whereas the Accessibility Configuration panel was detailed earlier when the live session was opened.

Please note that all entries in the right-hand column are immediately accessible via a shortcut labeled with the name of the application.

This is true when neither Orca nor Compiz is activated. However, if one of these two functions is active, the system switches to accessibility mode and the Whisker menu will now present three new categories relating specifically to accessibility functions.

The visual and audio aids category :

The category of functions relating to sound volume :

and finally the utilities category, which will be described in more detail later in this document:

Accessibility software

Configuring accessibility

The Accessibility configuration panel can be accessed by navigating to :

Menu → Accessibility → Accessibility configuration

or simply by using the keyboard shortcut Alt Super A

This window is used to configure Orca and Compiz settings, and is detailed above when the system is first started.

Orca screen reader

Orca is a free and open-source, flexible, extensible screen reader from the GNOME project for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Using various combinations of speech synthesis and braille, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop, Mozilla Firefox/Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice and GTK, Qt and Java Swing/SWT applications).

Orca is used to read aloud the user interface on the screen or to read it in Braille with a refreshable display.

The Orca Settings Manager can be opened by typing the shortcut Alt Super S :

This window proposes 8 tabs for adjusting Orca’s many parameters:

General :

Allows you to adjust a number of general settings, such as time and date formats, and to save and reload your user profile.

Voice :

gives access to the system’s voice settings. Among other things, you can adjust the type, language, speed, pitch and volume of the voice.

Text-to-speech :

Allows you to define the voice synthesis, verbosity, punctuation level and various spoken context options

Braille :

defines the interface parameters with the Braille reader. Not currently activated by default in Emmabuntüs

Echo:

Determines whether keyboard events are echoed.

Keyboard shortcuts :

defines all the keyboard shortcuts available in Orca

Pronunciation :

modifies or corrects the way certain words are pronounced.

For example, if the word echo is mispronounced, it can be replaced by eko.

Text attributes :

defines which text attributes will be read by Orca

Compiz screen graphic accessibility function

Compiz is a free composite window manager for the X server desktop environment, and in particular for Linux distributions. Compiz provides visual effects to improve the user-friendliness of graphical environments. It includes accessibility options that may be of interest to the visually impaired.

You can open the Compiz accessibility settings manager by typing the shortcut Alt Super Z :

This manager includes 8 categories that allow you to create very sophisticated graphic effects, but we will limit ourselves here to the Accessibility category, which offers the following options:

ADD Helper, which makes it easier to concentrate by darkening everything except the active window

Show Pointer, which increases the visibility of the pointer

Options for adjusting opacity, brightness and saturation

Enhanced desktop zoom for the visually impaired

Color filter options

Negative screen or window option

The option to highlight the word being read by the screen reader

Shortcuts for the magnification box

Opacity shortcuts

Zoom shortcuts

Firefox the Internet navigator

Firefox, the well-known web browser embedded in Emmabuntüs, can also be used to read aloud the content of the page displayed.

For example, we’ll open Firefox using, for example, the shortcut Super W and go to the emmabuntus.org/accessibilite page.

Firefox displays the requested page normally.

Now use the shortcut Control Alt R to ask Firefox to switch to easy reading mode. Firefox then changes the presentation of the page and Orca begins to read the page aloud. You can stop the reading by using the Escape key.

Then press N to start reading in a more comfortable mode that omits anything that is not essential to understanding the text.

On the left there is a listen button to stop or restart playback, arrows to go back to the previous sentence or jump to the next, and a slider to change the playback speed. As Orca tends to speak over the Firefox reader, you can use the Insert S shortcut on a desktop computer (Caps Lock S on a laptop) to stop it.

Within this voice management dialog, a drop-down menu allows you to choose your reading language:

We note that with this theme, Firefox reader highlights the sentence it is reading.

Finally, the Aa button can be used only to change the appearance of the text

Emmabuntüs includes another Firefox extension: Read Aloud – which is only available with an Internet connection.

First we’ll open the Emmabuntüs page on Wikipedia in English, then we’ll launch the Read Aloud function using the Alt P shortcut.

This time you’ll notice that the speech synthesis omits certain non-essential parts of the text, such as references to notes or brackets and even mentions of links, which greatly improves the listening comfort during the reading.

Note: you can jump to the next paragraph using the Alt Up Arrow keys or return to the previous paragraph using Alt Down Arrow.

What’s more, this speech synthesis is of better quality than the Svox Pico synthesis that comes as standard with Emmabuntüs, and it adapts to the language in which the page being visited is written.

For example, if we open the same Wikipedia article but in Greek :

You will hear the page read out in perfect Greek, at least for those who understand the language.

This feature is particularly interesting because it allows you to read Internet pages in languages that – by default – are not embedded in the Emmabuntüs voice synthesizer. You can even try out Russian or Chinese and you’ll hear that it works very well!

A final feature of this extension, which unfortunately cannot be accessed with a simple keyboard shortcut, is the visual highlighting of text. Before activating it, first switch off the Orca synthesizer with the Insert S shortcut (Caps Lock S on laptop), then press the Read Aloud icon in the Firefox toolbar. A sub-window will then open displaying the paragraph being read in overexposure:

Here too you can use the Alt Up or Down Arrow shortcuts to go back to the previous paragraph or jump to the next.

To exit Firefox, the classic Alt F4 will do just fine.

Kiwix offline encyclopedia reader

Kiwix is an open-source software package for offline access to certain educational content on the Web. Kiwix uses zim files, which by default must reside in the /usr/share/Documentation_emmabuntus/Documents/zim/ directory.

By default, only the French-language Ékopédia encyclopedia is available.

This application uses the Kiwix server version with Firefox to access accessibility functions, and is launched from the Applications Menu, Accessibility category, or directly using the Alt Super K shortcut:

This action launches a script which in turn starts the Kiwix server and then opens Firefox directly on the only zim file found, and Orca starts reading aloud the content of this Ékopédia welcome page.
You can stop Orca reading by pressing the Escape key.

At the top of this window are three buttons and the search box:

Shortcuts to these functions have been introduced to help the visually impaired. Here, for example, is Alt Shift S to access the search box. Type the letters C O L I B in this field, and a list of articles will open up. Use the Down Arrow key to scroll down to the title you want, and of course Orca will inform you at every stage of the article you have selected:

Then press Enter to load the page you selected :

Back to the Kiwix top bar.

The button on the left takes you to the Kiwix welcome page,
shortcut is Alt Shift W

The middle button takes you to the home page of the encyclopedia,
in this case Ékopédia, shortcut is Alt Shift N

The right button is used to load a random page,

shortcut is Alt Shift D

Here, the random article button took us to the Radioactivity article, which Orca will start reading, but in a rather verbose and unpleasant way.

Another way to read an article is to use the Firefox Reader View extension, which works well in this case with EmmaDE5, but absolutely not with EmmaDE6.

To do this, use the Alt X shortcut, which will reopen the page in Firefox with a more spacious layout that will allow you to really focus on reading the article.

To start or stop reading, use the Control Shift S shortcut or Shift S on laptop

Pressing Alt X again will exit this reading mode and return to the classic Kiwix page.

If there are several zim files in the Kiwix default folder, the launch script will start Firefox on the Kiwix main page and the user will be able to choose their encyclopedia using the Tab key and Orca will inform us aloud about the contents of each box encountered:

Audio reader eBooks

The eBook-speaker program reads aloud e-books, other text formats and even scanned documents using text-to-speech software.

By default, the eSpeak tool is used for text-to-speech. The eBook-speaker program can also scan a document itself using the scanimage application.

When eBook-speaker is launched, for example using the Alt Super B shortcut, it first displays a file manager terminal window to let you navigate down to the file you want to read:

In this first window, we start by seeing the list of authors in the left-hand panel and their available books displayed on the right.

You can use the Down Arrow key to go to the next folder or Up Arrow to go back to the previous one.

The Right Arrow take you down into the selected folder.

The Left Arrow move you up into the parent folder:

We will click Enter once to select the book.

Then press Enter a second time to start reading this book with eBook-speaker.

You can exit this file browser by pressing the letter Q.

When your ePub file is selected press Enter to start reading it.
Here, too, you can use the Up or Down arrows to navigate through the chapters and Enter to start playback of the selected chapter.

Orca will, of course, tell you out loud what’s happening on the screen, but you can use the Escape key to stop it:

The program then reads the text aloud, displaying the line being read at the bottom of the window and indicating the number of lines already read and the number of lines left.

The Space bar stop and restart the reading.

At the end of a chapter the program automatically moves on to the next chapter and when the book is finished it returns to the parent folder.

You can use the Q shortcut to quit this application.

Calibre ePub book reader in audio mode

Calibre in read-aloud mode can be launched by navigating through Whisker or, more simply, using the Super C shortcut.

Please note: this application is not accessible as it does not have any shortcuts.

calibre (with a lower-case c) is an open-source digital library management program for converting, cataloging, editing and displaying digital books in the main formats available.

Its main functions are digital library management, converting digital books into various formats, modifying book code, synchronizing with reading devices, downloading articles from the web and converting them into digital books, viewing books, and online access to a collection of books via the content server.

TuxTyping learning to use the keyboard

Tux Typing is a free and open source typing tutor created especially for children.

This application can be launched with the Alt Super T shortcut.

It features several different types of game play, with a variety of difficulty levels. It is designed to be fun and to improve words per minute speed of typists.

A training mode helps you learn the basics of typing. There are also two games: the first involves making fish fall from the sky with a letter or word written on them. When the player presses the corresponding key or types the appropriate word, Tux moves into position to eat the fish. The second game is similar, but the aim is to stop comets falling on a city. When a comet falls on the city, the shield is removed, and if the city is hit again without the shield, it disappears. If it is hit by a comet while the city is destroyed, points will be deducted. In both games, different languages can be selected as word sources.

Note : With Emmabuntüs DE 6, TuxTyping cannot run in accessibility mode.

Elograf voice dictation

Elograf is dictation software that uses offline voice recognition. It is important to note that during dictation, no information is sent outside the system.

This function is launched with the Alt Super E shortcut.

An icon in the shape of a microphone, unfortunately not very visible, has been created in the dashboard to indicate that this function is active.

You can then, for example, open the Geany text editor, using the Alt Super G shortcut, and all you have to do is say a sentence into the microphone for it to be written in the Geany window, modulo errors of interpretation.

Evince

Evince is a P D F file reader. To use it in accessibility mode, Orca must of course be active and the file must not be a pdf-image.

To launch it, use the shortcut Control Super E

Remember: the Super key is also known as the Windows key

To open a file, press Control O and navigate the file system to find the file you want to read, then press Enter to open it.

Evince opens and displays this P D F file with the list of paragraphs in the side panel

This side panel can be closed by pressing the F9 function key.

You can use the F8 function key to read either the window header or the first page of the document.

Then use the F7 key to switch to navigation mode with the sweeping cursor, also known as the caret.

To read a single character, use the Right Arrow key, and the Left Arrow key to go backwards.

Similarly, use the Control Right Arrow shortcuts to read a word and Control Left Arrow to go back one word.

To read the whole document, use the KP Plus key. You can stop playback by pressing the Space bar and resume at the same point by pressing KP Plus again.

K D E Connect

KDE Connect is a project that allows all your devices to communicate with each other. In particular, it connects your cell phone to your computer.
Here are a few examples of what KDE Connect can do:

• Receive notifications from your phone on your desktop computer and reply to messages.
• Check your phone’s battery level from your computer.
• Ring your phone to help you find it.
• Share files and links between the two devices.
• Send text messages from your computer.

More information on the KDE Connect website

The first thing you need to do from your phone is request a connection to your computer.

Click the Accept button to pair the two devices.

You can then open the KDE Connect application either via Whisker or by using the shortcut Control Alt K.

The window that opens provides you with controls and actions that you can use directly.
For example, if we select Find Device

Your smartphone will ring until you press the Found it button.

By going to the module configuration tab, you can fine-tune the settings for this connection.

Another interesting feature is that in accessibility mode, the computer will read aloud the content of emails or WhatsApp messages that you receive on your smartphone.

Daisy reader

Files in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) format are often described as “digital talking books”. Many people have DAISY books on CDs, which are ordinary discs but cannot be played on standard stereo systems. DAISY audio-books listen like other audio-books on CD, but users can also search, bookmark, navigate from line to line and control speech speed without causing distortion.
The Daisy player is available in two versions. A CD-ROM drive and a Daisy format file residing on the system’s hard disk.

Daisy Disk reader

Open the Whisker applications menu and in the Accessibility category choose Daisy Disk Drive to open a book on your hard drive:

If there is only one file in Daisy format in its directory on the hard disk, the player will open it immediately. All these operations are of course also announced aloud.
In our case we have several files in Daisy book format and the utility will first open a window so that you can select one of these files:

Simply navigate this window using the Up and Down arrows, then when the book you want is selected, press the O key to open it.

The reader begins by reading the information about the book and then the contents of the book itself. Note that this time it is a human voice that is heard, not Orca’s synthetic voice. This is the voice of the person who was recorded reading the book aloud.

Because Orca is active, it sometimes tends to interfere with the voice reading the book, but the Escape key can be used to stop it.
To stop or resume Daisy reading, use the Space key, and here too the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys are used to move around the structure of the book. For example, you can scroll down to chapter 2 and press Enter to start reading there.

The list of all the commands available in this utility can be consulted in the detailed shortcuts document.
To exit the Daisy player before the end of the book, press the Q key. In the case of multiple Daisy files, the selection window will reopen and you can either select another book or use the Q key to exit the Daisy player definitively.
Note that when you reopen a book that is not yet finished, playback resumes exactly where you left off.

Daisy CD-ROM reader

This time we choose the Daisy CD-ROM Drive utility from the applications menu.

The Daisy utility will test whether there is a disc in the drive, and then whether this disc is in the correct Daisy CD-ROM format. Here too, the operations are announced aloud.
If everything is OK, the player will open the book directly and we will find ourselves in the situation described in the previous paragraph, i.e. all we have to do now is listen and, if necessary, navigate through the structure of the book.

Gnome calculator

The Gnome calculator can be launched using the Control Super C shortcut.
On a desktop computer with a keyboard that includes a numeric keypad, the numeric lock will be automatically activated to enable the visually impaired to use it immediately, without having to press another key.

All you have to do is enter the operations using this numeric keypad, bearing in mind that the multiplication sign is the asterisk and the division sign is the slash.
For example, if you type the sequence: 1 2 3 * 4 8 / 3 the calculator will perform the operations 123 multiplied by 48 and the intermediate result divided by 3.
Press the Enter key on the alphabetic keypad to display the result, and Orca will automatically read the result.

Pressing the Enter key again recalls the previous operation, which is also read by Orca:
Note 1: Pressing the Enter key on the numeric keypad does not cause Orca to read the result or the previous operation when pressed a second time.
Note 2: The Up and Down arrows force Orca to reread the result, while the Right and Left arrows cause it to reread one character at a time.

Note: Pressing the Enter key on the numeric keypad has the same effects, except that does Orca does not read the result nor the previous operation when pressed a second time.
To clear the entry area use the Escape key and to clear the history use the Control Escape combination.

Refer to the full version of the list of shortcuts for all the operations available in this utility.

To exit, press Alt F4, and note that the digital lock will return to the state it was in when this tool was launched.

Ocrizer, an O C R scanner

Ocrizer is a utility that lets you scan a document, then perform an O C R optical character recognition on it and finally open the LibreOffice Writer application to display the recognized text.

To launch this utility you can either use the Alt Super R shortcut or go to
Menu → Accessibility then click on Scan and OCRize :

In the following example, we have connected a scanner printer to our system and placed the test page from the printer itself on the scanner glass:

When the utility is launched, the first message appears at the top right of the screen:

And then the following messages :

 

 

 

 

Finally, OpenOffice Writer opens, displaying the text that the Ocrizer utility has managed to extract from the digitized page:

L I O S : Linux Intelligent O C R Solution

To launch this application, you can either use the Whisker Accessibility menu and then the L I O S command, or the shortcut Control Alt L.

L I O S is a graphical optical character recognition application.
It is a comprehensive solution for converting printed text into digital format using scanners, cameras, or existing images. Its main features are:

• Import images from scanners, PDF files, folders, or webcams
• Support for multiple OCR engines (Tesseract and Cuneiform)
• Built-in Tesseract trainer to improve OCR accuracy
• Text-to-speech functionality with audio conversion
• Spell checking and dictionary support
• PDF export options with text or images
• Advanced scanner brightness optimization
• Side-by-side display of original images and recognized text

For example, you can load an image file, display it in the top panel, have it recognized by L I O S as Page-1 in our example and displayed in the panel at the bottom.

Note: L I O S tends to change the appearance of the cursor (by vertical symmetry) permanently, even after exiting the application. But this is obviously not a problem for blind users.

L I O S OCR Screenshot

Application similar to L I O S, which can be opened by using the Control Alt S shortcut .
This application first takes a screenshot before opening a message asking if you want to recognize the imported images directly, with the option to delete the previous text.

In this example, we launched L I O S screenshot on the Caja desktop screen of our Emmabuntüs session, and the recognized text corresponds to the icon names located on the desktop at that precise moment.

NatBraille, a Braille transcriber

Please note: NatBraille is not accessible to blind users on Linux, and is therefore intended for caregivers.
NatBraille is a free Braille transcription and de-transcription software package developed at LIRIS laboratory.
It has been designed to enable a novice user to produce transcriptions quickly and easily without needing to know Braille.

NAT can be used to transcribe and format :
literary texts in full or abbreviated Braille
mathematical content
chemistry

NAT can de-transcribe Braille texts containing literary expressions into full Braille and mathematics.
NAT can also emboss documents, manage the abbreviated rules to be applied (partial abbreviated rules are possible when learning them in class) and the Braille cut-off.
The software offers a wide range of options and settings to suit a very wide audience. It has an interactive de-transcription editor for use in class and a simple editor for editing transcriptions.

The current version handles :

• Documents in text format
• LibreOffice documents
• Unaltered Microsoft Word documents (doc and docx) if LibreOffice
  is installed on your machine
• Simple HTML documents that comply with standards
• Text documents in Braille for reverse transcription (Braille to black).

To access the NatBraille window, go to :
Menu → Accessibility → NatBraille GUI

Unfortunately, NatBraille starts with a French display. To turn it into English the first time, navigate to Menu → Options or use the Control O shortcut :

In the Options window, select the Accessibilité tab, then English in the language drop dow list, and then press the Enregistrer (Record) button :

Then you have to quit NatBraille, using Control F4 shortcut for example,
and re-open it.
The main window now displays almost all the texts in English.

In this window , simply use the Control E shortcut to enter the source file in black, the Control S shortcut to enter the destination file in Braille and the Control T shortcut to start transcription.

At the end of the transcription operation, an editing window opens and you can edit the xml code located in the left-hand panel of this window.

If you have an embosser device, which is not the case here, you can go to File → Emboss or use the Control E shortcut to start the operation:

 

Visual and audio aids

We have seen that the help functions are accessible via the Whisker menu, Accessibility Help category, but they can also be invoked via keyboard shortcuts.
For example :

Audio help for accessibility, Alt Super H
Visual help for accessibility, Alt Super V
Audio help for shortcuts, compact version, Control Super S
Visual help for shortcuts compact version, Control Super V
Audio help for shortcuts full version, Control Alt Super S
Visual help for shortcuts full version, Control Alt Super V

Sound management functions

Audio output functions

These functions control the level of the sound output, whether from the speakers or headphones. The most common functions are :

Increase volume by 10%, Alt Shift Up Arrow
Decreases the volume by 10%, Alt Shift Down Arrow
Mute output volume, Alt Shift Left Arrow
Activates output volume, Alt Shift Right Arrow

Audio input functions

These functions control the level of the input sound, i.e. that of the microphone.

Increase volume by 10%, Alt Super Up Arrow
Decreases the volume by 10%, Alt Super Down Arrow
Closes the microphone, Alt Super Left Arrow
Opens the microphone, Alt Super Right Arrow

Accessibility utilities

Enable startup beep

This feature can be enabled using the Alt Shift B shortcut.

Emmabuntüs will play a beep during startup to alert blind users.
The system must be restarted for this option to take effect.

The Control Alt Shift C shortcut will have the opposite effect, disabling the startup beep.

Accessible desktop

This function can be activated with the Super D shortcut.

The Desktop folder will open in a Caja window, which can be navigated in audio mode by either typing the first letter of an application or using the Up and Down navigation arrows to select an application and then launching it with the Enter key.

Internet connection test

Launch this function using the Alt Super X shortcut to find out whether or not the Internet is active.

The system indicates in audio mode whether the Internet is active or not.
This command is useful when the Internet Status Information option is disabled in the Accessibility control panel.

Function key test

Use the Alt Super M shortcut to launch this function.
In audio mode, the system indicates whether :

Caps Lock is activated or not
Numeric keypad lock is on or off
Scroll lock is on or off

In addition, the system warns us that if we launch Orca’s learning mode, we must first unlock the numeric keypad, otherwise we won’t be able to use its help.

System updates

Launch this function using the Alt Super U shortcut.

It starts by telling us: Starting system update.

If all packages are up to date, it will inform us.

Otherwise, it will start the installation automatically without any user intervention. However, every fifteen seconds, the utility will tell us:
Update in progress, please do not turn off your computer.

And, at the end of the operation, it should also tell us:
System upgrade successful.

Nmtui Wifi configuration

You can launch this function with the Alt Super N shortcut.
This utility lets you easily configure your computer’s connection to the Internet.

In our example, we are going to activate a new connection.
Down arrow to go to the Activate a connection line, then Enter

 

Up or Down arrow to select the network, then Enter

Finally, enter the password for this network and press the Enter key to complete the settings.

Screen capture

You can launch this function with the shortcut Alt Super Y.
To help visually impaired or blind people remotely, we suggest using the free imgbb.com website.

The Emmabuntüs distribution is preset to use the Emmabuntüs account on the imgbb.com site, enabling the collective to help people using this version without changes. The end user does not need to worry about this.
The following paragraph explains how to create a personalized imgbb account for associations or individuals who want to deploy adapted Emmabuntüs distributions to visually impaired or blind people and manage their support directly.
So, for the strict purposes of this document and by way of example, we have created the Emmacces account on the imgbb.com website.

In order to automate the screen capture and its upload to this account, we first need to edit the config_imgbb file located in the folder :
/home/<user>/.config/emmabuntus
and enter the following three values:

api_key=”123abcdef456dead789″
expiration_delay=”3600″
delay_capture=”4″

where api_key is the key retrieved from the api.imgbb.com page, expiration_delay is the number of seconds after which the image will be destroyed on the imgbb.com site and delay_capture is the waiting time before the capture is made, for example to allow the user to position the cursor where they wish.

So in our example, by pressing Alt Super Y, the system will automatically take a screen capture and send it to the emmaccess.imgbb.com page.
and if we are in audio mode, we will hear the system say in succession :

screen shot in 4 seconds
screen shot now
screen shot sent to server
screen shot sent successfully

and looking at emmaccess.imgbb.com

you can see on this page that the image has arrived there.

Index Braille printer configuration

This utility can be launched with the Alt Super B shortcut and allows you to connect an Index Braille printer to the system.
See the appendix for instructions on how to set up this printer in audio mode.

Volume control

This utility can be launched with the Shift F5 shortcut and allows you to configure all of the system’s audio functions.

Here, for example, are the playback streams in the first tab:

You can first move between tabs using the tab key, then press Enter to start browsing through the different items and use the left or right arrow keys to adjust the volume levels.

Turn off background wallpapers at startup

You can invoke this function with the Whisker accessibility utilities

This action will remove the display of background images that are shown successively when the system starts up and which may be distracting for people with visual impairments.

This feature can be reactivated in Whisker with the Restore startup backgrounds command.

Remote control with D W Agent

This function enables the computer to be remotely controlled to help a user facing some difficulties.
To launch this function, use the Alt Super W shortcut.

A terminal window will open, start the D W Service agent, then display the user code and password for the session.

The user must now communicate this information to the carer, but there is a difficulty if the user is blind. To get round this problem, we’re going to use the automatic sending of a screen capture: Alt Super Y

The supporting person will be able to see on the imgbb site that the capture has safely arrived, and by double-clicking on the image she will be able to read all the details on how to connect: to the remote system :

You can use Control C to close the terminal window.

Eject a USB flash drive

Launch this function with the shortcut Shift F8.

You can use the Up and Down arrows to select a key, then the Space bar to check the box of your choice, then Tab to move to the Cancel and Confirm buttons. The system will announce the result of the action.
Note: When a USB key is inserted and the system automatically mounts it, it will inform you aloud and generate a beep.

Keyboard settings

This utility allows you to change keyboard settings.
It can be launched using the shortcut Shift F7.

It appears as a window with three tabs:

 

Ventoy bootable USB key creator

This utility allows you to create a bootable U S B flash drive (a.k.a U S B key) on which you will be able later on to add ISO files.

To launch it, once you have inserted a U S B key in your system, use the Control Super K shortcut and you will see it run in a Terminal window:

Here Ventoy has found a USB flash drive, but it’s not formatted correctly.
To continue, press Y or any other key (space bar, for example).

As the operation will destroy the current contents of the drive, the system asks you to confirm that you agree.

Here we’ll type Y again and the script will run, with Orca keeping us informed of the progress of the operation:

Press any key to exit.
If we now run this utility again, the script informs us that the key is up to date:

Mouse emulation functions

In the visual tab of accessibility functions panel, you can activate mouse emulation.

The drop down list propose 3 choices :

By default, this emulation is disabled, but you can select the Numeric Keypad option or the Mouse Tweaks option, then click the OK button to validate your choice.

Mouse Tweaks

The hover click works as follows: as soon as the mouse stops moving for a couple of seconds over a clickable object, the pointer aspect changes rapidly, and the previously selected action is performed.

This function will be useful for people who can move the mouse but cannot press its buttons to perform a traditional click.

When this function is active, a small window opens up on the screen and lets you choose the next action to be taken: single click, double click, press and hold (for drag and drop to follow) and finally right click.

In this short example, we move the mouse down over the Secondary Click option. After a short moment, the pointer changes aspect and a mouse click is simulated, which is equivalent to selecting the Secondary Click. This action will be performed the next time the mouse stops moving.

Then, if we move the mouse over the Documents icon in the Thunar window

We hold the mouse still, and after a brief moment, a right-click will be emulated and the context menu corresponding to this folder will open

Note that as soon as an action is performed, the next option will always automatically revert to a Single Click.

To exit this operating mode, return to the accessibility functions panel and deactivate mouse emulation.

Numeric keypad

There is another solution for people who cannot use a mouse but are able to press a keyboard button: mouse emulation using the numeric keypad.
To achieve this, go to the accessibility functions panel and select the Numeric Keypad option in the mouse emulation field, then click on the Activate button:

In this configuration, you can move the cursor around the screen and emulate mouse clicks using certain keys on the numeric keypad, which is also disabled in this mode.

Below is an example of the possibilities of a numeric keypad where the keys are used to move the pointer or emulate right or left clicks:

Mouse movements :

• 4 → left
• 6 → right
• 8 → up
• 2 → down
• 7 → NW
• 9 → NE
• 3 → SE
• 1 → SW

And finally the two clicks :

• key 5 → left click
• key + → right click

If you hold down a movement key, you’ll notice that the movement is accelerated, and even if the pointer moves orthogonally or diagonally, you can cover the whole screen fairly quickly.

Appendix A

Recommended settings for the Index Everest D V5 embossing device.

Note : This information has been kindly provided by Stéphane Vincent.

On the Index brand braille printer, specifically the Everest D model, version number 5, perform the following steps:

1. Press the Menu button.
The embosser will then say: Open the menu;

2. Press the Down Arrow key twice (slowly) until you hear: Braille layout.
Then press the Right Arrow key.
The printer will then say: Change active layout 1.
Press the Right Arrow key to continue;

3. The speech synthesizer will say the phrase Standard Assistant.
Press OK to begin.
This is precisely the action we will perform to continue with the specific settings related to embossing (via LibreOffice, for example) in Emmabuntüs.
It should also be noted that for each of the steps mentioned below, the speech synthesis integrated into the embosser will announce:
– The term: Select, each time you enter an option using the OK button;
– The message: Value changed, each time an option has been previously reconfigured.

4. The machine directly states the first option, namely: Paper size: Europe, A3, Portrait;

5. Press the OK button once to change this value, then press the Up Arrow button three times until you hear A4, Portrait. Paper width: 210 millimeters. Paper length: 297 millimeters.
Press the OK button again to confirm;

6. Then press the Right Arrow button.
The printer will say Print Type.
Press the OK button.
The selected option is Double-sided Brochure.
Press the Down Arrow button twice until you hear Front, then press the OK button;

7. Press the right arrow twice.
The printer announces Braille transcription table: English, European, Uncontracted Braille.
Press the OK button, then slowly press the down arrow ten times until you hear French Unified, and confirm again with the OK button.
The machine will then say Computer six dots version two.
Press the OK button to confirm;

8. Press the right arrow twice.
The embosser says Lines per page: twenty-nine lines.
Then press the OK button to confirm.
The printer will then say Change. Lines per page: twenty-nine lines.
Press the Down Arrow button twice.
The printer will say Twenty-seven lines.
Confirm this selection using the OK button.
The message Value changed will then be announced;

9. Press the Right Arrow key once.
You will hear Top margin: zero lines.
First press OK, then press the Down Arrow key twice until you hear One line, then press the OK button to confirm your choice;

10. Press the Right Arrow key again.
The printer reads the Braille Page Number option: No Page Number.
Press OK, then press the Down Arrow key three times until you hear Page Number at the top right, and confirm this change with OK;

11. Press the right arrow again.
The machine announces Characters per line: thirty-five characters.
Press OK to Edit.
Then press the down arrow three times until you hear Thirty-two characters, then confirm with OK;

12. Press the right arrow key repeatedly.
The printer will say Binding margin: zero characters.
Press the down arrow key twice until you hear Two characters, then press OK to confirm;

13. Press the right arrow key one last time.
The machine will say: Wizard complete. Press OK to save or On to cancel.
We will therefore confirm all the changes here by pressing the OK button;

14. The machine will then say the following three messages in a single sentence:
Save settings. Page layout 1. Exit menu.

15. That’s it, congratulations! You’re done…

Colophon

Emmabuntüs collective : emmabuntus.org

Creative Common Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0 FR):
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

The typeface in this document is Luciole by Laurent Bourcellier & Jonathan
Perez (CC BY license), which has been designed, with great care, around
a dozen specific criteria to allow the best possible reading experience
for the visually impaired persons : www.luciole-vision.com