How to use the Orca screen reader in Linux

I received an email recently from a reader asking for help. Being legally blind and not a fan of Windows, he needed to know if Linux had a screen reader to assist him. Fortunately, the answer to that question was “yes”. The GNOME and Plasma desktops both include support for the feature, so there’s very little in the way of setup.

The app in question is called Orca, a free, open-source screen reader capable of reading anything on the desktop. Orca is an underlying system that works in conjunction with applications and toolkits. An app that supports the Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI) will function with Orca.

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As I mentioned, with the GNOME desktop, there’s very little in the way of setup for the Orca screen reader. There’s also a command line tool but it’s not nearly as easy to use as the GUI.

Before I continue, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the voice included with Orca does take some getting used to. As someone who doesn’t depend on accessibility tools, I’m not used to the cadence and tone of the synthesized voices. If you are accustomed to them, you probably won’t have much of an issue.

And now, let me show you how to use Orca.

How to enable Orca on GNOME

What you’ll need: To use Orca, you’ll need a Linux distribution with either the GNOME or Plasma desktop. First, we’ll deal with GNOME.

The first thing to do is log in to GNOME and open the Settings application. From within Settings, click on Accessibility.

From within Accessibility, you’ll see the Screen Reader entry. Click the entry and a popup will appear. Next, click the On/Off slider until it’s in the On position. You should immediately hear the Orca voice read what currently has focus (which will be the On/Off popup).

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Once Orca reads aloud, you can close the popup and the Settings apps. Now, when you click on any window, Orca will read the contents within the app.

The GNOME Settings window. — Although you can enable the screen reader from here, you’ll have to configure it from another app.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

To disable Orca, return to Settings > Accessibility, click the Screen Reader entry, and switch the On/Off switch to the Off position. You can also enable the Accessibility Menu, which gives you quick access to enable/disable any accessibility features from the GNOME system tray.

To access the Orca configuration on GNOME, open the terminal window and type:

This step will open a window, where you can configure general, voice, speech, braille, echo, and several other options. Once you’ve changed the configuration, click OK to save and dismiss the window.

The GNOME Orca Settings window. — The Orca Settings app in GNOME can be accessed from the command line.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

How to enable Orca on Plasma

Although Plasma includes the Screen Reader interface, you have to install Orca before it will function. To do that, open a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install orca -y

If you’re using a Fedora-based distribution, the command is:

Open the Settings app and click Accessibility. In the resulting window, click Screen Reader and click Enable Screen Reader.

The Plasma Settings window. — Plasma gives you quick access to the Orca Settings app.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

After you’ve enabled the Screen Reader, click Launch Orca Screen Reader Configuration. Here you can configure several options, such as the keyboard layout, mouse, time/date, profiles, voice type, speech system, verbosity, and more.

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Once you’ve made any configuration changes, click OK and you’re done. Make sure to click Apply on the Accessibility window and then close Settings.