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I am wanting to install a screen reader for TAILS and/or Whonix.

Here is the project: https://github.com/GNOME/orca

Here are Dependencies

Orca v3.39.x is supported on GNOME 3.39.x only. We highly suggest 
you use the latest releases of GNOME because they contain accessibility infrastructure and application bug fixes 
that help Orca work better.
Orca also has the following dependencies:
    •   Python - Python platform (minimum version 3.3)
    •   pygobject-3.0 - Python bindings for the GObject library
    •   gtk+-3.0 - GTK+ toolkit
    •   json-py - a JSON (https://json.org/) reader and writer in Python
    •   python-speechd - Python bindings for Speech Dispatcher (optional)
    •   BrlTTY - BrlTTY (https://mielke.cc/brltty/) support for braille (optional)
    •   BrlAPI - BrlAPI support for braille (optional)
    •   liblouis - Liblouis (http://liblouis.org/) support for contracted braille (optional)
    •   py-setproctitle - Python library to set the process title (optional)
    •   gstreamer-1.0 - GStreamer - Streaming media framework (optional)
YOU ALSO NEED THE LATEST AT-SPI2, PYATSPI2 AND ATK FOR THE GNOME 3.39.x RELEASES. THEY CONTAIN VERY IMPORTANT BUG FIXES!

——— I am totally blind and do not need any support for Briel. I just need a minimal install that gets these operating systems working and useable for me. Using just the CLI: what is the quickest way for me to relay the instructions of installation above? I’m assuming they may or may not have Git, so will I need to use wget? I’m fairly certain this should be a pretty simple install?

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  • Reading the post, I hope it was not confusing I included the dependencies for braille even though I do not need braille. It seems I only need to install mostly orca, python and GNOME, right? Commented Dec 26, 2020 at 0:08

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Tails

Tails already has screen reader support enabled. You can start it with:

Alt + Super + S

The screen reader takes around 10 seconds to start and it does not work with the Unsafe Browser.

The first screen is just to setup the language and other parameters. After you press Start Tails a new Gnome session starts and you have to press Alt + Super + S again.

Whonix

This is what worked for me. Once you go into Whonix workstation you need to install orca and the gstreamer1.0-plugins-good package. It should be a dependency for orca but for the current version in Whonix it is not.

$ sudo apt-get install orca gstreamer1.0-plugins-good

The page Accessibility/Orca in the Debian Wiki explains how to automatically run orca with the session. For Whonix, the XFCE instructions apply.

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  • Wow. I really, really hope this is correct! I will be trying this as soon as I can with someone with sight. Am I heading in the correct direction as for installing a screen reader on Whonix though? TAILs was a mishap on my part of only searching “orca” and “tails”, instead of just the more generalized “screen reader”. Sorry about that! My understanding of what happened is the creators probably stripped down what they seen as extra or bloated dependencies and I need to add them back? Commented Dec 26, 2020 at 8:52
  • It is correct! I tested it with Tails 4.14 (the latest right now). The only issue I found is the need to restart the screen reader again after the greeter Commented Dec 26, 2020 at 18:01

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