A blind user needs the desktop read aloud, and also wants the same output sent to a refreshable braille display. Which assistive technology on a Linux desktop is designed for exactly this?
LPIC-1 Exam 102-500, objective 106. User interfaces and desktops medium
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How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
The options
Not correct GOK
Wrong. GOK, the GNOME On-screen Keyboard, presents a keyboard on screen for pointer-only input. It types, it does not read the screen. Onboard and Florence serve the same on-screen keyboard role.
Not correct High contrast theme
Wrong. A high contrast theme changes colours and increases visual distinction for users with low vision. It produces no speech or braille output and is useless to a user who cannot see the screen at all.
Correct Orca
Correct. Orca is the GNOME screen reader. It reads interface elements aloud through a speech synthesiser and drives refreshable braille displays via BrlTTY, from the same assistive-technology service. (Magnification is not Orca's job on current systems; the desktop's own zoom, such as the GNOME Shell magnifier, handles that.)
Not correct Mouse Keys
Wrong. Mouse Keys lets the numeric keypad move and click the pointer, a motor accessibility feature. It conveys nothing about what is on screen.
Why
Visual accessibility on Linux desktops splits by how much sight remains. For low vision: high contrast themes, large fonts and screen magnifiers. For no usable vision: a screen reader such as Orca, which speaks the accessibility tree and can also feed a refreshable braille display through BrlTTY (BrlTTY additionally serves braille on the text console, independently of any desktop). Emacspeak is the other screen reader LPI mentions. On-screen keyboards such as GOK, Onboard and Florence address input rather than output.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 106.3
- What it says
- Awareness of assistive technology including screen readers, screen magnifiers, braille displays and on-screen keyboards.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 106 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
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