Orca is a free, open source, flexible, and extensible screen reader that provides access to the graphical desktop via user-customizable combinations of speech, braille, and/or magnification. Orca development has been sponsored by the Sun Microsystems, Inc., Accessibility Program Office and progresses via continued engagement with end users and contributions from wonderful community members.
Come join us -- help the community grow. You can read more about Orca at http://live.gnome.org/Orca. See also the Orca road map at http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap/Orca.
NOTE ON FIREFOX 3.0 SUPPORT: we know many of you are anxiously awaiting compelling access to the web via Orca and Firefox. We're making steady progress on this front, both in Orca and with the Firefox team. We're getting there step by step, and we're receiving positive comments from people who are having good success with where we are today. We'll keep going -- join us on the Orca list and share your comments, suggestions, and questions.
=================================
* What's changed for Orca v2.19.4?
=================================
Lots, and all in less than two weeks. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank our newest team member, Scott Haeger, for his contribution of providing link preview information for Firefox. Expect to see more from Scott in upcoming releases, and I'll provide more information on Scott in the Orca v2.19.5 announcement.
General:
* Fix for bug 376515 - Add GUI support for the new customizable text-attribute feature. There is a new "Text Attributes" pane in the Orca preferences dialog for this. It can also be set on an individual app-specific basis.
* Fix for bug 433818 - Messages on system tab of gnome-system-monitor are not reported by Orca.
* Fix for bug 433951 - making changes in the Orca Preferences dialog causes loss of script state.
* Fixes for bug 435199 - Orca is bloating the swap partition, so the system is no more usable after a short time. We did a lot of analysis of Orca's memory usage and patched the leaks we were able to detect. There is still a leak in the AT-SPI infrastructure; it is being worked on by the AT-SPI maintainers and is tracked via bug 446277.
Firefox:
* Fix for bug 442709 - Need to do "combo box cleanup"/refactor for Firefox.
* Fix for bug 443337 - Orca should not use the alt text if it is empty to infer a link name.
* Fix for bug 444148 - Orca doesn't speak form fields at landsend.com
* Fix for bug 445578 - Link preview information would be desirable for Firefox. This is obtained when performing a "Where Am I" operation (KP_Enter for desktop bindings, ORCA_MODIFIER+Return for laptop bindings). Many thanks to new community member Scott Haeger for this functionality!
Java platform:
* Fix for bug 435553 - KeyError: 'startOffset' during Java Control Panel flat-review.
* Fix for bug 436658 - flat-review speaks "filler" for SwingSet2 demo/source tabs.
* Fix for bug 436661 - flat-review speaks SwingSet2 toolbar image paths instead of item names.
* Fix for bug 437226 - Orca should handle Java labels and text where LABEL_FOR is not set.
New and updated translations (THANKS EVERYONE!!!):
dz Dzongkha Pema Geyleg
es Spanish Francisco Javier Dorado Martinez and
Jorge Gonzalez
====================
* Where can I get it?
====================
You can obtain Orca v2.19.4 in source code form at:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/orca/2.19/orca-2.19.4.tar.gz
http://download.gnome.org/sources/orca/2.19/orca-2.19.4.tar.bz2
Enjoy!
The Orca Team
Come join us -- help the community grow. You can read more about Orca at http://live.gnome.org/Orca. See also the Orca road map at http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap/Orca.
NOTE ON FIREFOX 3.0 SUPPORT: we know many of you are anxiously awaiting compelling access to the web via Orca and Firefox. We're making steady progress on this front, both in Orca and with the Firefox team. We're getting there step by step, and we're receiving positive comments from people who are having good success with where we are today. We'll keep going -- join us on the Orca list and share your comments, suggestions, and questions.
=================================
* What's changed for Orca v2.19.4?
=================================
Lots, and all in less than two weeks. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank our newest team member, Scott Haeger, for his contribution of providing link preview information for Firefox. Expect to see more from Scott in upcoming releases, and I'll provide more information on Scott in the Orca v2.19.5 announcement.
General:
* Fix for bug 376515 - Add GUI support for the new customizable text-attribute feature. There is a new "Text Attributes" pane in the Orca preferences dialog for this. It can also be set on an individual app-specific basis.
* Fix for bug 433818 - Messages on system tab of gnome-system-monitor are not reported by Orca.
* Fix for bug 433951 - making changes in the Orca Preferences dialog causes loss of script state.
* Fixes for bug 435199 - Orca is bloating the swap partition, so the system is no more usable after a short time. We did a lot of analysis of Orca's memory usage and patched the leaks we were able to detect. There is still a leak in the AT-SPI infrastructure; it is being worked on by the AT-SPI maintainers and is tracked via bug 446277.
Firefox:
* Fix for bug 442709 - Need to do "combo box cleanup"/refactor for Firefox.
* Fix for bug 443337 - Orca should not use the alt text if it is empty to infer a link name.
* Fix for bug 444148 - Orca doesn't speak form fields at landsend.com
* Fix for bug 445578 - Link preview information would be desirable for Firefox. This is obtained when performing a "Where Am I" operation (KP_Enter for desktop bindings, ORCA_MODIFIER+Return for laptop bindings). Many thanks to new community member Scott Haeger for this functionality!
Java platform:
* Fix for bug 435553 - KeyError: 'startOffset' during Java Control Panel flat-review.
* Fix for bug 436658 - flat-review speaks "filler" for SwingSet2 demo/source tabs.
* Fix for bug 436661 - flat-review speaks SwingSet2 toolbar image paths instead of item names.
* Fix for bug 437226 - Orca should handle Java labels and text where LABEL_FOR is not set.
New and updated translations (THANKS EVERYONE!!!):
dz Dzongkha Pema Geyleg
es Spanish Francisco Javier Dorado Martinez and
Jorge Gonzalez
====================
* Where can I get it?
====================
You can obtain Orca v2.19.4 in source code form at:
http://download.gnome.org/sources/orca/2.19/orca-2.19.4.tar.gz
http://download.gnome.org/sources/orca/2.19/orca-2.19.4.tar.bz2
Enjoy!
The Orca Team
