Reading text in Orca

[jon-l-cosby]

I’m helping someone with a visual impairment configure Ubuntu on her laptop. A screen reader is very important. Orca reads selected text on my desktop but not the laptop. I can’t find a setting for this. Can anyone point me to it?

[MesterPerfect]

Hi — To help you better I need a bit more information:

• What version of Ubuntu are you running on the laptop (e.g. 24.04 LTS, 22.04, etc.)?
• Are you using Orca with the “laptop keyboard layout” or “desktop layout”? (Because Orca uses different modifier keys depending on the layout
• After you launch Orca, have you opened Orca’s Preferences (via CapsLock+Space or Insert+Space, depending on layout) to check the layout and keybindings settings?
• Does Orca speak UI elements (menus, dialogues, window titles), but fails only when you try to read “selected text” — or is it silent everywhere? In other words: is the problem “some text is silent” or “Orca doesn’t speak at all” on the laptop?
• Which applications have you tried — e.g. text editor, web browser, terminal, etc.? It might matter because some apps (especially those using newer toolkits) may have accessibility limitations with Orca.

[jon-l-cosby]

It seems to be working now. The only change I made was the keyboard layout, from Desktop to Laptop. I’m running Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.3.

[MesterPerfect]

Great! Glad to hear it’s working now.