@nixCraft *sigh* I wish people would stop recommending Linux as the be all end all. It's not, especially for those of us who use screen readers. We have to learn an entirely new operating system with various interfaces (choosing a desktop is part of it)a, plus a new screen reader, plus new programs and ways of installing and updating them, and that's assuming that the distribution even has Orca enabled or that it can easily be enabled at startup without sighted assistance. Even for the sighted, many can't just install it and go, as they probably have new things to learn as well. Yes, it's a good option, but it's not the only one, and it isn't as if Windows 10 will suddenly stop working or a hacker will wipe these computers overnight. XP and 7 both still work and both have modern browsers (Supermium and Serpent UXP) to use with them, so 10 most certainly does as well.

@elementary @nixCraft Ooh! This is something new to me! Thank you! I will definitely research it. And thank you for truly caring about accessibility. This is a wonderful thing.

@elementary @nixCraft Okay. I just went to the site and this is a paid system with no demonstration version. Plus, I keep seeing advice not to install it in a virtual machine, which is precisely what I would do when testing any new system. Plus, it's heavy on resources and system specifications. I am using a Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3 which has a Core i5-7Y57 processor and 8gb of ram. This is perfect for Windows 11 plus DOS, XP or 7. This requires at least 4gb, and probably a higher processor. I don't have my more powerful desktop set up and even that has 8gb because I have never needed more.

@dandylover1 your system specifications should probably be okay! There’s a built-in check to the installer itself which will warn you if for some reason that won’t quite work. But we overshoot a little on the recommendation to make sure that you’re getting an experience where things feel snappy and responsive and not having to wait or experience any jittering etc

@elementary This is very good to know.

@elementary I downloaded the latest stable version and tried to install it, but there is no speech, either automatically, when pressing alt+f2 and typing Orca, or when typing alt+Windows+s. Mind you, this is the same machine on which I just installed both Vinux and Accessible Coconut successfully as a test. Both are based on Ubuntu. The first is very old and the second is fairly modern. So I'm not sure what is going on here, but I know it's not my machine or VMWare. I'll try it on my laptop later, but I doubt it will work. This goes back to my original point about Linux, in general, often not being accessible. And since many people do install new operating systems in virtual machines before committing to them, if that really is the problem, then it's a very serious one indeed, particularly for those of us who rely on speech and need the drivers for it. Yes, one can boot from a usb, etc. but that is not always accessible, since the bios, boot screen, or whatever modern systems use, is not screen reader accessible, meaning that whatever system is loaded on the drive (in my case, Windows) will start automatically, unless we somehow stop it and then play with it for who knows how long, trying to figure out the boot order without speech. This is why virtual machines are so important.

@elementary *I wrote this prior to reading your message just now.* I figured out what was going on! There were a few factors to consider. The first is that, when Elementary OS starts, there is a very brief spoken message that says something such as "to turn on the screen reader, press alt+super+s". Unlike in both vinux and Accessible Coconut (and even Debian, for that matter), Orca doesn't actually start with the system. So if someone misses that message, he may not know what to do. The second factor is my own silliness. I forgot that this keyboard is a little different from normal ones and I was hitting the wrong key for Windows (super). The installation itself was fairly standard but slightly more complicated than Accessible Coconut in that the latter chose the drive automatically once I hit "erase", and Elementary OS was a bit more verbose in explaining certain things. It didn't offer the option to update packages during installation, which is a feature that I actually like. However, since it has a much easier updating system than the commandline, I might not mind this as much. It also gave me a warning, saying that it might run slowly on my system, which I thought was a good thing, though I have never seen this in any other version of Linux. Now, it's installing, so after dinner, I will play with both versions of Linux, in order to compare them and give an honest opinion. I apologise for the confusion.