I’m glad I have a braille-display when my linux-VM decides to break audio, and in the process of course also breaking espeakup.
#accessibility #blind #braille #brltty #espeakup #linux

I’ve published Part 3 of “I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back.”

This one’s about the so-called universal interface: the console. The raw, non-GUI, text-mode TTY. The place where sighted Linux users fall back when the desktop breaks, and where blind users are supposed to do the same. Except — we can’t. Not reliably. Not safely. Not without building the entire stack ourselves.

This post covers Speakup, BRLTTY, Fenrir, and the audio subsystem hell that makes screen reading in the console a game of chance. It dives into why session-locked audio breaks espeakup, why BRLTTY fails silently and eats USB ports, why the console can be a full environment — and why it’s still unusable out of the box. And yes, it calls out the fact that if you’re deafblind, and BRLTTY doesn’t start, you’re just locked out of the machine entirely. No speech. No visuals. Just a dead black box.

There are workarounds. Scripts. Hacks. Weird client.conf magic that you run once as root, once as a user, and pray to PipeWire that it sticks. Some of this I learned from a reader of post 1. None of it is documented. None of it is standard. And none of it should be required.

This is a long one. Technical, and very real. Because the console should be the one place Linux accessibility never breaks. And it’s the one place that’s been left to rot.

Link to the post: https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-3-speakup-brltty-and-the-forgotten-infrastructure-of-console-access/

#Linux #Accessibility #BlindTech #BRLTTY #Speakup #Fenrir #TTY #PipeWire #ScreenReader #DisabilityTech #ConsoleComputing #LinuxAccessibility #FOSS

Shout-out to the super-helpful folk at #debian-accessibility and #brltty who resolved an issue I had been having with my braille display for *years*. Sometimes the world of Linux really makes me so happy. I know have braille via bluetooth, at least on the laptop, which is going to make lesson setups much easier (and generally less self-strangulation with cables).

Fuck you too, SELinux.

SELinux is preventing brltty from getattr access on the chr_file /dev/bus/usb/003/073.

#linux #SeLinux #fedora #blind #brltty #accessibility

Using #linux with a #braille display is amazing.
And it is especially amazing when you have a computer which doesn't have any sound at all, unless you plug an audio-dongle or an audio-interface into it!.
#accessible #accessibility #audio #blind #braille #linux #brltty #tech

I love having a #braille display again.
My next plan is to get it working with #linux with #brltty on the commandline.
#accessible #accessibility #blind #fediverse #linux #mastodon #tech #braille #brltty

How do I set up the orbit reader 20 with #brltty on linux?
I just got an or20 and I'd like to try using it with linux.
#accessibility #blind #braille #brltty #linux

Habe ich intusiastische Reverse Engenierende unter meinen Folgenden, mit denen ich mir mal eine Alte Braille Zeile anschauen könnte, deren Treiber bisher nicht bei #BRLTTY eingepflegt ist? Dieser bestimmte Gerätetyp liegt zu hauf bei #Blinden herum und kann unter "modernen" Betriebssystemen nicht mehr verwendet werden. Vielleicht ist hier ja eine fähige Person, die sich mal den alten Windows oder Dos Treiber anschauen könnte und rausfindet, welche Sprache der mit dem Gerät spricht. Auf dieser Basis könnte dann BRLTTY um dieses Protokoll erweitert werden. Ich besitze leider das dafür nötige KnowHow nicht.

Just installed #archlinux on my computer. Stupidly forgot to install #brltty and #espeakup before rebooting though so now have no speech. Would any sighted person out there be willing to help me login, connect to the internet, and install what I need over a #videocall? It shouldn't take too long, and I don't want to boot from the #usb again. #BeMyEyes is great, but I'd prefer help from someone who knows #linux. #blind #tech #technology #arch

Ich hab hier noch zwei Audiodata Braillezeilen liegen. Leider gibt es bisher keine Implementierung für #brltty dafür. Wie kann ich herausfinden, welche Signale der alte originale Treiber für DOS an das Gerät über LPT sendet und was da zurück kommt? Kann ich mit einem Raspi und zwei USB2LPT Wandlern etwas bauen, das auf dem Signalweg lauscht und mir dann anzeigt? Wie würde ich so was machen. Es ist so schade. Da Stehen so viele 80er Zeilen von FA rum, die nicht mehr verwendet werden können.

@TheFake_VIP Hi. Found you via the #BRLTTY hashtag. Still in search of a braille display. I could give You an 80 cell one from Frank Audiodata for free, as long as you pay shipping to the UK. Only Problem, the thing is not supported by #BRLTTY and you will have to disasemble the old dos driver in order to find out, how the thing communicates. If You do an implementation for BRLTTY , the whole community wins. Interested?

@nuagezero Ces quinze dernières années le mouvement #Libre a produit des réussites considérables en matière d’ #accessibilité aux déficiences visuelles : #brltty, #Orca, #Compiz et bien d’autres. …/…

If #BrailleDisplays weren't so rediculously expensive, I'd love to get one (preferably a small one) and integrate it into a case with a #RaspberryPi. Then I could install #BRLTTY, #Espeakup, maybe even a GUI and #Orca and have a #Linux powered braille notetaker. #Accessibility