Orca 2.22.0 Release Notes

Keybindings Changes

• Instead of Orca+F1 to enter learn mode, the binding is now Orca+h.
• Instead of Orca+{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} to read the last nth message that was presented in an application such as gaim or gnome-mud, the binding is now Orca+{F1,F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8,F9}.
• The debugging keys have been rebound as well. The new bindings are Orca+Ctrl+Alt+{the following}, where {the_following} is one of:
  • End - report active script info
  • Home - print list of known apps and their windows
  • Page_Up - print locus of focus ancestry
  • Page_Down - print accessible hierarchy of active application
• Fix for bug #440490 - Key bindings should allow double and triple press features to be rebound
• Orca now supports unbound functions that can be bound to keystrokes. They appear in the key bindings preferences pane.
• The speech rate/pitch hot keys have been removed.
• In Firefox, the support for live regions in Orca is exposed via these keybindings:
  • r and Shift+r: go to the next and previous live region relative to the current caret position
  • y: go to the last (or current) live region that spoke
  • \: cycle through the different levels of politeness
  • Shift+\: turn monitoring of live regions on and off
  • Orca+F1, Orca+F2, ..., Orca+F9: review the last nth live region announcement, where n is the number of the function key (i.e., the last announcement is obtained via Orca+F1, the 9th last announcement is obtained via Orca+F9)
• In Firefox, you can now use Orca+Left and Orca+Right to move from object to object. This should come in handy for "escaping" combo boxes and lists in forms after making your selection. Because these new commands treat each object as if it were on a line by itself, users who have requested this type of line navigation will hopefully find that this new functionality also addresses some of those needs.

Performance/Quality

• Much work on the test harness and many new regression tests
• Much work on performance (bug #491756)
• Completed major pylinting work (bug #486726)
• Ported Orca to pyatspi (bug #448848)
• Fix for bug #462475 - Non-ASCII characters in ~/.orca/user-settings.py file

General

• Fix for bug #133275 - (gedit) accessible description for page not correct

• Fix for bug #354462 - SayAll of dialogs (versus just a single text area)

• Work on bug #356068 - Provide a command for identifying the default button within a dialog
• Fix for bug #364518 - Create a GUI interface to the pronunciation dictionary
• Fix for bug #419136 - Planner toggle button in main window not accessible
• Fix for bug #440490 - Key bindings should allow double and triple press features to be rebound
• Fix for bug #456970 - Orca says "0 items" for tree tables that use NODE_CHILD_OF relationship
• Fix for bug #457198 - Orca shouldn't exit if user-settings import fails
• Fix for bug #461719 - gnome-mud script failed at import
• Fix for bug #462627 - Refactor orca_prefs.py
• Fix for bug #463867 - Source display and Target display should self-populate in Orca Prefs dialog
• Fix for bug #464754 - Pronunciation dictionary checks should be case insensitive
• Fix for bug #464855 - orca speaks/brailles scroll bar arrows as anonymous "push buttons"
• Work on bug #465989 - Adding panel applets. Manage the presentation of images in tables better

• Fix for bug #466725 - Traceback when using SayAll in Gedit when text lacks sentence punctuation

• Fix for bug #467425 - Orca causes pygtk application to generate GtkWarning messages

• Fix for bug #467425 - Orca should default to an empty pronunciation dictionary
• Fix for bug #469615 - A few lingering i18n issues
• Fix for bug #472907 - Characters "°" and "º" shouldn't have the same description
• Fix for bug #472962 - Trailing space at end of message/string
• Fix for bug #473699 - Adjust Orca Preferences dialog to speak/braille three components that are multiply labelled.
• Fix for bug #474958 - Orca has no onboard help
• Fix for bug #476639 - Remove requirement of annotating accessible objects
• Fix for bug #481101 - getClickCount() sometimes returns bogus values
• Fix for bug #481488 - Implement increased support for user-customized keybindings
• Fix for bug #484428 - Orca should not speak role for list items when navigating
• Fix for bug #485522 - Orca should allow the user to specify the chat messages that get spoken/brailled
• Fix for bug #486895 - Arrowing down from column header to table presents wrong column header
• Fix for bug #486901 - When tabbing to a text area for a spinbox or editable combobox, text selection should be presented
• Fix for bug #486908 - Selection and navigation in multiselectable items are not properly handled
• Fix for bug #486972 - Expanding/collapsing tree nodes in a table should not speak nodename again
• Fix for bug #487514 - Keys for navigation purposes should not be echoed
• Fix for bug #488391 - Orca doesn't announce finds in Gedit if combo box has focus
• Fix for bug #489504 - Invoking a Say All should result in any text selection being cleared
• Fix for bug #489604 - Enabling the attribute indicator but disabling all attributes results in traceback
• Fix for bug #489875 - Some Orca macaroon oowriter and oocalc tests have timeout problems
• Fix for bug #489928 - Orca oocalc macaroon test for bug #363804 doesn't completely restore initial state
• Fix for bug #491417 - Orca script should inherit PATH and PYTHONPATH from environment
• Fix for bug #494651 - Orca's OBJECT EVENT debug routine not outputting all information for "object:selection-changed" menu bar event
• Fix for bug #500193 - Update keybindings for reviewing previous messages. NOTE: this effects the Orca learn mode key. Instead of Orca+F1, it is now Orca+h. NOTE: this effects the review of previous messages in gaim and gnome-mud. Instead of Orca+{1,2,3,...} to read the last nth message, you now use Orca+{F1,F2,F3,...}.
• Fix for bug #504384 - The Orca Preferences dialog is a bit too "tall"
• Fix for bug #507886 - Orca+Space when in Java application presents script summary debug
• Fix for bug #508777 - HTTP-based Recording ability should not be enabled by default
• Fix for bug #510019 - Orca can continue trying to dequeue events when queue is empty (thanks to Mike Gorse for this fix!)
• Fix for bug #511447 - Orca speaks passwords when they are been typed
• Fix for bug #512608 - Punctuation in keyboard review mode
• Fix for bug #512639 - rhythmbox Library table not accessible
• Fix for bug #516321 - Caps lock not correctly reporting the state when toggled
• Workaround for bug #517026 - crash in Open Folder: Deleting the last file in a directory
• Fix for bug #517505 - Orca doesn't present new active descendant when deleting from the top of a list
• Fix for bug #518762 - When using gnome-terminal with multiple tabs, the name on the tab is not announced when switching between tabbed windows

Flat Review

• Fix for bug #434654 - Orca skips a line in flat review mode or with braille navigation (braille up / down).
• Fix for bug #458150 - flat-review should present slider orientation

• Fix for bug #490623 - work around for flat_review cmp issue for OpenOffice

• Fix for bug #506874 - Flat review should support status bars that have accessible text and children

• Fix for bug #512847 - Flat review is quite broken in OpenOffice and Firefox

• Fix for bug #513238 - Flat review is broken in Evolution

Where Am I

• Fix for bug #462650 - Traceback when using whereAmI in Evolution New Contact dialog
• Work on bug #468098 - The whereAmI implementation doesn't always match the whereAmI spec
• Fix for bug #476786 - whereAmI fails in Firefox menus
• Fix for bug #480021 - Need to handle list items in whereAmI and better address XUL list items

• Fix for bug #480278 - where-am-I ("double click") for StarOffice.py smushs the output

• Fix for bug #486897 - Where Am I doesn't present row/column headers
• Fix for bug #486899 - Where Am I doesn't present checkbox state in tables
• Fix for bug #486909 - Where Am I should say "n of m items selected" and "on item x of y" in layered pane
• Fix for bug #486969 - Status bar not being read with Where Am I
• Fix for bug #486970 - Where Am I should let you know you are in a toolbar
• Fix for bug #486971 - Where Am I doesn't present toggle button state
• Fix for bug #486976 - Basic Where Am I in multiline text areas should only present info for current line
• Fix for bug #487189 - Where Am I should present accessible description if it exists

• Fix for bug #487226 - "/" and the OrcaKey should not be hardcoded in default.py:whereAmI.

• Fix for bug #489797 - _speakListItem defined twice in where_am_i.py
• Fix for bug #503527 - Mnemonics are not supported well

Speech

• Fix for bug #455308 - Output module and voice selection with Speech Dispatcher backend
• Fix for bug #466500 - Speech Dispatcher backend crashes with older SD versions (Thanks Tomas Cerha!)
• Fix for bug #467563 - Speech Dispatcher backend crashes in text setup (Thanks Tomas Cerha!)
• Fix for bug #472665 - Speech Pane combo boxes mis-populating in Orca Preferences dialog
• Fix for bug #473420 - Orca speaking an extra "seconds" for the Preferences dialog
• Fix for bug #483018 - We should remove (or redefine) the orca speech change hotkeys. Hot keys removed per discussion on Orca user's list.
• Fix for bug #489913 - Changing preferences from a test causes tracebacks and spontaneous speech
• Fix for bug #504356 - Unchecking "Enable speech" doesn't grey out all speech items in the Preferences dialog

Braille

• Work on bug #354470 - Contracted braille. This provides fundamental contracted braille support via liblouis.
• Fix for bug #469786 - Braille verbosity setting not reset
• Fix for bug #472978 - Short Braille and spoken word for "dial" should be different messages
• Fix for bug #480331 - tree table headers should not be repeated in braille
• Fix for bug #480746 - Labels for panels should not be repeated in braille
• Fix for bug #482294 - Contextual information for gnome-terminal should only be shown in braille when you're on the first line.
• Fix for bug #484499 - Orca should not braille the node level for every cell in row
• Fix for bug #486918 - Page tab role should be presented in braille

• Fix for bug #487230 - get{Speech,ShortBraille,LongBraille,Braille}ForRoleName should allow role to be overridden

• Fix for bug #496846 - When tabbing to an editable combobox, text selection should be displayed in braille
• Fix for bug #508679 - The second time to enable the Braille Monitor, it can not be lauched

Magnification

• Fix for bug #452316 - should have a "fullscreen" checkbox
• Fix for bug #462984 - Orca failed to detect the resolution of second screen
• Fix for bug #463881 - Evaluate other gnome-mag features for inclusion in Orca prefs
• Fix for bug #464705 - Provide option to keep caret in center of magnifier region of interest
• Fix for bug #467664 - unmagnified area becomes too small to use
• Fix for bug #477683 - Orca failed to bring full screen mag up
• Fix for bug #481343 - Initial top/left/bottom/right zoomer position settings don't match screen
• Fix for bug #501414 - Orca should have (unbound) keybindings for quickly changing magnification settings
• Fix for bug #503965 - Orca should provide support for the pointer following focus and the zoomer
• Fix for bug #505293 - Zoomer borders should only be displayed at source display intersection
• Fix for bug #505306 - Orca's color filtering combo box should be greyed out if the filters are not available

GAIM/Pidgin

• Fix for bug #407647 - Indicate the tree level, expanded state, and child nodes in the Pidgin buddy list
• Fix for bug #469098 - Orca should indicate when a new chat window/tab has appeared in Pidgin
• Fix for bug #471220 - Gaim's prefixChatMessage setting should have option to only prefix non-focused tabs
• Fix for bug #472407 - Orca doesn't always announce new messages in unfocused tabs in Pidgin
• Fix for bug #473422 - Orca has traceback when giving focus to the pidgin application
• Fix for bug #473991 - Orca doesn't announce autocompleted user names in Pidgin
• Fix for bug #508682 - Orca speak combobox item three time in Pidgin 2.3.0

Evolution

• Workaround for blocked bug #432308 - Problem with Evolution and threads always speaking "expanded 0 items".
• Fix for bug #462650 - Traceback when using whereAmI in Evolution New Contact dialog
• Fix for bug #490317 - Orca echoes the first letter of each new line when composing a message in Evolution
• Fix for bug #503874 - Read by row in Evolution reads cell information incorrectly
• Fix for bug #513238 - Flat review is broken in Evolution

OpenOffice

• Fix for bug #363830 - Provide feedback in OOo when toggling bold, underline, and italics
• Fix for bug #376517 - Orca does not report indentation in OOo Writer documents correctly
• Fix for bug #435201 - Orca is too chatty when navigating by paragraph in OOo Writer

• Fix for bug #435852 - Orca and OpenOffice Calc have a memory lovefest

• Fix for bug #462256 - Orca doesn't speak/braille anything when going to the 2nd screen in the OOo Presentation startup wizard
• Fix for bug #465087 - Orca speaks "Available fields panel" too many times with OOo sbase Tables wizard

• Fix for bug #469367 - Orca StarOffice script not properly announcing (potential) indentation in OOo Writer

• Fix for bug #480278 - where-am-I ("double click") for StarOffice.py smushs the output

• Fix for bug #489490 - Test for OOo Writer bug #413909 not producing the correct output

• Fix for bug #490623 - work around for flat_review cmp issue for OpenOffice

• Fix for bug #510207 - key echo by word is broken in OOo Writer
• Fix for bug #515651 - Navigation of cells in oocalc now says "not selected"

• Fix for bug #517502 - Orca should not speak the previously focused menu item when arrowing across the menu bar in OpenOffice

Firefox/Thunderbird

NOTE: These apply to Firefox 3.0. Firefox versions prior to Firefox 3.0 are not supported.

• Work on bug #414762 - Control Home/End, Up/Down Arrow don't always work in Firefox
• Fix for bug #451988 - Firefox: navigation by landmark. New functionality in Orca allows you to navigate to the next and previous landmark on a page via the unbound keybindings. You can define the keystrokes you would like to use on the Key Bindings pane of the Orca Preferences dialog.
• Fix for bug #459584 - ARIA widget labels not read correctly
• Fix for bug #460284 - Orca should not allow the user to arrow into the FF3 status bar
• Fix for bug #461620 - Orca doesn't speak find results in FF3 when focus is on Next/Previous buttons.
• Fix for bug #462156 - No announcements for ARIA trees
• Fix for bug #462509 - ARIA dialogs are not being announced
• Fix for bug #462883 - ARIA tooltips/alerts are not being output
• Fix for bug #466251 - Support ARIA live regions in Firefox/Gecko
• Fix for bug #466764 - Orca doesn't provide access to alerts that appear when page is loading in FF3
• Fix for bug #468551 - Support ARIA checkboxTriState
• Fix for bug #468633 - No output when tabbing to ARIA slider
• Fix for bug #468765 - Orca does not provide access to shortcuts for FF3 or Thunderbird menu items
• Fix for bug #469083 - Refactor Gecko.py's getContainingRole() to take a list
• Fix for bug #469686 - Sanity check needed in gecko.getHeadingLevel/getNodeLevel
• Fix for bug #469718 - Gecko.inDocumentContent() needs to account for 'embedded component'
• Fix for bug #470332 - Can no longer arrow to push buttons in FF3
• Fix for bug #471537 - We need to find a way to identify truly "focusable" elements in FF3
• Fix for bug #471878 - ARIA widgets should not echo characters during traversal using arrows
• Fix for bug #471885 - ARIA trees should output only state change if item is unchanged
• Fix for bug #471955 - Orca does not provide access to state changes in HTML radio buttons in FF3
• Work on bug #472029 - Cannot arrow into autocompletes in HTML forms if Orca is controlling the caret
• Work on bug #472345 - Cannot arrow out of entries in FF3 if text is inserted via javascript
• Work on bug #472377 - Need to fix braille for radio buttons and checkboxes in HTML content
• Fix for bug #473009 - Cannot arrow to the end of an HTML entry if Orca is controlling the caret
• Fix for bug #473585 - Caret not being set to ARIA listbox when navigating to it
• Fix for bug #475177 - Support new AT-SPI event name format
• Fix for bug #475956 - Orca sometimes "guesses" index.htm* as the base name for a link in FF3
• Fix for bug #476786 - whereAmI fails in Firefox menus
• Fix for bug #478204 - Orca should handle navigation around HTML focusable lists better
• Fix for bug #480021 - Need to handle list items in whereAmI and better address XUL list items
• Fix for bug #480264 - ARIA sliders not outputting Braille/childCount:embed defense
• Fix for bug #480501 - readPageSummary() prevents access to FF status bar contents
• Fix for bug #480881 - Firefox is very slow on pages with forms
• Fix for bug #481398 - Absence of a defined speech server causes Orca to fail to display its Preferences dialog
• Fix for bug #481907 - Traceback in Gecko.locusOfFocusChanged()
• Fix for bug #483023 - Orca should give the user the ability to move between objects in order. You can now use Orca+Left and Orca+Right to move from object to object.
• Fix for bug #485903 - Orca doesn't read message list in gmail
• Fix for bug #490266 - Endless loop in navigating ARIA trees
• Fix for bug #490568 - Implement Firefox page summary using Collections
• Fix for bug #491837 - Implement Gecko.py 'go to' functions with Collections
• Fix for bug #500016 - Reading web pages by line in Firefox 3 is slow
• Fix for bug #501447 - Orca sometimes fails to speak our location when entering FF3 entries
• Fix for bug #502084 - Running Orca with Thunderbird v2.0.X with compose window open generates a stack trace
• Fix for bug #504742 - Gecko.py should not call getLineContentsAtOffset() twice unnecessarily
• Fix for bug #504785 - Orca repeats certain lines twice in Firefox 3
• Fix for bug #505102 - Pressing Up/Down in FF3 is moving to spaces at the end of the current line
• Fix for bug #505742 - Accommodate no ARIA markup for live regions
• Work on bug #506360 - find{Next,Previous}Line() should be more efficient
• Fix for bug #508163 - Orca tends to be slow in the vicinity of combo boxes in Firefox
• Fix for bug #508624 - Checkbox tristate not announcing state changes
• Work on bug #508784 - Orca needs to handle FF hierarchies that don't match reality
• Fix for bug #509068 - We should prevent the user from arrowing into combo boxes in FF. Now you can arrow "up to" a combo box, but should not be able to arrow into it accidentally. If you arrow to a combo box and want to it give focus, you can do several things: Press Tab (as it's the next focusable item), press Orca+Tab (as it's the next form field, assuming your combo box is contained in a form), or press Alt+Down Arrow (which is the Firefox command t expand the current combo box).
• Fix for bug #509394 - First focusable item in document frame not always spoken in FF3
• Fix for bug #509482 - Line navigation in FF wraps from top of file to bottom
• Fix for bug #509588 - Header information disappearing in ff3 on minefield page
• Fix for bug #509731 - braille for collapsed html combo boxes is not updating correctly
• Fix for bug #509809 - We should try to do a better job of guessing labels in poorly-coded forms
• Fix for bug #510478 - Character navigation in FF wraps from bottom of file to top
• Fix for bug #511118 - We sometimes get stuck on images that are also links
• Fix for bug #511354 - cannot press enter to activate links in area tags, although tabbing works
• Fix for bug #511389 - Orca doesn't always speak a link that regains focus in FF3
• Fix for bug #511885 - Support relevant and channel live region properties
• Partial fix for bug #511893 - Live region performance enhancements
• Fix for bug #512236 - missing links in ff3 when navigating down page
• Fix for bug #512261 - We should implement better support for the FF A11y extension
• Fix for bug #512270 - orca crash on visiting www.gmail.com after login
• Fix for bug #512303 - table captions are not being presented
• Fix for bug #512503 - Remove "object:visible-data-changed" listener from Gecko.py
• Fix for bug #513217 - object navigation sticking on same line comboboxes
• Fix for bug #513425 - orca object navigation is not consistant when moving to the left/to the right
• Fix for bug #514427 - Orca skips over headings at the end of sections in FF3
• Fix for bug #515263 - ARIA tooltips should respect presentToolTips setting
• Fix for bug #515571 - FF3 form field structural navigation should handle form fields that are not in forms
• Fix for bug #515652 - Gecko.py script causing Traceback
• Fix for bug #515804 - Whitespace needs to be removed from speech and braille contexts in FF3
• Fix for bug #516121 - Orca stalls on barackobama.com when navigating by heading in FF3
• Fix for bug #516174 - FF line navigation needs to be more accurate
• Fix for bug #517277 - Orca should not get stuck while browsing articles at espn.com
• Fix for bug #517336 - Spaces interfere with Orca's ability to get the line contents
• Fix for bug #517371 - Orca gets stuck when browsing humanware.ca in FF3
• Fix for bug #517521 - Gecko.py is throwing exception in onCaretMoved
• Fix for bug #517716 - Live regions being output on listitem changes for Bugzilla
• Fix for bug #517752 - (ff3) more orca+left/right inconsistency
• Fix for bug #518502 - Orca doesn't always speak wrapping announcement for link structural nav in FF3
• Fix for bug #518893 - Extra verbosity in web pages
• Fix for bug #519931 - Orca does not read certain news feeds correctly

New and updated translations (THANKS EVERYONE!!!)

Known Problems

• See the open bugs in the Orca bug database. We not only track Orca bugs in the Orca bug database, we also track bugs in other components that affect Orca's ability to provide good access to them.

• NOTE: Compiz is not accessibility friendly at this point in time. We do not recommend its use right now, and recommend you stick with Metacity until the Compiz kinks are worked out. If you're using Compiz and want to switch to Metacity, you can run the following command: metacity --replace.