Hi,
it is my first post and I am a blind screen reader user and I want to install Fedora 36 workstation with gnome in my laptop.
I downloaded the iso image and wrote it to an usb drive thanks dd command.
I booted easily to live OS and I succeeded to start Orca by alt+F2 + orca.
Once done, I run anaconda and I could see the window launch. Unfortunately, the Anaconda windows can not be read by orca and I can not install Fedora to my HDD.
I want to use gnome desktop and that’s why I did not downloaded Mate version.
Thank you for the help.
Mathieu
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I would suggest that you ask someone local to you for assistance in doing the install. Once the install completes then you should be able to move forward.
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Like most blind people, I would like to be independent.
I am a computer scientist and I really like Fedora and I would like to be able to install it without outside help.
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I understand the desire for independence. Many of us are the same.
Unfortunately, there are times when obstacles force us to ask for minimal assistance then when we are past that obstacle we can again go our own way.
Good luck.
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I can confirm that orca doesn’t work with the installer, anaconda, but I also cannot seem to find a bug reported for this, but from what you describe it does sound like anaconda isn’t set up correctly to allow orca to read it. This sounds like quite a major bug, and I cannot say if this will be fixed any time soon—perhaps at the Fedora 37 release.
So, in the meantime, the workaround would be to install using the Mate installer, and then to switch to the Gnome desktop:
Would that be doable?
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Hi @raifer. We recognize that this is a big problem, and we’re making accessibility a priority in our work over the next few years. I think Ankur’s suggestion of using the Mate installer and then switching to GNOME from there is probably the most practical immediate thing.
I wish I had a faster response, but I can at least offer that we really are taking concrete steps to make this better. We are launching a new Accessibility Special Interest Group, and the desktop team has hired someone to focus on the technical work.
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Just extending what Matthew said,
We are working on accessibility working group and a couple of things on roadmap are
- Enabling assistive variable by default in Fedora Linux (This needs a bit of regression test and research)
- Do accessibility test weeks before release to catch such issues
Hoping to improve experience super soon 
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I made me some notes while do the same approach:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/customizing-gnome-4-2-adjustments-i-used-in-mate-compiz/67760
If you have a specific questions about moving from Mate to Workstation feel free to ask there.
When you installed and updated the Mate spin, you can easy install the workstation with:
sudo dnf groups install "Fedora Workstation"
Make GDM active:
sudo systemctl enable gdm.service -f
Do you think I can open an issue? If it is, where I can do that?
Yes, I tested this solution yesterday, Anaconda is accessible with Mate desktop and I I succeeded to install Fedora to another USB flash drive. The only major accessibility issue is the icone of hard drive, I can’t see which hard drive is selected because it’s the icon that changes and Orca doesn’t see the difference (I got away with a little help).
I did successfully boot to my newly Fedora installed to USB but ended up with my OS read-only! I have use btrfs + luk2 for the mount point /. I don’t see the problem but that’s another story!
Thank.
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Great news!
I am a computer engineer and I work in the development of Linux PCI driver and several other modules under Redhat. I would be interested in participating in the working group. Do you think this is possible?
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I found out what the difference is between the mate-spin and workstation live installation.
Mate spin is not Wayland ready jet, it logs in as gnome x11.
Removing the auto-login and set a password on the live user helps as a workaround. Then clicking on the username shows the gear on the right bottom to change to gnome x11
I made an issue on pagure, I don’t know if this is the right place.
Issue #325: Orca does not read anaconda app under Wayland | workstation live iso. - fedora-workstation - Pagure.io
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It definitely possible and you are very much welcomed
I will make sure you get an invite to our next meeting and we would also ensure we accommodate everyone with different format of updates (perhaps async discussion on Fedora Discussions).
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Good workarround. With this solution I was able to install Fedora 36 from workstation iso using Gnome with X-11.
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Thank you for opening this issue.
I read it but I do not understand what means:
“- Issue close_status updated to: Deferred to upstream”
The ticket was filed with the workstation folks, and “deferred to upstream” there means that they’ve passed it along to the anaconda folks.
I think anaconda is going through a major overhaul of its UI and hopefully the new web-based UI will have the necessary accessibility features built in to it. See:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Anaconda_Web_UI_preview_image
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Added accessibility, f40, orca, x11-wayland-transition
Afaik nothing changed by now, so I added some more tags for discoverability.
This touches the Change Proposal to ship Anaconda wayland-only for Fedora Workstation.
There seems to be a blind spot (I know) when it comes to coordination of the “wayland-only Anaconda”, “Anaconda WebUI” and the GNOME project (and hopefully more people) working on actually making Orca work on Wayland.
The WebInstaller could just implement screenreading itself, to just pass everything the mouse hovers over to speech-dispatcher, I guess.
This would be duplicated effort, for sure.
Alternatively, the change could be postponed, until there is a portal. The method is supposed to be used like a push service, where the website or app pushes what it wants to the screenreader, which then just needs to output that.
This means, afaik, that the process would be highly simplified, and we could have more diversity. But it also means that every app needs to implement this functionality. Seeing the amount of GTK3 and similarly old apps we have, this would be problematic.
For now, XOrg it is.