Accessibility/Plasma

Enable Accessibility

Starting Orca Screenreader

When orca is properly installed Plasma offers two ways to start it.

Shortcut

Plasma offers by default a shortcut to start the screenreader. After you logged in, press Meta+Alt+S to turn the screenreader on or off.

Autostart

To autostart orca after login:

1. Go to System Settings
2. Go to Section "Accessibility"
3. Go to Tab "Screenreader"
4. Check "Screenreader enabled" checkbox

Activating Visual Aids

Plasma desktop effects contain several accessibility-oriented features, including full-screen zoom, color inversion and assistance locating the mouse pointer.

Settings for these features can be found under Workspace Behavior -> Desktop Effects -> Accessibility.

Full-Screen Magnification

Meta+= and Meta+- zooms in and out, respectively.

The scale factor and mouse pointer tracking can be adjusted in the system settings. For a fixed-sized zoom window, use the "Magnifier" effect rather than the "Zoom" effect.

Inverting Colors

• Meta+Ctrl+I inverts colors for the entire screen.
• Meta+Ctrl+U inverts colors for the current window.

Keyboard Navigation

Accessing the application launcher

• Alt+F1 opens the K-Menu Application launcher just fine.
• Alt+D is for configuring the Application launcher doesn't work but brings up KRunner.

System Tray

The system tray is currently not accessible

Virtual Desktops

• Ctrl + F[number] switches to a virtual desktop. Use for example Ctrl+F2 to access the second virtual desktop.

Lock Screen

The lock screen is accessible.

• Ctrl-Alt-L locks the screen

• Use Tab to navigate the lock screen when active. There is one text edit for the password (type your password and press Enter to unlock).

• There are some additional buttons for shutdown and reboot.

• The username is a list that can be navigated with the left and right arrow keys to switch between users and start new sessions.