Accessibility/Plasma

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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:

Go to System Settings
Go to Section "Accessibility"
Go to Tab "Screenreader"
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 or Meta opens the K-Menu Application launcher just fine.
Alt+Space opens krunner. you can just type ahead to search for applications, documents and other stuff. Navigate with Arrow UP and Arrow Down in the search list and activate an entry with Return

Accessing the Panels

Meta+Alt+P toggles between the panels. you can navigate the panel by Arrow Keys and activate an entry with space or Return

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.