I'm legally blind, and need to know if Zorin OS 16 has accessibility features, such as screen magnification, and text to speech for users with low vision, or total blindness. Very important to know if these features are able to be accessed during installation. If these features exist, how do I invoke the screen magnifier, and or text to speech? Thanks.
Hi and welcome to the forum 
Zorin has Accessibility in Settings same as that in Ubuntu.
I hope other volunteers can tell you how to activate this function during the installation since I've never done it myself.
@Aravisian @zabadabadoo
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@swarfendor437 would be the expert to ask on this one. I have never used those features, either and trying to look up information was unhelpful.
Zorin OS has long been one of the most Prominent Accessibility distros available.
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Hi Thomas_Grillo,
Sadly there is no 'Accessibility' option at boot - the distro that only ever did this to my knowledge was Trisquel 5.5 or 6.0 that actually had the option to run live with the screen reader! Apparently their later offerings base on Ubuntu 13.04 onwards was supposed to allow screenreading after a delay of 30 seconds in live boot mode but I never tried it - Trisquel 5.5 or 6.0 was the best release as the screen reader in live mode was the first menu item of the live menu. I will need to log out of KDE desktop to go into Gnome and advise you of keyboard shortcuts to use and I will need to know if you are using modern nvidia graphics card. Back shortly.
OK, the problem is going to be sound in the first instance. In live mode you should hear a sound when the desktop launches. Give it 30 seconds to settle. Press the Super/Meta key (Windows key on your keyboard) which will launch the Windows 7 Menu. Then just start typing 'settings' then press the Enter key.
Press Ctrl+ S to search for 'accessibility' - you will only need to type in 'acce' and it will be the only item showing - press Enter. Then Press Tab twice and then press the Space bar - this turns the 'show accessibility menu at all times'.
Back in a moment to get the screen reader turned on! Having difficulties with this as unlike Zorin 15 I am having troubles getting any sound at all due to my setup. The program is Orca and to start it via keyboard it is Super+ Alt+ S - have turned orca off in the accessibility menu to check this and it will turn it on provided your sound card/chip is recognised. To configure the back end of Orca (as you would with JAWS) press the key combination of Alt+ F2 and type 'orca space dash dash setup' (orca --setup). To get Zoom function, press Super+ Alt+ 8 - this will max out the zoom function - press Super+ Alt+ - (minus) to reduce a step at a time. Hope this helps!
All you need to know about the Orca screen reader (written by a visually impaired employee of Sun Microsystems by the way before Oracle took them over!) is here: Welcome to Orca
Screen magnification: Screen Zoom and Mouse Indicator on Ubuntu 20.04
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It's like watching a MasterCraftsperson in action. Thanks Swarf, for heeding the call.
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Just to add, try those command of Super+ Alt+ S in live mode and Super+ Alt+ 8 in live mode (and Super+ Alt+ 8 to turn off zoom as per the guide I posted.
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Yes, Zorin OS comes with accessibility features. I should know, cause I have to use one of them sometimes, called Magnifier. I have the magnifier also known as Zoom in many cases, setup with shortcut keys on my keyboard.
I set my magnifier shortcut to holding SUPER ALT 8.
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Great wiring!
Do you think you can add this to the Tutorial section?
I am sure it will benefit many people.
I have added a link to this Thread in Swarf's "Accessiblity" Thread.
I noticed! Sometimes all these linkings, and splittings, get me so confused I don't know whats going on. But one thing was very clear, somebody linked to SWARF's excellent message, and yep, that was you. HEHE
Cool Cool
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