Please provide some updated details.

[Willie Walker]

Hi Krishnakant:

> I am so happy to get such a positive response from you.
> well I did not ask on the orca mailing list because I know that my
> questions are too stupid for the linux geeks working on orca.

The Orca mailing list is composed more of end users at this point than 
Linux geeks, and we all try to work together to help each other out.  Us 
Linux geeks on the list then try to take this information back and make 
appropriate modifications to Orca.

> talking about open office,
> which version has the best accessibility?

I'm going to let Mike Pedersen and Rich Burridge answer that one, as 
they have been focused on it more than I have (I've been sweating over 
Firefox while also trying to keep some sort of general direction and 
focus going for Orca).  I think I know the answer, but there's been a 
little bit of a churn over the past few days so I'm a little confused 
about the exact facts.

> further more I am wondering if we can have 6.06 work good some how with 
> orca?
> I am asking this because dapper is long time support and thus rock solid.

For usability with Orca and for some stability on environments us geeks 
are familiar with, I'd suggest using Solaris Express Developer Edition 
build 55b (free) or Ubuntu Edgy.  Dapper is not going to be a good 
solution because the GNOME version on it is too old -- we've made a lot 
of improvement to the accessibility support for GNOME since Dapper was 
released.

You're best bet from there is to grab the latest release of Orca 
(v2.17.92 as of this writing) or Orca from SVN.  I'd also consider 
grabbing the latest Firefox and OOo pre-release nightly builds since a 
lot of the work in them includes accessibility fixes/enhancements us 
Orca folks have been requesting.

> the other stupid question I keep on thinking and pondering about is if
> I use firefox 2.0 with firevox plugin will it not be accessible enough
> to read emails or just surff normal pages?

Right now, your best bet for eMail is Evolution.  We're working on 
Thunderbird, but it still remains a little out of our reach.

I'm also keeping an eye on FireVox.  For us, it has been great to fill a 
gap for web accessibility as we work out the accessibility story for 
Firefox 3.0.  Charles Chen, the guy developing FireVox, is very excited 
about it and also has a lot of energy.  I wish we could convince him to 
work on Orca :-).

Hope this helps,

Will