Orca

Developer(s)	Sun Microsystems and community
Stable release	2.19  (18/6/7) [+/−]
Preview release	n/a  (n/a) [+/−]
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	English
Type	Accessibility
License	Open Source
Website	http://live.gnome.org/Orca/

Orca is an open source, flexible, extensible assistive technology for people with visual impairments. Using various combinations of speech synthesis, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop).

The development of Orca has been led by the Accessibility Program Office of Sun Microsystems, Inc. with contributions from many community members. The original idea and the first working prototype for Orca were created by Mark Mulcahy, a blind programmer who worked for Sun Microsystems.

The name Orca, which is another term for a killer whale, is a nod to the long-standing Assistive Technology product on Windows called JAWS, which is the name of a fictional shark.

As of GNOME 2.16, Orca is a part of the GNOME platform. As a result, Orca is already provided by default on a number of operating system distributions, including Open Solaris, openSUSE, and Ubuntu.

[edit] External links

• Orca Website
• Orca's first programmer/inventor

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