Desktop launchers invisible to Orca

[Chris Norman]

With the Orca screen reader enabled, the launchers on the desktop ("Install Ubuntu Mate 16.10" and "Ubuntu Mate's Home" for example) won't speak.

You should be able to move with the arrow keys and hear them spoken, but this does not happen.

[Matthew Dyer (graduater2004)]

Running the latesed updates in ubuntu mate 17.10 orca is silent when on desktop or in menus, but speaks in apps like firefox, thunderbird. Not suere if this is similar, but adding my input here just in case. Using a vertual machine if that matters or not.

[Maksym Bilak (bmivzkrp-deactivatedaccount)]

In Ubuntu-MATE-18.04.1 I see the following situation: if the desktop is empty, Orca pretends , as if the desktop does not exist at all. For example, you can not access the desktop using the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + ESC or similar.

[majid hussain (mhussaincov93)]

hi there!
make sure that in /Preferences/Assistive Technologies is enabled!
this often happens if assistive technology is not enabled.
enableing this setting and logging out then back in for me at least fixes this issue,
doo report back and tell us if it works for you,

[Maksym Bilak (bmivzkrp-deactivatedaccount)]

In Ubuntu-MATE, support for assistive technology is enabled by default. This problem is still present in Ubuntu-MATE 18.04. I have not used more recent Ubuntu releases.

[Maksym Bilak (bmivzkrp-deactivatedaccount)]

Ubuntu 20.04 does not have this problem (even when assistive technology is off).