I accidentally opened Orca Screen Reader from the Dash when I was trying to open Screenshot. Now everything I type or click on is spoken out loud.
How do I make it stop?
For reference, here is a screenshot of Orca Screen Reader running:
11 Answers
If you don't need assistance, you might want to consider:
sudo apt-get remove orca
sudo apt-get remove gnome-orca
killall orca
I say this from the unpleasant experience of accidentally triggering it on several occasions. It is a sledgehammer approach but I have absolutely no use for it.
If you want to keep it but it's starting on boot now, short of hunting through the application to look for the off-switch, consider this question too.
Also note that the package name is transitioning from gnome-orca to orca. I'm leaving both above for the duration of supported releases.
From the manual for Orca:
Insert+Q quit orca.
I've filed a bug about the poor user experience that results from Orca's current behavior.
Keyboard Shortcut
Alt+Super+S also works to turn Orca off (or on).
Ubuntu 18.04+ : Configure the Keyboard Shortcut
In Ubuntu 18.04+, this keyboard shortcut is configured as follows...
- Open "System Settings"
- Select "Keyboard Shortcuts" in the left panel
- Scroll to the "Universal Access" section in the right panel
- Click "Turn screen reader on or off"
- In the pop-up dialog, enter a new key combination to toggle Orca on or off
Ubuntu 18.04+ : Turn Off Orca using the GUI
You can also turn off Orca using the GUI. In Ubuntu 18.04+, the steps are...
- Open "System Settings"
- Select "Universal Access" in the left panel
- Scroll to the "Seeing" section in the right panel
- Click "Screen Reader
- In the pop-up dialog, slide the toggle to the left to turn off Orca
Ubuntu 14.04 : Configure the Keyboard Shortcut
In Ubuntu 14.04, this keyboard shortcut is configured as follows...
- Open "System Settings"
- Select "Keyboard"
- Select "Shortcuts" tab
- In the left panel, select "Universal Access"
- In the right panel, select "Turn screen reader on or off"
- Enter a new key combination to toggle Orca on or off.
- Turn off sound
- Open a terminal
$ killall orca- Turn on sound again
Gui Method:
Open up System Settings, click on the button that reads universal access, click on the tab seeing and on that tab page turn the screen reader from on to off. Or, if the screen reader was started some other way, turn it on and then off again.
In the spirit of Ubuntu and greater linux open source philosophies that every user should be able to use all software regardless of disability 1, here are a few inclusive solutions that extend beyond users who don't need or want to use Orca.
Disable Orca with Shorcut Keys Alt + Super + S
According the official accessibility documentation, disabling Orca can be toggled with hotkeys:
Alt + Super + S
Of course, if you're running a stand alone window manager like openbox (talking to you, Lubuntu users), the keybindings are different. The rc.xml would have to be configured by you to include an execute action for Orca. See
Or use one of the following methods...
