Using and accessing MATE/Welcome

Welcome

Introduction

Welcome in the Using and Accessing MATE tutorial. This tutorial has been designed to provide visually impaired people with a means of understanding the concept of the graphical environment on MATE and how it works.. This book has the benefits of a training that includes theoretical lessons and practical exercises. It makes it easy to select topics, listen to or read explanations at your own pace, and return to them as required.

This course, divided into six modules, covers the following topics:

• MATE basic concepts
• Writer, word processing
• File manager
• Get help using MATE
• System configuration
• Introduction to the Internet

Each module is divided into lessons. The final lesson in each module takes the form of a series of five multiple choice questions based on the concepts covered.

For this course, we assume that you have a computer running MATE, with Compiz as window manager. The configuration that brings you closest to the requirements of this book is provided by the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, installed with a visually impaired user profile.

Some lessons include screenshots, for sighed and partially sighted people, in order to present what we are talking about. These captures should be accessible if you use the magnifying glass. In addition, if you connect a touch module to your PC for reading 3D images, you will be able to walk around the windows and the different elements they contain.

If you don't have the tactile module, you can order a tactile manual that reproduces and adapts the screen copies included inside this book onto Braille paper. This manual contains the same raised diagrams, numbered in the same order as in the content of the book.

As the explanations of this book are designed to low-vision and blind persons, all the lessons describe the menu and the keyboard commands. The appendix contains a quick reference to the keyboard shortcuts.

This tutorial is designed to be used with assistive technologies, e.g. a screen reader a Braille display or a a magnifying glass utility. Therefore this tutorial is different from others available on the Internet because it contains no essential illustrations that would be inaccessible, neither animated sequences nor videos.

Another appendix contains an additional help about the list of the commands provided by the Orca screen reader and which are related to what is shown in this book. When an Orca command is related to a concept being taught, a note will mention it.

On that note, we wish you a stimulating and rewarding experience!

What are the writing conventions in this manual?

Every manual uses certain writing conventions that ensure consistency and make it easier to read. We use few of them and here they are:

1. All the step-by-step processes and all exercises are presented as numbered lists.
2. Abbreviations are used to designate certain keys: ctrl for control; shift for upper case; alt for the alternative key; tab for tabulation.
3. All the commands and commands combinations are written in lowercase and keys that must be pressed simultaneously are joined by a plus sign. For example ctrl+alt+down arrow. This means that you need to press and hold down the ctrl, alt and down arrow keys, before releasing all of them.