Speakup, originally written by Kirk Reiser and Andy Berdan, is a screen review package for the Linux operating system.
Speakup allows you to interact with applications and the GNU/Linux operating system with audible feedback from the console using a synthetic speech device.
Speakup is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Speakup allows you to navigate around the screen using the typical screen review functions such as say word, say line, announce cursor position, which console your currently on, and much, much more. It also allows one to load in configuration parameters for controlling various aspects of the synthesizer you are using, as well as speakup itself. You can review the current default key assignments here.
Currently, the following synthesizers are supported by speakup:
The synthesizers which are in development or waiting for other changes to speakup include:
There are a number of synths which we have not undertaken to write drivers for yet because we do not either have a synth to work with or cannot get documentation. The TrippleTalk PCI falls into this category.
Speakup is available for the top three distributions Debian, Slackware and Fedora Core. See our Linux Distributions page for more information. You can install the entire GNU/Linux system with speech.
Our FTP area contains several speech-enabled boot disks, but these are mostly of historical relevance. See the disks directory. Be warned; most of the information contained therein is dated.
Speakup is a set of kernel modules which means you should have some kernel building experience before attempting to install it from source code. We have tried to make the patching and configuration as painless as possible, but kernel compilation is an involved process requiring a good understanding of your hardware.
Speakup currently works with 3.x and 4.x kernels. Older versions supported 2.2.x, 2.4.x, and 2.6.x kernels, though these kernels are no longer under active development.
Speakup is now part of the Linux kernel itself. The downloadable source releases available from this website are historical, and they will not build or work with kernels from the 3.x or later series. However, our last source release still does contain external tools and documentation that will be of interest. You can find that on our downloads page.
Click here to go directly to our FTP site.
Over the years speakup has been rewritten, modified and enhanced by many members of the blind community. We would like to thank everyone that has participated in our various projects and in particular: Matt Campbell, Jim Danley, David Borrowski, Daniel Drake, Samuel Thibault, Yue Shao, William Hubbs and Chris Brannon. If we have over looked anyone please accept our apology and let us know so we can correct the above list.