Any #blind #nixos users out there? Any tips on how to install the thing accessibly?

I get to keep my work hardware so am thinking of playing with NixOS, but I can't launch Orca as part of the GNOME installation media. I've read things suggesting folks have done it, but neither the keyboard shortcut or alt-f2 "orca" after booting into the installer gets me any speech. Wondering if I need to load a full desktop first? I grabbed the GNOME media but maybe this doesn't boot into a full desktop? OCRing shows language/package selection but I can't activate the screen reader from here.