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If you enjoy reading accessibility battles between blind users and absolutely clueless software developers, oh boy do I have a thread for you.

This guy is trying to add accessibility to an open source slicing tool for 3d printers, he's even willing to do a lot of the work himself if he gets assurance that his PRs are going to be accepted, but the developers are just not seeing it.

I think my favorite quote in the thread is the following, from one of the lead devs:

"it may be better to have these features NOT accessible to the screnreader[sic] at all (which means they are effectively removed from the UI), because there is no point in presenting a feature that a person cannot use"

Along with a suggestion to implement a half-assed, blindness-specific GUI with half the features later down the thread.

The whole discussion is here, for those brave enough to read it github.com/prusa3d/prusaslicer…

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in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Please provide a content warning. It is much too early in the morning* for this nonsense.

*It is noon

in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

I read through this a month ago, and it was already pathetic. Not sure I have the mental Fortitude to look at it again given the excerpts you’ve posted here. Yikes. PS: this is what I mean when I say that FOSS folks tend not to care about / have useful knowledge of accessibility.
This entry was edited (9 months ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Oh man. Goes 8 months before the first acknowledgement from the developer: "We take your requests seriously. We had two totally blind people visiting us around two weeks ago. It was certainly an interesting and inspiring meeting." And ends with :"We keep your needs in mind, however we all have a load of other work to do. Let's see where your needs will fit in."

Ow ow ow. Thanks for triggering me, you big jerk.

in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

At least they did something at the end. Still it is so disappointing.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

wouldn’t operating the printer once you’ve managed to slice the object also be a problem though?
in reply to Dragon

@Dragon People do it. Don't ask me how, I'm not one of them, but they do. Definitely more than just this one person, as you can see from the thread.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

not suggesting they shouldn’t be able to use it btw just concerned given the reliability of 3d printers and the potential for fire in the worst case
in reply to Dragon

@Dragon As I said, I'm the worst person to talk to when this is concerned. I know of several people who do this and of some respected institutions who teach the skill to blind people, so I suppose there must be a way to do it safely.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

not surprised at all; had a similar experience when I tried to make something more accessible in an open source project; it got merged, but later reverted - because it now required an extra TAB from all users.
On a similar note: it's quite astonishing if you get user feedback from someone who is not blind, but cannot see properly. Uses a screen reader, mouse, keyboard, but is baffled when features are hidden from screen readers or keyboards. Rightly so, in my opinion 😕
This entry was edited (9 months ago)
in reply to Patrick Schriner

@pschriner Yeah hiding features from screen readers and/or requiring SR users to use a special, blind-friendly UI is just all-out bad practice.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

I really can't understand some developers. Why would you not want more people using your software?
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Holy shit.

That is a masterclass in how to _not_ handle accessibility request in #OSS.

Prusa needs to do better. Frankly, probably all #3dPrinting tools need to be better, but how this was handled is egregious.

The one positive takeaway was the reference to See3D in the issue thread. Glad I found out about that as it seems like a good organization.

see3d.org/index

This entry was edited (8 months ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

@NoahCarver My key take on this is specialized solutions for blind people has been tried earlier and it didn't end up well.
An example of this is edbrowse.
I have been thinking; A specialized solution might unlock more capabilities. The argument against the idea is it becomes difficult to maintain. Well, I have no experience here.
I'll think more on this and perhaps right a blogpost about it.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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