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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…

App is nearly inaccessible for blind users · Issue #7595 · prusa3d/PrusaSlicer

Version 2.4.0 Operating system Windows 10/11 and Mac Bigsur; Linux to be tested Behavior Expected Results Blind users should be able to reach all interface options, all controls should be properly ...
GitHub

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in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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Drew Mochak

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

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Patrick Schriner

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 (1 year ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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Kyle Davis

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

See3D - 3D Printing for the Blind

see3d.org
#oss #3dprinting
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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Abdulqadir Ahmad 😎

@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.
@Noah Carver 👨🏼‍🦯🇺🇦
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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ziggy

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