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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 https://github.com/prusa3d/prusaslicer/issues/7595

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

Drew Mochak
Drew Mochak
• •

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

*It is noon

in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Noah Carver 👨🏼‍🦯🇺🇦
Noah Carver 👨🏼‍🦯🇺🇦
• •
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 (2 months ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Drew Mochak
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

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

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

Mikołaj Hołysz
Mikołaj Hołysz
• •
@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.
@Dragon
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Dragon
Dragon
• •
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

Mikołaj Hołysz
Mikołaj Hołysz
• •
@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.
@Dragon
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Patrick Schriner
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 (2 months ago)
in reply to Patrick Schriner

Mikołaj Hołysz
Mikołaj Hołysz
• •
@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.
@Patrick Schriner
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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

Kyle Davis
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.

https://see3d.org/index

See3D - 3D Printing for the Blind

see3d.org
#oss #3dprinting
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

Abdulqadir Ahmad
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

ziggy
ziggy
• •
I would say this is how product management works. There is _always_ limited capacity. So every feature wish needs to be weighted: does it benefit multiple users, and does it benefit more user more than the other 100 wishes? More crucial: are there ways to fulfil the users needs with less effort so we can still fit it in? Sometimes its also: what do the users _really_ need (not in that case, but you can still see that they try to find out whether the PR is a real solution)
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