this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Is there any hope for accessibility on Linux? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by early_riser@lemmy.world to c/linuxquestions@lemmy.zip
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TL;DR: Is my statement below incorrect? Are there in fact meaningful efforts to improve accessibility on Linux? Are there distros that people have actually used practically that make an effort to be accessible?

I have used desktop Linux on and off since 2009, mostly flavors of Ubuntu with occasional detours into things like Arch or CentOS (RIP).

I currently have Mint installed on a separate drive but I can't fully break away from Windows because as a blind user the experience is not only unsatisfactory it has gotten worse in the years I've been using it. Orca hasn't improved at all, and the magnifier has actually lost functionality at some point, my guess is the move away from GNOME 2. Among other things you used to be able to assign arbitrary modifier keys to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel but this is no longer the case.

I have little faith that things will improve. Any given Linux distro isn't one product, it's a bunch of different projects. One group makes the kernel, another makes the shell, another the window manager, yet another makes the desktop environment, audio, bluetooth, graphics drivers etc. All these make the assumption that the user is able-bodied, and bolting accessibility on top of all these disparate systems after the fact is very difficult. It's no accident that MacOS and iOS are frequently cited as the most accessible platforms. Apple controls the entire stack from hardware to UI and even many of the apps and has the resources to devote to serving a comparatively tiny portion of their userbase.

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[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 19 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Apple controls the entire stack

It's sad but the truth is: Apple and Microsoft can do this because they have a lot of money. Linux is not funded as it should be, and individual developers have neither the time nor the money to take care of a subject they know nothing about.

I have only found this page on the topic (https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/inclusion-accessibility) but I'm pretty sure it's a niche subject. You need time and money to develop all those features, you need testers and web sites to coordinate your development, and you need doctors and stuff to guide the developers. It's hard for a reason.

[–] Peter1986C@piefed.europe.pub 8 points 4 days ago

The link you posted is broken because it seems to miss the "y" at the end. It should be: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/inclusion-accessibility

[–] lascapi@jlai.lu 4 points 3 days ago

That's sad but that's not the first time in heard that.

In the KDE Plasma version 6.5 the screen magnifier work well with, for example Meta+Ctrl+mouse scroll.

However, for a screen reader I have no idea how it's should work and cannot test.

[–] nous@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

There has been some noise about the state of accessibility in Linux last year. Seems that things are improving and the Devs of major DEs are taking things more seriously. From a more recent blog post on the topic:

Developers Are Rising to the Challenge

Here’s the good news: I’ve talked to developers from GNOME, KDE, and Fedora.

They get it. And they’re taking it seriously.

GNOME’s Wayland session is now stable and usable with Orca. KDE is catching up — and has a legally blind developer leading accessibility improvements. COSMIC is building Wayland from scratch with accessibility and global hotkey support in mind. For once, accessibility isn’t just a postscript. It’s in the room where design happens.

This transition is happening — but we’re not being ignored anymore.

https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-4-wayland-is-growing-up-and-now-we-dont-have-a-choice/

The other posts in that series gives a good overview of previous things as well. Seems that author has been successful in raising awareness about the subject which hopefully will help improve things.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Addendum to my previous reply. I've installed Pop!_OS on bare metal. The magnifier is marginally better. Scrolling to zoom doesn't also pass the input to the current application causing a page to scroll at the same time. That's good. Invert colors is present, but there's no obvious quick way to switch between normal and inverted. There's no options to change the size or color of the cursor, though I did find a config file /etc/environment with a cursor size setting. Unfortunately the cursor size depends on the currently focused app, so if the cursor is over the desktop or a component of the DE like the settings app, its size will reflect the setting in /etc/environment but if you move it over a Firefox window, for example, it will shrink.

Orca is as bad as ever, perhaps worse since there's no obvious way in the GUI to change screen reader settings like verbosity and rate.

UPDATE:

Much of the documentation references options that are no longer present, I assume referring to GNOME rather than Cosmic. Docs on Github, for example, mention typing and pointing & clicking as options in the accessibility settings menu, but these are not present in Cosmic.

So I'm not much better off.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Currently trying Pop_OS in a VM.

Long way to go but the fact it presents the accessibility options the first time you log in post install shows some thought has been put into it. Magnifier is present, and unlike Mint there's an invert color option. Haven't explored enough to see if any of this can be globally bound to keyboard shortcuts. Orca still craps the bed as soon as it's started but that might be due to the VM not playing nice with audio. My use case is reading text under the mouse. It has to be responsive and it has to read more than just a line. Paragraphs are usually the ideal.

[–] DeuxChevaux@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

When it comes to magnifiers, then XFCE may be an option, where you can magnify your desktop almost down to the pixel with just 'alt + mouse wheel.'

[–] e0qdk@reddthat.com 3 points 4 days ago

where you can magnify your desktop almost down to the pixel with just 'alt + mouse wheel.'

You can do that in Cinnamon as well (via the Accessibility settings); the key configuration is just limited to Alt/Super/Ctrl/Shift for some reason.

[–] SethranKada@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago

There's Vojtux? https://github.com/vojtapolasek/vojtux

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Nobody tell this guy that the painting in his living room is HIDEOUS! It would break his heart...

[–] leftascenter@jlai.lu 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't have a clue but you may try a KDE plasma on a stick to check if the latest iteration is better than gnome on that side

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Why would you even say anything in response to this post if you have to start with "I don't have a clue...", implying that you already know your comment is useless? It's just a waste of everybody's time - including yours (and now mine if you don't learn to be more judicious in making comments). I appreciate wanting to be helpful, but unless you actually are then you're just being counterproductive.

[–] leftascenter@jlai.lu 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because OP hasn't tried the DE which has most chances of answering their need, and that their exact need as blind covers a range of needs only OP knows about.

Why would you even waste time being a sanctimonious ape?

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world -3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Explain why you think your suggestion might be helpful in your first comment then, rather than leaving the OP guessing why they should invest the time. Read my profile for an answer to that last part.

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The threadiverse/lemmy is a niche community in the scheme of things, and talking about issues that impact a small portion of that niche community can often lead to resounding silence. Sometimes, someone taking a best guess, even if not speaking from first hand experience is better than no response at all, as long as they make it clear that they're not speaking from lived experience.

Of course, the OP may not want to hear from people offering guesses, but even if they don't make that explicit, unlike on reddit or other popular centralised spaces, at least they're unlikely to be swamped with a wave of well intentioned guesses.

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world -1 points 4 days ago

While that's probably true, I think it's understandable how one can see such a vague, incomplete response as being unhelpful. It just seems so pointless to me to not even give a minimal explanation of why you think it might help - which wasn't done until I complained to that effect.