Bug#1034248: release-notes: Document that GTK4 apps are not accessible with screen reader
On Thu, 27 Apr 2023 22:19:53 +0200 Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
> Paul Gevers <elbrus@debian.org> wrote (Thu, 27 Apr 2023 22:10:16 +0200):
> >
> > + If you depend on a screen reader and want to upgrade to &releasename;,
> > we suggest
> > + that you install a desktop like MATE instead of GNOME.
> >
> > I guess our recommendation also holds for new installs. So maybe leave
> > out the "and want to upgrade to bookworm" part?
I think this should be very high up - first <section> in the file,
rather than at the end - seems like this is going
to be a really big issue for some people.
Perhaps at least tell them how to switch to mate (eg: what package to
install - is it mate-desktop or is mate-desktop-environment needed for
accessibility - i assume the latter is better?)
And can we clarify "much less accessible" mean - doesnt work at all or
something less worrying? (i couldnt find anything
aimed at users on this)
also - is a switch to mate rally all that is needed - would you not
also need to switch away from every
GTK4 app as well?, or do apps under mate revert to GTK3 again?
Especially i would want to know: does Orca work under Mate? do any
settings copy across?
(i found a page on debian's wiki but it's not very illuminating -
hopefully because it all just works!)
Is it all screen readers (2nd para) or just orca?
Some minor word changes and markup suggestions:
(I wasnt sure if i have described GTK3/4 right - is it better to say
version 4 of GTK for example?)
<section id="gnome-has-reduced-accessibility-support-for-screen-readers">
<title>GNOME has reduced accessibility support for screen readers</title>
<para>
Many <literal>GNOME</literal> apps have switched from the
<literal>GTK3</literal> graphics toolkit to <literal>GTK4</literal>.
Sadly, this has made many apps much less usable with screen
readers such as <program>Orca</program>.
</para>
<para>
If you depend on a screen reader you should consider switching to
a different desktop such as
<ulink url="https://mate-desktop.org";>Mate</ulink>, which has
better accessibility support. <!-- still vague - what does 'better'
really mean? -->
You can do this by installing the <sysitem
role="package">mate-desktop-environment</sysitem> package. <!--
anything else? -->
Information about how to use Orca under
Mate is available at <ulink
url="https://wiki.debian.org/Accessibility/Orca#MATE";>here</ulink>.
</para>
</section>
Ideally someone who is affected by this would comment too - im sure
there are lots of questions that wouldnt occur to me that should be
included here.
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