[BRLTTY] Footsteps towards better accessibility in Linux

[Devin Prater]

Thank you, Nicolas, for your work. I'm slowly but surely moving to Linux 
for more things, my latest move being to purchase a BT Speak, which uses 
the console with BRLTTY providing speech, with Braille input. So I'm 
very glad work is still being done to improve things.

On 5/21/25 11:33 AM, Nicolas Pitre wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Apr 2025, Elias Oltmanns wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>>
>> On 2025-04-03 at 21:42:18 (+0200), Nicolas Pitre <nico at fluxnic.net> wrote:
>>> My comments are inline below.
>>> On Tue, 1 Apr 2025, Aura Kelloniemi wrote:
>>>
>>>> Most of us, I believe, are using the Linux console daily. It works quite
>>>> nicely for most of us, I think. There are some issues though: most
>>>> importantly, sighted people generally don't use Linux console nowadays.
>>>> Linux's console infrastructure is pretty much deprecated and the code receives
>>>> very little maintenance.
>>>
>>> I didn't see any deprecation notice yet. And the code receives little
>>> maintenance because for the most part it just works!
>>
>> Well, if memory serves me right, Samuel had to raise the alarm rather
>> forcefully in order to keep character injection working only a few years
>> ago. My impression was that he may have had a hard time getting his
>> patches into the main line kernel exactly because there are not many
>> people comfortable touching the old code and because most users were not
>> affected. It was impressive and quite a stroke of luck to the
>> unsuspecting braille user that Samuel not only saw this issue coming
>> very early on but also was able to provide patches and persuade people
>> to merge them eventually.
> 
> Yep. I provided a little persuasion nudge too.
> 
>> The watch dog part of this will be required whatever component the
>> accessibility stack relies upon, but there are good reasons to believe
>> that getting patches merged into ancient parts of the linux kernel is
>> and should be harder than more recent code running in user space.
> 
> For the record, in the last month or so, I've contributed a total of 24
> patches modifying the Linux console that are on their way for inclusion
> in Linux v6.16. They cover:
> 
> - Updated character double-width handling (moved from Unicode 5.0 to 16.0)
> 
> - Added support for zero-width characters
> 
> - added support for Unicode decomposition
> 
> - Display of a fallback glyph when the actual glyph is unavailable
> 
> - Native support for bracketed paste (with a hook for BRLTTY's benefit)
> 
> - Extension to obtain the cursor position on screens larger than 256x256 characters
> 
> So it is not as hard as it may seem if you are serious.
> 
>> Writing this email in Emacs within tmux running on the console right
>> now, the space after 😊 gets swallowed on my braille
>> display.Subsequent editing on the same line gets very confusing
>> because characters change position or double on a screen refresh.
> 
> This will be fixed once you start using that new kernel.
> 
>> So, the nice thing is that we actually have a choice between sustaining
>> the console experience and improving the GUI experience, the hard thing
>> is to figure out where to invest our resources most effectively. That is
>> why I welcome Auras initiative for this discussion.
> 
> I strongly prefer working in a console environments, which is why I've
> focused my development efforts and contributions there. Working
> independently, I've made useful progress. We have to recognize that
> creating equivalent GUI functionality would require a team effort rather
> than a solo endeavor though.
> 
> In any case, involvement is required. Nothing ever happens without it.
> 
> 
> Nicolas
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list.
> To post a message, send an e-mail to: BRLTTY at brltty.app
> For general information, go to: http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty

-- 
Devin Prater