[BRLTTY] Footsteps towards better accessibility in Linux

[Elias Oltmanns]

On 2025-05-21 at 18:33:55 (+0200), Nicolas Pitre <nico at fluxnic.net> 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.

This definitely is good news and cool stuff, too. Still, I do not think
that it completely invalidates my point given the character injection
experience.

>
>> 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.

Thanks a lot!

>
>> 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.

This is a very fair point and I definitely appreciate your work, as well
as that of the other usual suspects on this list like Dave, Samuel and
more. But it is getting harder and more time consuming for most of us on
an individual level to figure out comfortable or even viable
alternatives for common workflows in a GUI environment. Especially using
the web without too many restrictions in a comfortable environment for
braille users will require a team effort either way, it seems to me.

Once again, thanks for your contributions in terms of code and to this
discussion.

Best wishes,

Elias