Source: https://linux-hardware.org/?view=os_display_server
Reporting is done by users who voluntarily upload their system specs via
# hw-probe -all -upload
this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Anyone who needs accessibility is screwed as Wayland takes over. Let's hope we can still choose for another say 40 years. Then, I'll be done, and Wayland can rule. Pity those who will still need accessibility options though.
Are you serious? Every sane desktop is working on accessibility. I recently heard from System76 that they're putting in the effort for COSMIC, we have GNOME focusing a portion of that €1 million they got from Germany, on accessibility (last I heard, they're working on cross-desktop solutions). Now, I don't remember hearing much from Plasma on accessibility, but I think it's fair to assume they're also working on it.
User skullgiver provides an excellent answer as to why. It's a shame, but it's a reality that most apps won't expose themselves properly, and hence accessibility is over in Wayland. Despite their excellent efforts.
How so?
GNOME is working on a new Accessibility Toolkit for all desktops, funded by the $1M from STF. It's intended to make accessibility better on Wayland.
Watch thisweek.gnome.org for updates on accessibility; there's usually one. Here's a very recent article about how it's going from LWN: https://lwn.net/Articles/971541/
Also: https://github.com/AccessKit/accesskit
My understanding is that AccessKit is an entirely separate thing to the portal.
Unfortunately, for several things, your choices are X, which is broken by design and few developers QA their software for anymore, or Wayland, which works pretty well in many areas, but where several important (or even basic) features are quagmired by bike shedding. But things are improving really quickly, and part of that is everyone shifting focus to Wayland.
I recently tried to navigate my GNOME desktop via screen reader and did not enjoy the experience. If I ever need it, I hope it works properly by that point...
At least for me, X is a worse experience on every computer I own (including the NVIDIA one), which is why I use Wayland. Neither is problem-free. I'm fortunate enough not to depend on accessibility features; perhaps my opinion would be different then.
Ah ok. Thank you for the detailed answer.
I really don't get the whole Wayland vs X11 thing. X11 works fine, why crate an alternative? What's so great about Wayland that can't be implemented in X11?
The problem is, X11 doesn't really work fine for modern usage.
It kinda falls apart with multiple monitors, especially when they require different scaling or refresh rates (or both), HDR support would be incredibly difficult to add, it's buggy, it's virtually impossible to maintain or add features. Often fixing a bug breaks things, because the bugs in it are so old that programs have actually been designed around them, or even to utilise them.
Now imagine trying to adapt X for use with VR/AR displays and all the differences in window management that'll be required for that.
It's a security nightmare. Any app can see what any other app is doing. That means that if you have a nefarious app, it can scrape any information on your screen, without even needing root privileges. Then there's a load of other vulnerabilities.
The developers have moved to Wayland because X is structurally unfixable.
Thank you for the great explanation. I haven't been keeping tabs on this subject so I'm a bit ignorant about the limitations of X11 advantages of Wayland.
For me X11 just worked and I was happy with that. I want aware of the security issues either.
This is exactly the problem I meant. Thank you for such a detailed overview of the issue. Most apps won't provide for it, and as you described why technically, it will mean the end of accessibility as a system whole.