linux accessibility and different desktops for a total

[Benson Muite]

On Fri, Jan 3, 2025, at 4:42 PM, Anna (cybertailor) Vyalkova wrote:
> On 2025-01-03 07:11, Daniel Crone wrote:
>>I am a totally blind computer user, familiar with the following platforms:
>>windows
>>Macintosh, Tiger and up
>>ubuntu linux
>>Fedora linux
>>and as for desktops with linux I have used gnome and mate.
>>I hasten to add I am no programmer, just someone who write's text files, checks e-mail, and reads articles on the internet.
>>Since I use orca and use keyboard commands and no mouse, for a total, what is an advantage of one desktop over another?
>>I would welcome anyone's thoughts as to why one might favor the k d e desktop over another.
>>I had thoughtt that prefering one desktop over another would mainly 
>>have to do with its appearance for sighted users.
>
> People choose desktops based on end user experience they provide. Visual 
> appearance is a part of it, but resource usage, perfomance, stability, 
> configurability and other things are also important.
>

Community areound the desktop can also be a deciding factor.

>>Also, why is the k d e desktop not yet as accessible as others?
>
> KDE uses Qt framework, which I guess was always less accessible than 
> GTK. This is even more true since Qt Declarative (QML) became more 
> popular, as it requires you to create components from scrach, making it 
> easy to miss things like keyboard navigation and labels.
>

This is getting better.  Many of the accessibility hooks are used in software testing of the GUIs.

> KDE makes a slow progress in improving accessibility, but it's far from 
> ready yet.

Feedback is always helpful.  A lightweight desktop based on KWin maybe more useful than the full KDE desktop if you primarily use the keyboard and do not use a mouse.  Configurability of audio will likely be another concern, as would  internet browser.  Terminal based internet browsers typically have poor javascript support.  Nyxt browser:
https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/
maybe interesting, but it is difficult to package.

Many KDE developers appreciate feedback, but often create applications in their spare time to fit their needs.  For documents, consider trying Okular 
https://okular.kde.org/
which is actively developed and has many accessibility features.