Introduction
There is a widespread misconception among sighted developers: if an application runs in a terminal, it is inherently accessible. This belief is based on the idea that, without graphics or complex DOMs, the content is mere raw ASCII text that screen readers can easily parse. However, the reality is quite different.
The Issue with Modern TUIs
Modern Text User Interfaces (TUIs) are often more hostile to accessibility than poorly coded graphical interfaces. Tools designed to enhance developer experience in the terminal, such as Ink (JS/React), Bubble Tea (Go), or tcell, are actively undermining the experience for blind users.
Technical Foundations
The command-line interface is essentially a stream of data with the newest data at the bottom, linearly going back in time. Screen readers can handle this quite easily. However, modern TUIs, made with recent frameworks, are very different: they are "2D grids of pixels, where every character cell is a pixel. They abandon the temporal flow for a spatial layout."
Challenges for Screen Readers
Screen readers get disoriented because the cursor jumps all over the place with every screen update. For instance, while older TUIs like Irssi used VT100 scrolling regions, modern frameworks redraw the entire screen with every change.
How to Solve the Issue
- Utilize Terminal Features: Developers should leverage the basic functionalities of the terminal, such as scrolling, to make TUIs more accessible.
- User-Centric Design: Involve blind users in the development process to understand their specific needs.
- Integrated Accessibility Tools: Incorporate tools that help test and improve accessibility from the start of development.
Examples of Best Practices
- Irssi: Uses native terminal solutions, reducing unnecessary screen updates.
- Ncurses: Offers options to manage screens in a way more friendly to screen readers.
Conclusion
Modern TUIs have the potential to be as accessible as their graphical counterparts, but this requires serious consideration of accessibility from the onset. The developer community must integrate these concerns into their practices to prevent accessibility from becoming an afterthought.
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