NixOS as a glimmer of hope for accessibility

https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-1-built-for-control-but-not-for-people/

A blog post about how NixOS provides important solutions to accessibility related issues for blind users. I wasn’t aware of these issues and think it’s great that NixOS also provides benefits in such areas that usually receive little attention.

Quote:
"There is one glimmer of actual promise:
NixOS.

It’s not accessible by default. Not yet.
But it’s built differently. And that matters.

You define your system as code.
You can pin package versions.
You can rebuild the exact same setup on another machine.
You can roll back changes if something breaks.
You can guarantee that your screen reader is installed, configured, and enabled every single time.

That’s the future.
That’s how we make accessibility reliable.
Not with fragile scripts or one-person distros—but with reproducible systems that treat configuration like infrastructure."

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A good start would be a wiki page that lists the already existing options and how to get them working. I have no problem doing it myself, but I currently don’t have any of the knowledge necessary to fill such a wiki article.

Creating a team which focuses on accessabilty would be a nice next step. But this will be something that isn’t as easy than creating a wiki page.

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while we do already have the accessibility issue label, maybe another step forward would be creating a related matrix channel. i’m not sure if there’s a process to adding one in the existing nixos space, tho this one seems to have opted for making that a follow-up step.

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I would guess that creating a channel when asking in #matrix-discussion:nixos.org for the requirements to get it into the official space is the most natural order of actions.

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as per #matrix-discussion:nixos.org:

To include your room into one of the Nix Matrix spaces, an admin on nixos.org [ “@admin:nixos.org” ] has to be invited and elevated to admin in your matrix room. For rooms outside the Topics and Community Rooms subspaces, all other admins must have stepped down to Moderator. (And even for rooms in those subspaces, you might want to consider this.) Admins can’t be demoted by other admins, so if you e.g. lose access to your Matrix account, you might end up with an account with admin privileges that can’t be removed. Having @mjolnir:nixos.org (a bot running on official infrastructure) be the only admin in the room ensures continuity of access that doesn’t rely on individual Matrix accounts.
You can just create a room and invite admin (Moderation Team) to this room. After that, post your room to #matrix-suggestions:nixos.org.

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to further discuss steps forward, we have set up a matrix channel at #a11y:nixos.org, along with a pad to put notes on this. if you’re interested, please join! :slight_smile:

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