[Question] GTK3 and GTK4: How broken is Accessibility on non Linux Platforms?

[ebassi (Emmanuele Bassi)]

@MeerMusik

• GTK 3.x latest Versions: Only Accessibility Support on Linux because the unmaintained, buggy and partially insecure backend has been removed for WIN32 etc. ?
• GTK 3.x some older Version(s): Accessibility Support for Linux and WIN32 but partly broken

No. GTK3 has no support for accessibility API on Windows or macOS. Never had, and won’t get it in the future, as the toolkit is feature and API frozen.

@MeerMusik

GTK 4: No Accessibility Support whatsoever? Plan to add it eventually. Maybe in 12+ Months if at all as it currently stand looking at the amount of open Issues (personal Gut Feeling here!).

GTK4 has a completely new accessibility API for widget and application developers; underneath it, it “speaks” the same protocol as GTK2, GTK3, Qt, and web browsers—i.e. AT-SPI.

There is currently no implementation for assistive technologies on non-Linux platforms, but the new API in GTK4 is designed to be portable from day 1.