Vojtux – Unofficial Linux Distribution Aimed at Visually Impaired Users

The tricky thing with these "unofficial" distros is that they are generally maintained by either a single individual or a small group of people.

This is true for many accessibility projects actually (game mods, third-party UIs for inaccessible services/platforms, etc.). These are generally really meant as short-term patches while the problem gets fixed, except ... the problem often doesn't get fixed because the platforms in question figure it's been solved now and they don't need to care about it anymore.

Accessibility really only works when it's an ongoing, first-class process within an app/platform's design, and we can absolutely do that; the standards and guidelines have existed for decades. People working in cybersecurity, localization, general UX should recognize this song and dance, which is amusing because a lot of the tools of those trades have atrocious accessibility and require all sorts of workarounds, ask me how I know.

People just ... aren't including it in this way, which means people like myself (screen reader user and accessibility professional) essentially have to keep reminding people that we exist and that it's kinda shitty to keep forgetting about that fact or to decide the least amount of effort possible (LLM, unpaid volunteer, send in a PR LMAO) is enough to cater to people who have very real, very annoying and very constant UX issues we either crash into or crash through on literally an hourly basis.

Are there "official" Linux distributions?

Here's an interview (in Czech) with Vojta, the main (only) developer. There might be follow up articles discussing specific issues he's facing as user and as a developer.

https://www.root.cz/clanky/pristupnost-se-musi-stat-obcanem-...

I'm glad to see things like this get built. I hate to admit it but I rarely consider impaired usecases when building things. I wonder how technology is changing this usecase lately both on the user end and the design end. (I know, AI) I imagine an LLM could help discover inadequate UI and build alternative workflows into products more easily.