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abtinftoday at 1:11 PM8 repliesview on HN

The first thing I look for in any UI library is accessibility support. Makes it trivial to filter out toy projects.


Replies

RodgerTheGreattoday at 1:42 PM

"Accessibility" is an open-ended set of functionality, not a checkbox; it is never "complete", there is always room for improvement. Colorblind support (which ones)? High-Contrast mode? Adjustable text size? Screenreader integration? Localization? IME support? Keyboard navigation? Keyboard remapping? Functional entirely without a keyboard? Touch support? Pen support? Dyslexia-aiding typefaces? The list goes on and on.

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xyzzy_plughtoday at 1:26 PM

No. As much as I would like it to be the case, that is most certainly a poor criteria to evaluate a UI library.

Dear ImGui [0] is without a doubt the most prevalent immediate mode UI library. It does not have native accessibility features, but that hasn't stopped companies such as Intel, Meta, IKEA and Google from shipping products built upon it. It's also used in a ton of games.

Calling Dear ImGui a toy project at this point would be like calling Unreal Engine a toy project.

It's a shame accessibility support is not more widespread, and furthermore it's a shame that it is so laborious to add it.

0: https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/

whizztertoday at 1:20 PM

This is a library in similar vein to "Dear imgui", minimal requirements for integration (rectangle and text rendering) so that it's easy to embed into game-engines,etc for debug UI's and similar things.

SeasonalEnnuitoday at 4:26 PM

I agree, and the lack of empathy around this area is sad. If you're developing an app, it is better to fall into the pit of success by using a UI framework that already has accessibility baked in. Any project that uses Dear Imgui for end-user applications has already made a bad design choice. AccessKit (https://accesskit.dev/) seems to be a positive step forward, with some UI frameworks implemented (including immediate mode egui).

qseratoday at 2:53 PM

Not very smart. I would go further and say that even full unicode support could be avoided and a software can still be massively useful.

It is sad that the world is so hung up on unicode and things like accessibility that we all have to submit to the tyranny of browser layers!

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monocasatoday at 1:23 PM

Or, not every UI library is intended for use cases where a13y even makes sense.

Like a debug UI in a game engine, or in an embedded device that doesn't even have input for a13y.

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jdmoreiratoday at 2:23 PM

What? On a micro immediate mode UI?

Really insane comment TBH

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spwa4today at 1:19 PM

Then just save yourself some time. Immediate mode and accessibility are mutually exclusive.