Hello Chase,
Thank you so much for the kind words! We have indeed been putting a lot
of focus into accessibility lately, so I'm really happy to hear that
Plasma 6.4 has been a notable improvement!
If you're looking to get involved, there's actually a somewhat large and
important accessibility initiative that you could definitely help out
with. We're making a push to get all KDE software compliant with EU
Directive 2019/882; see
https://invent.kde.org/teams/accessibility/collaboration/-/issues/30.
There are opportunities for development work, but a big part is just
using the software with a critical eye to find what's non-compliant and
write it down.
You can see the work-in-progress effort for Plasma itself here:
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/149
Thanks again!
--
Nate Graham
KDE e.V. Board of Directors
On 6/20/25 7:25 PM, Chase Laird wrote:
Dear KDE Team,
I hope this message finds you well.
I am writing to share my heartfelt appreciation and detailed feedback
regarding the recent KDE Plasma 6.4 release. As a visually impaired
user, computing poses unique challenges—particularly regarding effective
magnification and accessibility features. Over the years, I have
extensively used macOS, Windows, and numerous Linux distributions /
desktop environments, each offering varying degrees of success in
accessibility accommodations.
With this experience in mind, I want to commend your team for
prioritizing accessibility in KDE Plasma. Unfortunately, many desktop
environments treat accessibility as an afterthought, often implementing
it in ways that inadvertently introduce more usability issues than they
resolve. For instance, using GNOME’s built-in magnification resulted in
severe screen tearing and a cumbersome experience across my multi-
monitor setup.
However, upon migrating to KDE Plasma on my Arch Linux system, my
experience has dramatically improved. Initially, I set up magnification
using Fusuma gestures (three-finger swipe up/down for zoom control).
Imagine my delight upon discovering that KDE Plasma 6.4 now integrates
gesture-based magnification directly into the OS. This thoughtful
feature alone has significantly enhanced my daily computing experience,
and I am genuinely impressed by the smoothness, stability, and
intuitiveness of your implementation.
Given the profound impact KDE Plasma’s accessibility features have had
on me personally, I am eager to contribute back to the KDE community. If
there are opportunities or initiatives within the KDE team dedicated to
accessibility testing, feedback, or development, I would greatly
appreciate the chance to offer my insights and assistance.
Thank you again for your clear commitment to making Linux a more
inclusive platform. You have effectively ended my days of distro and DE
hopping, and for that, I am deeply grateful.
Warm regards,
Chase Laird
