Accessibility improvement needed

2026-09-28 13:23:06

Hubzilla Support Forum

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

citc wrote the following post Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:23:00 +0200

Accessibility improvement needed

Robert Kingett wrote the following post Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:16:44 +0200

@citc Mastodon is more screen reader friendly than Hubzilla

2026-09-28 17:48:46

Alfred Bühler

abu@hub.alfredbuehler.ch

@Hubzilla Support Forum Yes, Hubzilla is not Mastodon.

2026-10-02 16:58:36

citc

citc@zotum.net

@Alfred Bühler
There is an English phrase hopefully similar in other languages: "cannot see the wood for the trees".

2026-10-03 09:51:46

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Allow me to chime in here, everyone.

First of all, accessibility is a basic human right.

There actually are blind or visually-impaired users in the Fediverse, also because they're more welcome here than in the corporate silos.

This also means: Just like alt-texts, a Web UI that works with screen reader software (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Narrator, Orca etc.) is not just another dumb Mastodon fad.

If activists like @Robert Kingett (who, by the way, is blind, and who has some significant range in the Fediverse) criticise Hubzilla for being unusable, this has to be taken seriously. Even though, admittedly, Hubzilla's Web UI using the Redbasic theme isn't even that friendly towards sighted users.

In my opinion, Hubzilla has two options now.

One, carry on as usually, consider it a Mastodon fad that must under no circumstances be adopted, shrug it off, chase all the blind users away back to Mastodon and eventually be branded utterly ableist.

Two, if that's possible in any way, make the Redbasic-based default Web UI accessible to screen reader users and become one of the currently not exactly many Fediverse server applications that do care for UI accessibility.

The latter explicitly welcomes blind users. The former flips the bird at them, now that the "Hubzilla is inaccessible" cat is out of the bag.

Combine this with Hubzilla's notoriously condescending attitude towards Mastodon (where just about everyone who is blind hangs out because they literally don't have much of a choice), and you get a condescending attitude towards disabled people.

Ideally, at least @Saiwal should do the same with his themes. Even though many hub admins refuse to install them because they were written entirely by AI, especially Solidified appears to make using Hubzilla much easier in general.

I can see many veterans who have come from Facebook or nothing at all to Friendica to Hubzilla, whose contacts are all on Hubzilla, Friendica, (streams) and/or Forte, or who have intentionally left PubCrawl uninstalled, shrug it off. We've never needed accessibility. Even if it comes back to bite Hubzilla because the whole platform is being ostracised, sanctioned or even gradually blocked from lots of other Fediverse servers, they'll say that's no loss. For it's no loss to them.

But they mustn't wonder then how come Hubzilla can't get enough of a foothold in the Fediverse for more people to come over from all that underequipped stuff. Especially if Hubzilla not only ignores, but explicitly rejects accessibility.

And no, third-party add-ons can't fix this. Many Hub admins won't install these either.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Hubzilla #Inclusion #A11y #Accessibility

2026-10-03 10:02:42

Saiwal

sk@utsukta.org

Solidified should be accessibility friendly, i haven't tested it thoroughly since i dont use a screenreader but online tests are clear (not sure about their accuracy).

Its not possible to make the other themes accessibility friendly because they use many tpl files from core.

2026-10-03 11:55:36

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@Jupiter Rowland I don't think anyone is arguing that Hubzilla should not be accessible, but getting it there is work someone has to do.

Demanding that someone else should spend their free time on this will not get us there.

2026-10-03 11:56:07

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

That’s quite provocative, @Jupiter Rowland … 😉😄

But that’s the only way to get things moving.

Your demands are certainly justified, but they come up against reality.

The fact is: Redbasic will probably always remain the only theme included in Hubzilla’s core. Other themes are apparently not intended for the basic installation. And that makes it the only theme that is guaranteed to be available on absolutely every hub.

It follows that: Redbasic would need to be adapted to be screen-reader-compatible.

Problem: WHO is supposed to do that?

Solution (warning, I’m going to be a bit ‘provocative’ here): YOU! Get stuck in! Get to grips with the technical requirements, mechanisms and options for making pages screen-reader-compatible. Familiarise yourself with Hubzilla’s theme system and theme creation (no, there’s no suitable documentation… You’ll have to take a look at Redbasic and try to understand how it all works and what needs to be implemented… including the template engine, schemas, Bootstrap 5, etc.). Then rebuild Redbasic so that it works with screen readers whilst still fully supporting Hubzilla’s features. After that, try to convince the lead developers to incorporate the theme into the core.

I don’t know whether Solidified can be built to be screen-reader-compatible. However, Saiwal still has his hands full just getting the theme properly finished. His other themes should be easy to adapt accordingly if you come up with a solution for Redbasic.

There’s one thing I absolutely must set straight here, though!

…because they were written entirely by AI…

NO! His classic themes are themes adapted for Hubzilla – for example, one derived from https://adminlte.io/ – and are not AI-assisted, let alone created entirely by AI. Nor is Solidified created entirely by AI. AI is used in parts (which I understand, as the frameworks used require a lot of formalism and routine tasks).

So “written entirely by AI” is incorrect and casts the themes (especially the “classic” Utsukta themes) in a bad light.

2026-10-03 17:40:22

citc

citc@zotum.net

@Jupiter Rowland
Deep thought, thanks to share.
How does someone install the 'solidified' theme please?

2026-10-03 20:26:32

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

citc wrote:

How does someone install the 'solidified' theme please?

As a user, you can simply select it in the design settings. However, this is only possible if the Hub’s admin has installed it on the Hub using a simple shell command and has also enabled it with a single click in the admin interface.

2026-10-03 20:50:50

*_jߍyrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@citc -> @Utsukta Themes - you'll find other themes there as well (i have only tried solidified and it's pretty cool.)

2026-10-03 13:09:32

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

this is an important subject not limited to Hubzilla...
e.g. there is no Linux Distro which really works in this aspect... even so many people tried already...

This subject is overburden a small DEV community like we have.

On the other hand in some aspect it is easy to act... e.g. instead of implementing switches use check marks