Hi Seth,
Great to hear that KiCad is open to the idea of making it accessible for
everyone.
That was my plan as well. I've already found a few areas where I think
accessibility could be improved, such as the main application dialog
before moving on to more complex parts of the interface.
I plan to start small so I can get my feet wet before taking on larger
changes.
My initial idea is to expose information about the currently focused
component or any other relevant context to the screen reader while
changing as little of the existing workflow as possible.
I imagine it as an additional accessibility layer that becomes active
when a screen reader is running.
I would also like to keep the implementation cross platform so it works
across all operating systems that KiCad supports. I've been looking at
libraries such as Prism, which provide a common API for applications to
communicate with screen readers. Of course, I'm still in the early
stages of researching the best approach.
Any help with drafting a proposal would be greatly appreciated. I'm very
new to this kind of design work, so I'm not entirely sure where to begin.
I started thinking along these lines after noticing that KiCad's
keyboard navigation is already quite similar to a mod called Factorio
Access, which aims to make the game Factorio accessible for blind users.
I've always liked the idea of making mainstream software work for
everyone instead of building separate accessibility tools whenever
possible. I'd love to help achieve that goal with KiCad so that no one
is left out.
Regards,
Tech
On 6/17/2026 03:48, 'Seth Hillbrand' via KiCad Developers wrote:
Hello!
We're happy to receive direct feedback on the usability of KiCad with
accessibility devices.
Our work to this point has focused on standardizing menus, dialogs and
other elements that exposed to screen readers by default. As well, we
have spent time improving the color contrast between on screen elements.
You are welcome to propose any additional improvements. I would
recommend drafting a proposal first before coding so that we can
ensure that the work fits with the larger KiCad plans
Seth
Seth Hillbrand
*Lead Developer*
+1-530-302-5483
Long Beach, CA
www.kipro-pcb.com <https://www.kipro-pcb.com/> [email protected]
On Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 3:18 AM Tech <[email protected]> wrote:
hi all,
I am a blind student who is interested in embedded systems and
electronics and one of the problems i have is designing a PCB.
initially, I was planning to create A plugin for kicad but then
thought why not make kicad itself accessible as much as possible
before that without changing the current workflow.
From what I have seen so far, KiCad already has many of the
foundations needed for accessibility. Much of the workflow can
already be performed using the keyboard, which is ideal. It
appears that many remaining issues could be addressed by exposing
the necessary information to screen readers through the
accessibility APIs.
I would like to contribute to this effort and help make KiCad more
accessible for blind and visually impaired users. I would
appreciate any guidance on where to start, areas that would
benefit most from accessibility improvements, or any existing work
related to accessibility that I should be aware of.
If there are developers who have worked on the UI or accessibility
infrastructure, I would be grateful for any advice or pointers.
I look forward to contributing and working with the community to
make this work as it would be a huge win for the visually impaired
community.
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