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Odilia v0.1.0 released! A new, fast, safe, extensible screen reader for the blind on the Linux desktop, written in Rust

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I'm super proud to announce that together with many other talented developers, we have finally released a new screen reader for the Linux desktop, written in Rust.

For those of you who do not know, a screen reader is a piece of assistive technology used by the visually impaired to read what is on their screen. That is how people with visual impairments can use apps on their phone, or desktop computer. A specialized application tells them the semantic information they need to navigate a webpage using headings, or finding the next table.
It is something which should certainly be considered a systems utility: something that runs fast, close to the metal, and never slows down—if accessibility is to be a first-class citizen in Linux, it starts with the tools being fast and easy to use.

It has been a monumental effort to get where we are today, and we're just getting started.

Currently, we support the following basic functions:

  1. Reading desktop apps that use GTK to QT. (Except GTK4)
  2. Ability to read web pages via caret and tab navigation.
  3. Ability to use your input subsystem to send events to the screen reader, like "go to the next heading in this page"

Some things we have slated for future releases are:

  1. Proper integration with accessibility keybindings set via atspi.This would add key bindings by default, instead of needing an external application.
  2. Add-on API.
  3. The ability to hot-reload settings, and edit your settings without opening a configuration file.

The main Odilia repository can be found here: https://github.com/odilia-app/odilia

And our announcement for this release can be found here: https://odilia.app/doc/user/installation/

Thank you to the Rust community, leaders, developers, those who write tutorials and stream their coding... And the open-source community as a whole. This would not have been possible without the tens of thousands of hours of work which has gone into each library, and even language, we use.

Happy hacking,
—Tait