Continuing our volunteer effort to make GNOME Calendar fully accessible with a keyboard (see thread for context), we fixed a major bug that was causing the focus to disappear into the abyss when the user tried to tab into the month view in merge request !576. This means, as of this commit, events should now be completely functional and accessible within the month view. Additionally, the merge request changes the keyboard and focus behavior within the month view: Events can only be cycled using arrow buttons, the focus can't escape the month view with arrow buttons, and entering/exiting the month view can only be done with tab. These improvements will be available on GNOME 49.

#GNOME #Accessibility #a11y #GNOMECalendar #Calendar #FOSS #FreeSoftware #Linux

Happy Disability Pride Month everybody :)

During the past few weeks, there's been an overwhelming amount of progress with accessibility on GNOME Calendar:

• Event widgets/popovers will convey to screen readers that they are toggle buttons. They will also convey of their states (whether they're pressed or not) and that they have a popover. (See !587)

• Calendar rows will convey to screen readers that they are check boxes, along with their states (whether they're checked or not). Additionally, they will no longer require a second press of a tab to get to the next row; one tab will be sufficient. (See !588)

• Month and year spin buttons are now capable of being interacted with using arrow up/down buttons. They will also convey to screen readers that they are spin buttons, along with their properties (current, minimum, and maximum values). The month spin button will also wrap, where going back a month from January will jump to December, and going to the next month from December will jump to January. (See !603)

• Events in the agenda view will convey to screen readers of their respective titles and descriptions. (See !606)

Accessibility on Calendar has progressed to the point where I believe it's safe to say that, as of GNOME 49, Calendar will be usable exclusively with a keyboard, without significant usability friction!

There's still a lot of work to be done in regards to screen readers, for example conveying time appropriately and event descriptions. But really, just 6 months ago, we went from having absolutely no idea where to even begin with accessibility in Calendar — which has been an ongoing issue for literally a decade — to having something workable exclusively with a keyboard and screen reader! :3

Huge thanks to @nekohayo for coordinating the accessibility initiative, especially with keeping the accessibility meta issue updated; Georges Stavracas for single-handedly maintaining GNOME Calendar and reviewing all my merge requests; and @tyrylu for sharing feedback in regards to usability.

All my work so far has been unpaid and voluntary; hundreds of hours were put into developing and testing all the accessibility-related merge requests. I would really appreciate if you could spare a little bit of money to support my work, thank you 🩷

• https://ko-fi.com/theevilskeleton
• https://github.com/sponsors/TheEvilSkeleton

(Boost appreciated)

#Accessibility #a11y #DisabilityPrideMonth #GNOME #GNOMECalendar #GTK #GTK4 #Libadwaita #FreeSoftware #FOSS #OpenSource

After two weeks of writing, revising, and trying to make everything as digestible as possible, I finally published "GNOME Calendar: A New Era of Accessibility Achieved in 90 Days", where I explain in detail the steps we took to turn GNOME Calendar from an app that was literally unusable with a keyboard and screen reader to an app that is (finally) accessible to keyboard and screen reader users as of GNOME 49!

https://tesk.page/2025/07/25/gnome-calendar-a-new-era-of-accessibility-achieved-in-90-days/

#GNOMECalendar #GNOME #Accessibility #a11y #DisabilityPrideMonth #Linux #FOSS #OSS #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #GTK #libadwaita

At last, all the accessibility improvements on GNOME Calendar are finally available as a stable release. Get it on Flathub while it's hot!!!

https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.Calendar

#Accessibility #GNOME #GTK #GTK4 #libadwaita #a11y #calendar #GNOMECalendar #Linux #GNU #OpenSource #FOSS #FreeSoftware #OSS

After two long and painful years, several design iterations, and more than 50 rebases later, we finally merged the infamous, trauma-inducing merge request !362 on GNOME Calendar.

The calendars list in the quick-add popover has undergone accessibility improvements, providing a better experience for assistive technologies and keyboard users (to a limited extent). Specifically: tabbing from outside the list will focus the selected calendar in the list; tabbing from inside the list will skip the entire list; arrow keys automatically select the focused calendar; and finally, assistive technologies now inform the user of the checked/selected state.

Admittedly, the quick-add popover is currently unreachable via keyboard because we lack the resources to implement keyboard focus for month and week cells. We are currently trying to address this issue in merge request !564, and hope to get it merged for GNOME 50, but it's a significant undertaking for a single unpaid developer. If it is not too much trouble, I would really appreciate some donations, to keep me motivated to improve accessibility throughout GNOME and sustain myself: https://tesk.page/#donate

For non-accessibility-related details about this merge request, feel free to check out https://mastodon.social/@nekohayo/115571375702642784

#GNOMECalendar #GNOME #GTK4 #libadwaita #accessibility #a11y #calendar #FOSS #OpenSource

The thing that makes me really happy, probably as much as receiving donations themselves, is people are actually donating through Liberapay rather than the proprietary alternatives.

Just a few months ago, I had no idea how to set up Liberapay and gave up on it, because I got overwhelmed. A friend nudged me to reconsider it. I tried to set it up again, and got it properly set up this time. They were the first donor in Liberapay, and eventually, more and more people started to donate via Liberapay, surpassing GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi.

Seriously, thank you @Liberapay for the wonderful platform, and to my friend who motivated me to set it up again!

WE DID IT, WE FUCKING DID IT

WE GOT KEYBOARD NAVIGATION WORKING IN GNOME CALENDAR'S MONTH VIEW

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calendar/-/merge_requests/564/diffs?commit_id=f1b564c0c6c2fd59bf3fe752407381b6029a2e36 (not merged yet)

Do note that the screen recording attached won't have any alt text, to avoid redundancy. Everything written below is a detailed explanation of the experience, and the recording is essentially a visual demonstration:

- When entering the month view with Tab, focus is set to the first event widget, and pressing Tab will focus the next event widget horizontally.
- Ctrl+Tab will move focus to the month cell located at the focused event widget. Ctrl+Arrow will move focus to the edges of the view.
- When out of boundaries horizontally, the focus moves onto the other side of the view.
- When out of boundaries vertically, the view will automatically scroll to that direction.
- Shift+Arrow will move focus and initiate selection; pressing arrow keys will select ranges of cells, and letting go of Shift will display the new event popover.
- When a month cell has overflowing events (as in, there are not enough event widgets that can fit inside the month cell), pressing tab will focus the overflow button, and activating it will show a list of events.

#GNOME #Calendar #GNOMECalendar #GTK4 #Libadwaita #a11y #Accessibility

Georges Stavracas is reviewing my long-awaited merge requests related to accessibility on GNOME Calendar in his stream 👀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smofXzVwNwQ

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calendar/-/merge_requests/598
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calendar/-/merge_requests/564

#accessibility #a11y #GNOME #Calendar #GNOMECalendar #libadwaita #GTK4

"Wow, congratulations, this is looking INSANE, Hari... The hell is going on here"

— Georges, maintainer of GNOME Calendar - https://youtu.be/smofXzVwNwQ?t=1h24m6s

An update on GNOME Calendar: Georges livestreamed himself reviewing and merging parts of merge request !598, making the month view easier than ever to navigate with a keyboard!

This merge request introduces a coordinate-aware navigation system in the month view, which computes the coordinates of relevant event widgets and finds the nearest widget relative to the one in focus when using arrow keys. When tabbing, focus moves chronologically, meaning focus continues to move down until there are no event widgets overlaying that specific cell, which then moves focus to the topmost event widget found in the next cells or rows; tabbing backwards goes in the opposite direction.

To illustrate the sheer complexity of navigation in a calendaring app, here is Georges's live reaction:

"Wow, congratulations, this is looking INSANE, Hari... The hell is going on here"

— Georges, maintainer of GNOME Calendar - https://youtu.be/smofXzVwNwQ?t=1h24m6s

#GNOMECalendar #GNOME #GTK4 #libadwaita #accessibility #a11y #FOSS #OpenSource #Linux