## Screen readers

<sup>Since: 25.08</sup>

Niri has basic support for screen readers (specifically, [Orca](https://orca.gnome.org)) when running as a full desktop session, i.e. not as a nested window.
We implement the `org.freedesktop.a11y.KeyboardMonitor` D-Bus interface for Orca to listen and grab keyboard keys, and we expose the main niri UI elements via [AccessKit](https://accesskit.dev).
Specifically, niri will announce:

- workspace switching, for example it'll say "Workspace 2" when you switch to the second workspace;
- the exit confirmation dialog (appears on <kbd>Super</kbd><kbd>Shift</kbd><kbd>E</kbd> by default);
- entering the screenshot UI and the overview (niri will say when these are focused, nothing else for now);
- whenever a config parse error occurs;
- the important hotkeys list (for now, as one big announcement without tab navigation; appears on <kbd>Super</kbd><kbd>Shift</kbd><kbd>/</kbd> by default).

Here's a demo video, watch with sound on.

<video controls src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/afceba6f-79f1-47ec-b859-a0fcb7f8eae3">

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/afceba6f-79f1-47ec-b859-a0fcb7f8eae3

</video>

Make sure [Xwayland](./Xwayland.md) works, then run `orca`.
The default config binds <kbd>Super</kbd><kbd>Alt</kbd><kbd>S</kbd> to toggle Orca, which is the standard key binding.

Note that we don't have an Alt-Tab window switcher yet (it's in the works), and we also don't have a bind to move focus to layer-shell panels.

If you're shipping niri and would like to make it work better for screen readers out of the box, consider the following changes to the default niri config:

- Change the default terminal from Alacritty to one that supports screen readers. For example, [GNOME Console](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/console) or [GNOME Terminal](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-terminal) should work well.
- Change the default application launcher and screen locker to ones that support screen readers. For example, [xfce4-appfinder](https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-appfinder/start) is an accessible launcher. Suggestions welcome! Likely, something GTK-based will work fine.
- Add some [`spawn-at-startup`](./Configuration:-Miscellaneous.md#spawn-at-startup) command that plays a sound which will indicate to users that niri has finished loading.
- Add `spawn-at-startup "orca"` to run Orca automatically at niri startup.

## Desktop zoom

There's no built-in zoom yet, but you can use third-party utilities like [wooz](https://github.com/negrel/wooz).