Fedora Accessibility Features in VM

Ask Fedora
1

I just installed Fedora KDE in a VM in order to test the accessibility features. I require sticky keys and mouse click lock (included in Windows for many years) at a minimum. In settings I found Accessibility Features and enabled it. This does absolutely nothing. I didn’t find mouse click lock, but if sticky keys does not work, this is a non-started for me. For what its worth, the lack of good working accessibility features first prevented me from switching to Linux well over a decade ago. Occasionally I test the Linux desktop distros to see if much progress has been made. Still no go.

Any advice?
David

2

For KDE, I’d first test Sticky Keys in an installed session rather than only through the VM viewer: System Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard/Modifier Keys, then press Shift, release it, and type a letter to see if the modifier is really latched. VM keyboard grabbing can make this look broken. For mouse click lock, I don’t think Fedora KDE currently has a Windows-style ClickLock equivalent built in; the closest built-in bits are Mouse Keys/pointer options, so if click lock is mandatory that may still be a real blocker rather than just a setting you missed.

3

That is how I enabled Stitcy Keys. Copilot is indicating that this is a known issue with KDE and Wayland. It just does not work. Seems like the Linux desktop developers would place more emphasis on making equivalent accessibility features to Windows.

4

I agree with @giuliab70, because a VM isn’t in full control of the keyboard, and the keyboard is frequently switching states as it hops between host and guest, it’s better to test bare-metal whenever possible.

Having said that, I installed F44 KDE bare-metal to confirm, and sticky keys is broken again (works fine in F44 GNOME + Wayland).

If Fedora with KDE + Wayland isn’t a requirement, consider Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (long-term support for the desktop edition ends April 2029) because it meets both of your accessibility requirements. Sticky keys is supported, and:

  • Linux Quick Drag – Click-lock accessibility tool for Linux - Similar to Windows ClickLock

(I’ve had some related experience while working for several years with two different non-profits. One provided support for people with disabilities, the other developed protocols and training materials for medical professionals who cared for patients with disabilities. I also helped them build websites that were easier for screen readers, keyboard shortcuts for online forms, etc. etc. )

It basically boils down to resources – both for developers and end-users…

According to Microsoft, there are ~600 million Windows users worldwide, so there’s potentially huge demand and also obvious financial incentives. For Linux, desktop market share is ~5%, and practically every distro is available for free.

Microsoft doesn’t break out R&D expenses for Windows, but even if assuming that past Windows editions cost nothing to develop, with the median pay package for a Microsoft software engineer at ~$200,000 (USD) per year and ~2,000 people working on Windows, that’s $400 million. Windows 11 has been publicly available for ~4.5 years, so the cost so far just for software development could be as much as ~$1.8 billion.

Since this thread is about using a mouse, there’s essentially been only one WIMP-centric Windows desktop environment for the past 30 years (“Metro” was optimized for touch), while there are currently at least 24 desktop environments for Linux. It’s primarily volunteers behind the scenes, so even just focusing on KDE and/or GNOME is still a lot of work.

Even a fraction of the level of funding and/or user engagement Windows has would make a huge difference towards Linux reaching accessibility parity on the desktop UI.

So I encourage you to file a bug report with the KDE developers (if its your preferred DE), because the most recent related issue I found was posted in 2024.

(By the way, there are some accessibility features that Linux does better than Windows. :wink:)

5

Testing with a Live ISO from a bootable ISO might be the most indicative of what you will get in an install.

For the most up to date version, use a respin RESPINS LINK

But yes, as you point out, accessibility is not up to scratch as our community is largely volunteer based. Letting KDE know what you need is a good start - they just got a lot of EU funding, maybe they can put some resources in to accessibility soon.