Accessibility in the Unity Editor

[IndomitableHeart]

I downloaded the latest LTS last night, only to find that despite years of pleading by those of us without sight for you to make the Unity editor accessible to screen readers, it would appear that still nothing has been done in this regard. The version in question is 2022.3.28f1, which appears to be your latest LTS release, and I am running Windows 11 home.
To be clear, the editor is still completely inaccessible to us. When the editor loads, I have access to the menu bar, and I can navigate those menus with the arrow keys. However, I can get absolutely no information about anything in any panel or window. No matter what I do, NVDA just reads nothing. I also tried with Jaws for Windows and had the same exact result. I can’t access anything at all.
I find it extremely ironic that there is a plugin that allows a developer to add accessibility to a game, but the editor itself isn’t navigable by anyone with a screen reader. And while I suspect that this post will fall on deaf ears, just as the ones written over the last several years have, hope springs eternal, I guess. Would you please, please make your editor accessible to screen readers so that those of us who are blind can actually participate in development as well? We’d really appreciate it.

[benoitd_unity]

@IndomitableHeart

I downloaded the latest LTS last night, only to find that despite years of pleading by those of us without sight for you to make the Unity editor accessible to screen readers, it would appear that still nothing has been done in this regard. The version in question is 2022.3.28f1, which appears to be your latest LTS release, and I am running Windows 11 home.
To be clear, the editor is still completely inaccessible to us. When the editor loads, I have access to the menu bar, and I can navigate those menus with the arrow keys. However, I can get absolutely no information about anything in any panel or window. No matter what I do, NVDA just reads nothing. I also tried with Jaws for Windows and had the same exact result. I can’t access anything at all.
I find it extremely ironic that there is a plugin that allows a developer to add accessibility to a game, but the editor itself isn’t navigable by anyone with a screen reader. And while I suspect that this post will fall on deaf ears, just as the ones written over the last several years have, hope springs eternal, I guess. Would you please, please make your editor accessible to screen readers so that those of us who are blind can actually participate in development as well? We’d really appreciate it.

Hi IndomitableHeart,

We’re sorry you’re still having those issues using Unity, and know that we hear you.

Making the Unity Editor compatible with screen readers is no small task. We’ve done a lot of investigation for better understanding how to approach this problem. We also just landed the foundation for Unity UI systems to communicate with screen readers, which we made available to everyone for making accessible games and apps using Unity, and will eventually help us make the Editor compatible with screen readers as well.

As we’re gathering data on the topic, learning more about your expectations will help us break down and prioritize the work. Could you tell us what areas of the Editor are critical for you to be usable with screen readers? Moving between different windows, able to use the Inspector, Project browser and Hierarchy? Do you need to navigate the scene view? Are you working with custom tools? Any detail will be helpful.

Thanks