In September of 2019, a very promising piece of news was published on the official Arduino blog. Without a doubt, tons of Arduino users have been waiting for exactly this – an official release of Arduino IDE version 1.8.10.
Thanks to the massive help the team has received from their enthusiastic community, as well as due to cooperation with APH – a leading institution in developing accessible solutions for the blind and visually impaired – the Arduino team managed to optimize their Arduino IDE to work properly with screen readers (including pop-ups, links, and other elements which can’t be worked with using only the keyboard). You can find an option to turn screen reader support on or off in the settings.
The newest Arduino IDE version also comes with a long list of other important changes, all of which you can find here. Some of the changes will definitely be appreciated by all of the visually impaired Arduino fans out there. The Arduino team is hopeful that this patch is only the beginning of a long partnership with institutions and the community alike to find out more ways to make using Arduino more accessible. Ideally, the developers want their platform to be usable and enjoyable by everyone.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to experiment with the famous device, we invite you to read through our others articles. There, you will find a short summary of what an Arduino is and what can be achieved by using it.
