a11y: expose pane content over AT-SPI (Linux)

rs/crates/app/Cargo.toml

@@ -70,6 +70,14 @@ qrcode = { version = "0.14", default-features = false }
 # — lifted from spike-tearoff. Bumped 0.58 -> 0.62 to unify with wgpu-hal 29 / gpu-allocator and
 # avoid two `windows` crate versions in the graph (which breaks wgpu-hal's d3d12 backend).
 # Target-gated so Linux/macOS builds never pull the Win32 bindings.
+# AccessKit → AT-SPI, Linux only. The workspace drops Slint's `accessibility` feature because
+# accesskit pins `windows 0.58` against wgpu-hal 29's `0.62` — a conflict that only exists
+# when building for Windows. Requesting the feature per-target keeps Windows resolution
+# untouched while letting the terminal grid (drawn to a texture, invisible to AT-SPI
+# otherwise) expose its text to screen readers and assistive automation on Linux.
+[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
+slint = { git = "https://github.com/slint-ui/slint", rev = "9463a107aeb5f5021c162e82c55977c5333229ae", default-features = false, features = ["accessibility"] }
+
 [target.'cfg(windows)'.dependencies]
 # Native Open/Save dialogs via the COM IFileDialog (`windows-sys`, separate from the
 # `windows` crate below so it doesn't perturb the pinned 0.62 graph); no backend feature

rs/crates/app/src/paneview.rs

@@ -196,6 +196,28 @@ fn replay_cursor_pos(_app: &AppWindow, _link_active: bool) {}
 /// Build a model row for pane `i`. `editing` flags the pane whose label is being renamed
 /// inline; `show_frame`/`show_dot` are the GLOBAL Appearance prefs, folded here over each
 /// pane's per-pane override (a clean new pane resolves OFF, a git-project pane ON).
+/// Whether an assistive client is listening. The terminal grid is drawn to a texture, so AT-SPI
+/// sees an empty rectangle unless we hand it the screen as text — but extracting that text on
+/// every model rebuild is wasted work when nobody is reading it. Checking once per process is
+/// enough to decide: AccessKit only builds a tree after a client connects anyway.
+fn a11y_wanted() -> bool {
+    use std::sync::OnceLock;
+    static WANTED: OnceLock<bool> = OnceLock::new();
+    *WANTED.get_or_init(|| {
+        if std::env::var("HYPERPANES_A11Y").is_ok_and(|v| v == "1") {
+            return true;
+        }
+        if std::env::var("NO_AT_BRIDGE").is_ok_and(|v| v == "1") {
+            return false;
+        }
+        std::process::Command::new("gsettings")
+            .args(["get", "org.gnome.desktop.interface", "toolkit-accessibility"])
+            .output()
+            .map(|o| String::from_utf8_lossy(&o.stdout).trim() == "true")
+            .unwrap_or(false)
+    })
+}
+
 fn pane_item(
     ps: &PaneState,
     focused: bool,
@@ -265,6 +287,12 @@ fn pane_item(
     PaneItem {
         surface: ps.surface.clone(),
         title: ps.title.clone(),
+        // The pane's visible text for AT-SPI; empty (and free) when nothing is listening.
+        a11y_text: if a11y_wanted() {
+            ps.pane.screen_text().into()
+        } else {
+            SharedString::new()
+        },
         subtitle: ps.subtitle.clone().unwrap_or_default(),
         ai_subtitle,
         // The cached shell-type badge (computed once at pane creation; "" → not shown).

rs/crates/app/ui/paneview.slint

@@ -543,6 +543,8 @@ export component PaneView inherits Rectangle {
                         width: parent.width - 4px;
                         height: parent.height - 4px;
                         surface: pane.surface;
+                        title: pane.title;
+                        a11y-text: pane.a11y-text;
                         accent: pane.accent;
                         chrome: false;
                         // clickable-path hover overlay (controller-driven after hit-testing)

rs/crates/app/ui/types.slint

@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ import { HiRect } from "@widgets";
 export struct PaneItem {
     surface: image,
     title: string,
+    // Visible screen text, for assistive tech (AT-SPI). Empty unless an
+    // accessibility client is connected — see paneview::a11y_wanted().
+    a11y-text: string,
     // optional secondary line under the label (user subtitle / ambient-AI line).
     subtitle: string,
     // ambient-AI summary line, already truncated to the typewriter-revealed prefix by the

rs/crates/terminal-widget/Cargo.toml

@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ arboard = "3"
 # core's feature set so the runtime has time/sync/macros available.
 tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "sync", "time", "macros"] }
 
+# AccessKit → AT-SPI, Linux only. The workspace drops Slint's `accessibility` feature because
+# accesskit pins `windows 0.58` against wgpu-hal 29's `0.62` — a conflict that only exists
+# when building for Windows. Requesting the feature per-target keeps Windows resolution
+# untouched while letting the terminal grid (drawn to a texture, invisible to AT-SPI
+# otherwise) expose its text to screen readers and assistive automation on Linux.
+[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
+slint = { git = "https://github.com/slint-ui/slint", rev = "9463a107aeb5f5021c162e82c55977c5333229ae", default-features = false, features = ["accessibility"] }
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 # PNG encode for the headless font-fallback before/after verification bin only.
 png = "0.17"

rs/crates/terminal-widget/ui/widget.slint

@@ -82,9 +82,17 @@ component SearchBtn inherits Rectangle {
 }
 
 export component TerminalPane inherits Rectangle {
+    accessible-role: text;
+    accessible-label: root.title;
+    accessible-value: root.a11y-text;
+    accessible-read-only: true;
     // --- inputs (the controller / parent layout drive these) ---
     in property <image> surface;
     in property <string> title: "";
+    // What assistive tech reads instead of the rendered pixels: the terminal
+    // screen as text. The grid is drawn to a texture, so without this the pane
+    // is a blank rectangle to AT-SPI.
+    in property <string> a11y-text: "";
     in property <color> accent: #7aa2f7;
     in property <bool> chrome: true;