| Author here, I'll try and write a response to your points. Yes the post is cynical, I'm the first to admit that. The topic makes me angry because I think we should expect better of frameworks for the web. As a whole Flutter Web moves us in the wrong direction, towards a less open, less standardised, and less transparent web. On the point of accessibility, yes the web didn't start out accessible and in fact we are still struggling with this to this day. As such, a new technology that is a regression in terms of accessibility is a step backwards in 2020 and solid accessiiblity support should be a basic goal of any such technology. Regarding aria roles, it might be possible to improve Flutter Web by using it but ironically the HTML it generates is so inscrutable that I find it hard to understand if that's a simple fix or a complete overhaul. The general idea of Flutter, to ship an exact pixel by pixel replication of the UI across all platforms, seems incompatible with the open and flexible nature of the web. > are people really expecting CSS restyling tricks and Vimium to work in modern web apps like Google Drive or Discord? Yes, that's the beauty of the web as an open and standardised platform after all. The fact the people can experience it in a way that best suites their needs, for accessibility reasons or otherwise, is amazing. Flutter Web is a clear regression in this regard. > (...)is preceded by a large warning stating that this is a beta and(...) I mentioned this quite early in the piece, but I am unsure if the issues with Flutter are so fundamental that it would be hard to fix without a complete overhaul or if in fact it would be possible at all. If Flutter Web leaves beta generating semantic and accessible HTML I'll be the first to applaud it, but it doesn't seem likely. |