I don't use screen reader tools, but I always think that there must be people out there making sure that these things keep working. Then I read a story like this and it's clear that accessibility is something that constantly needs to be advocated and fought for.
I can't force the UM team to do anything differently, I'm sure they're doing their best with very limited resources. I hope they're able to find solutions for lost functionality (fast).
Thanks for sharing. It's saddening to hear how much accessibility regressed.
Disclaimer: I'm not part of the Ubuntu MATE team (I was a contributor for in-house apps starting 10 years ago, for about 5 years, but I wasn't a tester or MATE developer), but just my thoughts.
One of Ubuntu MATE's goals was:
Accessible to all, regardless of language and physical ability.
I guess it's not meeting the goal, at the moment. I think it's a deeper reflection that people come & go, and the individuals who made accessibility great back then, haven't stuck around today.
That, or the technologies changed too much that it could be an "upstream" problem too. The new installer uses a new underlying UI toolkit, I think. We just need a new person to advocate, test and take action!
Also, the article says "Ubuntu MATE 12.04" but Ubuntu MATE started at 14.10 with an unofficial 14.04 LTS later. Unless that was a typo, or they meant Ubuntu 12.04 (with MATE/GNOME 2).
I recently heard that KDE is working on an initative for their software to be compliant with an EU legislation (EU Directive 2019/882). We could probably do with more open source & libre software gaining compliance so they woo enterprise and vendors who usually advocate for this seal of approval.