From: Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:44:49 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: * etc/PROBLEMS: Describe how to work around screen reader TAB issue
X-Git-Url: http://git.eshelyaron.com/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ed50c659f447aac07c29916687802a552b2040ac;p=emacs.git

* etc/PROBLEMS: Describe how to work around screen reader TAB issue

(cherry picked from commit cbfc095ed42be5fd2b848cb837b3340670fe9ef6)
---

diff --git a/etc/PROBLEMS b/etc/PROBLEMS
index 20fe9134da5..b8a60b7e4c2 100644
--- a/etc/PROBLEMS
+++ b/etc/PROBLEMS
@@ -2678,6 +2678,18 @@ terminals, for example, like this:
 This disables 'auto-composition-mode' on frames that display on
 terminals of this type.
 
+** Screen readers get confused about character position
+
+The Emacs display code sometimes emits TAB characters purely for motion
+on the terminal, even when those characters do not exist in the buffer.
+This can confuse screen reader software under certain terminal emulators
+(rxvt and vte have been cited).  Switching to destructive tabs by running
+
+    stty -tabs
+
+in the terminal before starting Emacs may mitigate this.  See also the
+discussion in Bug#78474 <https://debbugs.gnu.org/78474>.
+
 * Runtime problems specific to individual Unix variants
 
 ** GNU/Linux