An Open Letter and Appeal for Digital Inclusion: Addressing Critical Accessibility Barriers in AdGuard for Windows and Android

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Dear AdGuard Team, Founders, and Developers,
Before diving into the details, I would like to be fully transparent: English is not my native language. Because I am completely blind and this issue deeply affects my daily digital life, I have taken the time to carefully organize my thoughts and used an AI assistant to articulate and translate this comprehensive letter into clear English. I sincerely hope you will read this not as automated feedback, but as a heartfelt, serious appeal from a dedicated user and paying customer.
1. My Journey with AdGuard: From Admirer to Lifetime Supporter
My journey with AdGuard began years ago when I first deployed AdGuard Home. I was thoroughly impressed by your mission to clean up the web, block intrusive trackers, and return control to the user.
When I later learned about the dedicated AdGuard desktop and mobile clients, I wanted to support your work financially. About a year ago, during a promotional campaign on a software distribution platform in my country, I purchased an AdGuard Lifetime Family License (which normally retails for over $100) for around $15. For me, this purchase was not just about getting software—it was an explicit vote of confidence in AdGuard’s powerful filtering engine and your values.
However, when I installed the Windows client and began testing the Android app, I encountered severe accessibility barriers that make everyday use an uphill battle.
2. Why Ad Blocking is an Essential Assistive Tool for Blind Users
For people with visual impairments who rely on screen readers like NVDA, JAWS, or Narrator, browsing the modern web can be an overwhelming experience:
Focus Hijacking and Traps: Flashing banners, dynamic popups, auto-playing video overlays, and deceptive sponsored links frequently trap or confuse the screen reader's virtual cursor.
Cognitive Overload: Sighted users can visually ignore banner ads in the margins. A screen reader, however, must linearize and read DOM elements sequentially. A page cluttered with 50 ads means dozens of irrelevant headings, links, and frame elements that a blind user must manually skip through.
For us, an effective ad blocker is not merely a convenience—it is a vital piece of assistive technology that restores our ability to study, work remotely, and access digital information independently.
3. The Dilemma of Closed-Source Software
When using open-source tools like AdGuard Home, the community has the opportunity to inspect code, submit pull requests, or help patch accessibility gaps.
However, AdGuard for Windows and AdGuard for Android are commercial, closed-source products. As blind users—and even with the help of developer friends in the blind community—we cannot submit code fixes or build custom accessible UI wrappers ourselves. We are entirely reliant on your engineering team to implement standard accessibility interfaces. This is why I am reaching out directly.
4. Current State: Severe Accessibility Barriers in AdGuard for Windows
The Windows desktop client is currently nearly unusable with screen readers. While the underlying CoreLibs engine performs wonderfully, the graphical interface does not bridge to the operating system's accessibility architecture:
Missing UI Automation (UIA) & MSAA Implementation: Many interactive elements fail to expose their accessible names, control types (button, toggle switch, edit field), and states (checked, collapsed, expanded). Screen readers frequently announce controls as "unknown", read raw coordinates, or remain completely silent.
Broken Keyboard & Focus Navigation: Pressing Tab or arrow keys does not traverse the application in a logical, predictable sequence. Focus frequently disappears into invisible containers.
Complex Management Views are Unreachable: Critical workflows—such as the Filter Editor, custom rule management, DNS configuration tabs, and network settings—cannot be reliably navigated or edited via keyboard and screen reader.
Android Client Limitations: While the Android version is slightly more usable, it still suffers from unlabeled image buttons, unannounced status changes, and focus traps during rule configuration.
5. Accessibility and Ad Blocking: Shared Pillars of Digital Advocacy
AdGuard was founded on an advocacy mindset: championing user privacy, fighting malicious trackers, and promoting an open, clean internet.
Digital accessibility (A11y) is rooted in the exact same philosophy of digital inclusion.
Around the world, accessibility is recognized not as an optional feature, but as a fundamental digital right:
Global and Regional Standards: Frameworks such as the W3C WCAG guidelines, the European Accessibility Act (EAA / EN 301 549), and the US Section 508 / ADA mandate that digital services and desktop software provide accessible interaction channels.
Platform Standards: Microsoft provides rich, well-documented UI Automation (UIA) frameworks specifically designed to make custom desktop interfaces accessible to assistive tech without compromising visual aesthetics.
By incorporating basic accessibility semantics into your UI design system, AdGuard would lead by example, proving that privacy and inclusion go hand in hand.
6. What We Respectfully Request
We do not expect every edge-case bug to be resolved overnight, but we urgently request that the AdGuard leadership and engineering teams prioritize accessibility at a systemic level:
Conduct an Internal Accessibility Audit: Evaluate the Windows and Android clients using screen readers (NVDA on Windows; TalkBack on Android) and keyboard-only navigation.
Integrate Microsoft UI Automation (UIA): Ensure custom UI components correctly expose standard accessibility properties (Role, Name, State, Value).
Include Accessibility in Future Release Cycles: Add basic keyboard navigation and screen reader checks into your standard QA workflow.
Community Collaboration: I—and many members of the global blind community—would be more than happy to beta-test experimental builds, test specific UI redesigns, and provide constructive feedback.
Thank you very much for your time, your dedication to making the internet cleaner, and for considering this appeal. We believe AdGuard has the talent and the vision to become the most accessible and inclusive ad-blocking suite in the world.
Warm regards,
A Dedicated AdGuard User & Supporter
(NVDA Screen Reader User)