Massively maintained accessibility: WordPress

Massively

Maintained

Accessibility

The WordPress process

Find these slides

These slides are posted at Slideshare:

http://slideshare.net/[tbd]

Let’s start with a little time travel.

March, 2011:

- Make.WordPress.org/accessibility is created.

May, 2011:

- First request for accessibility comments:

request for comments on 3.2 and Twenty

Eleven.

Let’s start with a little time travel.

May-November, 2011:

...

Building an organization

- Leadership

- Involvement

- Process

The WordPress Process

● Propose enhancement, bug fix, or feature

plugin.

● Get buy-in from other developers.

● Provide feedback on issues.

● Stuff happens...

● Get committed to core.

The WordPress Process

● Release Lead: sets priorities, guides

development.

● Getting the release lead involved is crucial.

Big thanks for Drew Jaynes, release lead on

WordPress 4.2, for his focus on accessibility.

Accessibility Needed Involvement

● Today: 326 active tickets

● Needs 2-way conversation

● Needs early involvement.

● People providing patches.

● People with access to manage Trac.

How many contributors are there?

By release:

3.8: 188 3.9: 267 4.0: 275 4.1: 283

Hundreds of people and thousands of patches

= many opportunities to introduce

accessibility issues... or solutions.

Education for WP Developers

- WordCamp talks

- Articles at make.wordpress.org and

elsewhere

- Code resources

- Online coursework

- Active involvement in Trac tickets

Effective Strategies

- Specificity: not “WordPress does not meet

Section 508 guidelines”.

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/29955

- Prioritization:

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/02/23/

this-week-in-4-2-february-23-march-1/

- Follow up

Core Developer Buy-in

Has been a total success.

(This doesn’t mean there aren’t differences of

opinion.)

What’s happening now?

- Testing group managed by Rian Rietveld- https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/testing/

- 2x per release priority lists of issues.

- Advance requests for consultation from core

development, UX team and feature plugins.

- WordPress accessibility pattern library

- Theme accessibility testing and training

Long term strategy

● Slow but steady

● Three releases per year with individual

iterations.

● Create solution libraries (#31368: Let WP

Speak, WP pattern library) and educate

developers.

Backwards Compatibiliey

- API compatibility for 36,000 plugins and

3,000 themes has deep ramifications:- Settings API

- Legacy widgets and functions

- Use of screen-reader-text classes

- Form behaviors

- Admin headings and HTML structure

Looking Forward

Major movements in the future:

- JSON REST API - https://wordpress.org/plugins/json-rest-api/

- Image Flow

Threats and opportunities...

What’s the most accessible CMS?

Drupal

What’s the most accessible CMS?

Does this mean that Drupal web sites are

accessible and WordPress web sites aren't?

No. On both counts.

Impact of Choice

- Example: forms- WordPress: no core form builder

- Drupal: oh yeah, we’ve got that.

- Developer choice always overrides core

behavior. Everywhere.

CMSs Produce HTML

Valid HTML is accessible.

JavaScript, CSS, invalid HTML, and

inaccessible content break everything else.

Identifying WordPress Issues

Core.

Plug-in.

Theme.

Hey. Who screwed up this site?

Identifying WordPress Issues.

In the admin:

probably core. Unless it’s a theme or plug-in

settings page...

Identifying WordPress issues

On the front end?

- main menu or post content? Probably

theme.

- In a contact form, special feature like a

calendar or eCommerce service, it’s a plug-

in...

Identifying WordPress Issues.

...unless it’s a commercial theme.

WordPress.org themes have to follow rules: https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/review/

Commercial themes have their own ‘rules’.

Reporting WordPress Issues.

Core issues should be reported here:

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket

Before reporting anything, check with all plug-

ins disabled and the default theme enabled.

Thank you!

Joseph Dolsonhttp://www.joedolson.com/

[email protected]

http://twitter.com/@joedolson