Core Accessibility Updates

With WordPress 3.5 due out in the next few weeks, has there been any work done to increase core accessibility?

The answer is an overwhelming “Yes!”

Since WordPress 3.4, 35 separate accessibility Trac tickets have been raised — many since July 2012 — and more than half have already been resolved in WordPress 3.5. The breakdown is as follows:

  • 18 tickets already resolved and implemented in WordPress 3.5.
  • 1 ticket being worked on for WordPress 3.5
  • 7 tickets awaiting review
  • 9 tickets slated for a future version of WordPress

Much of this flurry of activity followed Graham Armfield’s WordPress and Web Accessibility presentation at WordCamp UK earlier this year. And Graham has published an overview of the accessibility changes since then.

However, as Graham points out, we still need people to report issues as, and when, they find them if we want this level of activity to be maintained. You can, of course, raise your own Trac tickets but if that is too difficult (or just too plain intimidating) for you, you can raise issues here for discussion and we will raise a ticket if necessary.

Testers are, also, always needed to ensure that submitted patches do actually fix a problem and do so without raising another barrier elsewhere. The larger the testing pool – both in terms of users and the assistive technology used — the better. So if you do use any assistive technology and would like to help, please let us know.