Author Archives: Joe Dolson

Joe Dolson 3:00 pm on August 7, 2023  

Matrix Test Results

In the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) chat for Friday, August 4th, the team ran the entire meeting within Matrix, using a variety of different clients, to assess the current state of the environment for users with disabilities. If you’re not already familiar with Matrix, it’s an open-source federated chat platform that is being evaluated as a possible replacement for SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Right now, it is possible to use Matrix or Slack clients to interact in a Slack meeting, so while we held our meeting using Matrix, it was recorded in the Slack accessibility channel. Review the conversation in Slack.

As long as we can use both clients to interact, there are no significant concerns. However, we need to set accessibility criteria that the Matrix experience needs to meet before it’s feasible for the project to migrate solely to that platform. (Other teams may have other criteria, of course.)

Summary

Overall, Matrix was marginally usable for screen reader users and keyboard navigation. Most buttons were labeled and possible to interact with, and it was possible for screen reader users to post messages, read messages, and change channels. (Or rooms, in Matrix terminology.)

However, there were significant barriers to usability that would make the experience slow and frustrating for both these groups of users. As a productivity tool, it would significantly decrease the productivity and participation rate of users with disabilities.

Issues Noted

Please note that this was not a formal testing scenario, and should not be considered complete. This was a live interactive session in which we explored the environment trying to discover as much as we could in a short time.

  1. @alexstine (NVDA, Windows, Chrome, expert screen reader user) So far, I’m finding the web version of Element not verbose at all, causing me to really explore the page to get anything useful.

    Issue: Using a screen reader, the application didn’t provide much in the way of orienting tools that Alex could use to efficiently locate key functions and information.

  2. @Travel_Girl (Maja Benke) (Element web app, Firefox, Dark Mode, prefers reduced motion) I find it hard with keyboard to use it, but I’m not a native keyboard user.

    Issue: Two fundamental issues here. First, the keyboard shortcuts are difficult to locate. Second, the keyboard shortcuts are inadequate, and don’t provide tools for moving between application regions or navigating messages.

  3. @alexstine Landmarks are lacking and I can’t figure out how to predictably access the message list.

    Issue: As above, this is a lack of orienting tools and navigation mechanisms for reading messages.

  4. @alexstine Can you find a keyboard shortcuts guide? I’m coming up empty on basic docs.

    Issue: Keyboard shortcuts list was difficult to find in the app, and online docs were extremely minimal.

  5. @alexstine Got to be honest, this experienced is pretty terrible in comparison (to Slack). There is just no way to navigate the app globally. Slack uses F6 or Ctrl+F6 in the browser, and none of these work in Element web.

    Issue: Inability to navigate around the app is a major problem for screen reader users.

  6. @alexstine …There is no global navigation shortcut. This is going to be an absolute nightmare to use outside of fairly advanced users. It’s like Discord, passes useability standards but not by much.

    Issue: This is a common problem in applications that have done a good job with micro accessibility issues, but haven’t given significant consideration to macro issues. E.g., buttons are labeled and it’s possible to move from control to control, but the larger scope of navigation and orientation isn’t sufficient.

  7. @joedolson (Android Element app, Talkback) Worked OK in Android/Talkback. I didn’t explore extensively, and found one unlabeled button, but message navigation and authoring was fairly easy.

    Issue: The unlabeled button was the ‘Threads’ button, if I remember correctly.

  8. @Travel_girl I don’t know how to access the rooms via keyboard (if the room is not already open) as the tabindex is not consistent.

    Issue: While Ctrl+K can be used to open a command center to search rooms, navigating via various standard keyboard commands doesn’t move you around the page in a very predictable manner. This would be less of an issue if there was better exposure of keyboard commands.

  9. @alh0319 (Amber Hinds) When you open the more information button in the web app it doesn’t shift focus into that panel and so it’s essentially as if it’s not there. I haven’t even figured out how to tab into it.

    Issue: Loss of focus prevents users from using important interfaces.

  10. @joesimpsonjr Had difficult uploading an image (random I know) but no ability to add ALT text.

    Issue: Users cannot add alternative text to images. This makes images inherently inaccessible to screen reader users.

  11. @alh0319 I’m Mac, Chrome. I can get to the button and it reads[sic] as a button, but the space bar and Return key don’t trigger it. I think it’s acting as though my focus is still in the message list.

    Issue: Seems like a problem with custom key events not firing correctly. I’m not 100% clear what the context of this was; in the conversation thread, it may have been referring to the upload image button.

  12. @alh0319 Also if you search for a person to send them a DM, there is no way to get to the results for the person. The “button” to select the person is a div.

    Issue: This refers to the People > Start Chat button in the navigation sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.. There is no way to navigate using the keyboard to choose a person to chat with.

  13. Numerous people commented on the lack of formatting controls. While formatting can be done in markdown (or at least markdown-like syntax), not all users are familiar with these options. There was no documentation of how to do this in the app that we could locate.

  14. @joedolson I also don’t like that there’s no border that indicates where the message text area is located. I keep clicking above it.

    Issue: Especially for low vision users, having a well-defined indication where you need to click to initiate an action is very helpful.

Reviewed by @alexstine for technical accuracy and clarity.

Joe Dolson 2:09 pm on August 4, 2023  

Testing Matrix

The goal for the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team meeting for August 4th, 2023 is to run our meeting in Matrix to give it a test for accessibility in various contexts. For the purposes of testing, we’ll want to have a diverse collection of devices and modes: high contrast, screen readers, etc., to get different perspectives on what works best.

Online App

Open the Element web app.

Change the home server from ‘matrix.org’ to ‘community.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/’

Log-in using the WordPress.org single sign-on.

Use in browser.

Embedded Chat

Go to https://make.wordpress.org/meta/chat/

Behavior is unpredictable depending on your current interaction state with this page. You may see an error and need to back up a couple of steps until you get a sign in option. 

Follows the same sign-in process through SSO; only gives access to the one embedded room.

This method will probably not be very useful for us in testing, but worth looking at.

Apps

There are a lot of different apps for Matrix. Browse all apps.

Choose one and install it. You’ll need to set your server to https://community.wordpress.org and log-in. 

  • Element
  • FluffyChat
  • Syphon
  • Quadrix
Joe Dolson 5:14 am on June 7, 2023  

Contribute to Accessibility at WordCamp Europe Contributor Day

What does the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team do in WordPress?

We support the needs of people with disabilities across the entire project. This can range from training and teaching, consulting on specific development projects, testing features, and contributing code to coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. With such a broad scope of needs, the accessibility team is always in need of more people to participate.

There’s no need to know code or accessibility to contribute to the accessibility team! An important part of what we do is help developers better understand how they can create more accessible code; so if you’re an experienced developer who wants to know more about accessibility, come chat with us!

If you don’t know code, but want to contribute, we’ve got ways for you to help as well – documentation and testing are always ongoing needs for our team.

What should I do to prepare to contribute?

The WordPress core team has already posted a lot of information on preparing for contributor day, and a lot of that is equally relevant for you. If you’re not a developer and don’t intend to test new code, you may not need to go through the whole process of setting up a local development environment. However, testing upcoming changes in WordPress does require a development environment where you can apply patches and pull requests for WordPress and for GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/.

However, testing isn’t just about new features. The WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ site itself needs ongoing review and testing, and the code that already exists in WordPress can always be improved.

Find us at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe!

Both Joe Dolson (@joedolson) and Stefan Minoia (@ryokuhi) will be present to coordinate accessibility contributors at WordCamp EU’s contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., and we’re looking forward to chatting with you about anything to do with WordPress and Accessibility! We can set you up with a task, answer questions, or start to teach you accessibility testing processes.

See you soon!

Joe Dolson 9:17 pm on November 23, 2022
Tags: ,   

X-post: Meetup.com Accessibility Overlay Update

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/community: Comment on Meetup.com Accessibility Overlay Update

Joe Dolson 7:26 pm on May 19, 2021
Tags: , workflow   

Follow-up Workflow Keyword Proposal

This post is a follow-up to the workflow keyword proposed on April 29th, 2021. Originally posted as a comment on the original post by @ryokuhi

The accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) team reviewed the proposal today during the weekly meeting.
As we would like to bring this proposal forward, we investigated some possible keywords and would like some feedback on them.

  • needs-implementation could be a nice addition to needs-design: while needs-design usually involves only the creation of a layout, needs-implementation would convey also the need of an actual implementation to test for accessibility. The downside is that such a keyword would be very similar and difficult to distinguish from needs-patch.
  • has-accessibility-review (along the lines of has-privacy-review) could be added after a first triage to exclude tickets from scrubbing until extra feedback is needed. The downside is that often accessibility review is a multi-stage process that needs to happen after each UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. change, not just once for a ticket: the wording has-accessibility-review might induce to think that everything is done once the ticket is reviewed.
  • needs-accessibility-feedback or needs-accessibility-review are keywords that could be added when an action from the accessibility team is required. The downside is that similar keywords don’t really add any extra information if the ticket also has the accessibility focus.
  • changes-requested underlines the fact that the owner of the ticket needs to do an action before the accessibility team (or any other team) can offer feedback on the ticket.

Apart from adding a new workflow keyword, the team also took in consideration two other options.

  • Differentiating between primary and secondary focuses on TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. might allow teams to distinguish more easily between tickets they are responsible for and tickets where only feedback is needed. Of course, this would require a change to Trac, which is probably complex and could be done only in the long run.
  • If the reporter or the owner of the ticket doesn’t take any action after a reasonable amount of time, the team will change the milestone of the ticket even if it’s not under their direct responsibility. The team consider this as an extreme option to invite who is monitoring the ticket to take action.

The team would like to have another round of feedback on the (updated) proposal and will review it again in one or two weeks.

#trac-2, #workflow

Joe Dolson 7:08 pm on August 26, 2020  

Lend a Hand: Volunteers Needed for WP Accessibility Day

We have an upcoming event – do you want to contribute to the WordPress Community and its initiatives and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)?

We need your help

We’re hosting the first-annual WordPress Accessibility Day October 2-3, 2020, a 24-hour event highlighting accessibility topics and making the online experience more inclusive for all. 

To make the event run smoothly around the world, we could use volunteers in the following roles:

  • Hosts;
  • Moderators; and 
  • Monitors

Reasons why you should volunteer

We’d love to have you as part of our team and here’s why:

  • WP Accessibility Day will bring together the best and brightest voices and you’ll be contributing to the WordPress Community and the event’s success;
  • You’ll have the opportunity to meet and interact with members of the Community and give back to an incredibly important initiative;
  • Help others become aware of why being creating more inclusive WordPress websites; and
  • Be on the ground floor of this first-ever accessibility event that impacts and shapes accessibility initiatives within the WordPress Community moving forward

 Sign up today and get more information about volunteer roles at the WP Accessibility Day volunteering page!

Joe Dolson 4:05 pm on May 7, 2020
Tags: , wpa11y   

Announcing the first WordPress Accessibility Day!

Starting at 18:00 UTC on October 2nd, 2020, the WordPress AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team will sponsor a 24-hour online event focused on WordPress and Accessibility. If you want to learn about the future of accessibility in WordPress, join us for 24 hours of mind-expanding online learning!

We anticipate opening for speaker submissions within the next two weeks, where we’ll be looking for speakers who want to explore a wide variety of topics, including

  • theme accessibility,
  • pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party accessibility,
  • accessibility testing,
  • writing and managing accessible content,
  • the future of WordPress accessibility,
  • WordPress and ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines),
  • current and upcoming accessibility standards (WCAGWCAG WCAG is an acronym for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These guidelines are helping make sure the internet is accessible to all people no matter how they would need to access the internet (screen-reader, keyboard only, etc) https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/. 2.2, WCAG 3), and
  • assistive technologies.

Follow along at WP Accessibility Day, where we’ll be publishing our call for speakers, call for sponsors, and all sorts of information about our plans for the day!

To learn more, join members of the organizing team for an online panel discussion of WordPress Accessibility and the event on Thursday, May 21st, 2020 – Global Accessibility Awareness Day. We’ll chat about accessibility, talk about the event, and answer your questions.  Share your questions on our Twitter account @WPAccessibility or send an email through the WP Accessibility Day contact form. Time and venue yet to be determined – sign up for the WP Accessibility Day email list to be notified about the panel!

Do you want to help organize WordPress Accessibility Day? We can use more volunteers! We’re currently meeting every Wednesday at 16:30 UTC in the #accessibility-events SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel – join us if you want to help!

#wpa11y

Joe Dolson 7:28 pm on April 3, 2020  

Accessibility & Online Streaming

It came to our attention recently that the Community Team selected Crowdcast to handle video streaming for the online adaptation of WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. events. Crowdcast has significant accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) limitations, and cannot be recommended for events that wish to embrace an audience of diverse abilities.

Presenting a conference via online video is complex, and there are no available options that provide all desirable features for a conference.

Nonetheless, in our opinion Crowdcast is fundamentally unsuitable, due to a dependency on mouse interaction & the lack of any support or a timeline for support for captioning.

Based on feedback, the community team is in the process of revamping their plans and writing new documentation so projects can move forward.

Accessible Streaming Setup Options

One example of an acceptable accessible model for video streaming is that used by the WPCampus conferences and by the recent WP BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Talk event:

  • Stream through YouTube
  • Embed their player and chat on the website.
  • Caption ingestion goes through the YouTube player and are embedded separately with a link to the captions so they can be in a separate window

There are many viable solutions to this, each requiring a different set of choices to have all the desirable features; but Crowdcast should not be used on its own.

For events continuing to use Crowdcast:

  • Be aware that speakers with disabilities may be unable to speak due to this change.
  • Please do not use Crowdcast to deliver the public-facing access to the stream.

Other options, such as Zoom, are also viable. While Zoom has come under fire for security and privacy reasons, they are a highly accessible video streaming tool.

Tips for Accessible Online Presentations

Many of the helpful ways you can make your presentations accessible online are the same as those for in-person talks: such as providing captions, describing whats on your screen, or repeating questions.

In the online presentation environment, these same concerns become even more important – unstable internet connections may introduce problems with audio or video that make captions and descriptions of visuals even more crucial.

When you’re presenting online, try to do what you can to give people a great experience:

  • Disable apps that might be consuming your bandwidth, such as Dropbox or cloud backup apps.
  • Use an external microphone, and not your computer’s microphone pickup.
  • Reduce background noise as much as possible.
  • Speak clearly, slowly, and enunciate to the best of your ability.
  • Describe the essential visuals on the screen – you don’t need to give every detail, but be specific.
  • Provide links to resources as you go.

Enjoy your presenting!

Joe Dolson 11:32 pm on February 4, 2020  

WP Accessibility Day: Planning meeting 3

WP AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Day planning continued on Tuesday, 22 January, 2020

Slack transcript

Updates from Community Team

No existing guidelines about support, but we can provide a list of needs & they can let us know how they can help. Dates are up to us.

@nataliemac volunteered to start developing a budget

@xkon volunteered to offer advice from WP Translation Day experience.

@audrasjb Learned that we need to secure hosting & domain name for ourselves, and will touch base with sponsors to provide this.

Design phase

Design team is established, will meet before the next meeting to start planning. Will use WP Accessibility GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ team to coordinate development.

Date Commitment

Committed to September 26th. Some possible events we want to avoid collision with aren’t announced, so we can’t make plans around those.

Timing will be 24 hours, midnight to midnight UTC.

Next meeting:

The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 16:00 UTC

Joe Dolson 12:09 am on January 16, 2020
Tags:   

WP Accessibility Day: planning meeting 2

WP AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Day planning continued on Tuesday, 14 January, 2020

Slack transcript

Design: Site, logo, hosting, etc.

@nrqsnchz volunteered to pair with somebody on design.

@ryokuhi verified that Global WordPress Translation Day was hosted by Siteground; @jbaudras will check with WP Translation day organizing team about how that was set up.

@joedolson checked domain options, @audrasjb will also check with WP Translation day team about securing the domain.

Still need additional volunteers to work on design. Would like a team of at least three people to plan architecture, build, and design.

Event Content

@joedolson proposed using a model similar to ID24 (inclusive design 24); 24 hours, one talk per hour. Content will be selected from open submissions world-wide. Essentially a single-track, single-topic WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. running virtually for 24 hours.

Talks would probably be 30-40 minutes. Have live emcees who can chat with and do mini-interviews with speakers, handle q & a.

Use members of organizing team or a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) team to handle emcee duties.

Speaker Selection

@vicent, @ryokuhi, @joedolson, and @bdeconinck volunteered to help with speaker selection. Further volunteers are welcome!

Local event coordination

We’ll want to list local events that are associated with WP Accessibility Day, such as viewing events or other related events.

  • Need to be able to provide information to organizers setting up events on accessible event spaces
  • Need to list accessibility features of events on site (e.g., live signing, audio enhancement, description services, etc.)
  • Should have minimum requirements for events re: accessibility of event space.

Briefly discussed live translation services & post-event internationalization of content, but tabled the conversation as out-of-scope.

Next meeting:

Dates are proposed in the #accessibility-events SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel; please vote on options.