Going through some of the accessibility …
Going through some of the accessibility improvements. 2.7 was tested with JAWS but there were some changes in the UI since then. Does anybody use JAWS or another screen reader, or know somebody that uses it? Feedback is welcome.
Ryan 8:05 am on May 3, 2009 Permalink
I do someone who uses Jaws. I’ll send a link to this page to them in case they are keen to help out.
I’ve sent him an email. Hopefully he’ll be keen to help out.
slger 1:22 pm on May 3, 2009 Permalink
Yry NVDA http://www.marcozehe.de/articles/how-to-use-nvda-and-firefox-to-test-your-web-pages-for-accessibility/
Is there a list of accessibility items to test? I’ll work on them.
My biggest problem: can’t get rid of archieves. Also cannot see theme well enough to know if it looks ok. What’s the most accessible theme?
Ryan 10:08 pm on May 3, 2009 Permalink
This ticket has some discussion on hidden labels.
Lynne 1:30 pm on May 6, 2009 Permalink
FWIW, I know of a couple of folk who use assistive devices and who cannot use 2.7. As far as I know, they are still on 2.6.5. JAWS is only one of a number of assistive devices and even with JAWS users, proficiency varies. Accessibility with JAWS depends on the users level of experience and also on which browser they are using. EYES has the same issues. Headwands, voice recognition, etc also rely on the site being accessible and, again, these are things most of us can’t test.
Having said that, there are a number of people, including people with disabilities, who are keen to see WordPress become fully accessible. Some just walked away after concerns about 2.7 got fobbed off with the comment that it underwent usability testing and was therefore ok. I pretty much shut up about accessibility at that time too, and although I develop sites for others on 2.7/2.7.1, my own site remains on 2.6.5 because of accessibility issues.
Don’t try to go it alone guys – great coders are not expected to be experts in web app accessibility. If you put accessibility improvements on the roadmap for 2.9 and would consider opening a wp-accessibility mailing list for those in the accessibility field to discuss issues and fixes in, I can get a call out to the Guild of Accessible Web Designers and others I network with and get people working on this.
Just a thought.
Glenda Watson Hyatt 2:40 am on May 8, 2009 Permalink
Great point, Lynne! Involve people with disabilities who use various assistive technology in to development and testing.
Jane Wells 2:02 am on May 9, 2009 Permalink
Lynne, who commented that 2.7 underwent usability testing and was therefore okay? Not any of the core team, I’m sure, as we did have someone from an accessibility company do a review for us during the 2.7 dev cycle, and we fixed as many of the things as we could. Usability and accessibility are not the same, and we all recognize that. There’s definitely room for improvement, but we absolutely are paying attention.
Lynne 7:07 am on May 18, 2009 Permalink
I put in a request through wp-hackers a few weeks back, asking if we could have a wp-accessibility mailing list set up please. There are enough people interested in contributing to development and testing for accessibility that a dedicated mailing list would, IMO, be very worthwhile.
Has there been any decision made on this yet? Accessibility discussion just gets lost in the busy wp-hackers list & that list is not perceived as the most inviting for those whose primary interest is in accessibility issues.
Barry 3:29 pm on July 2, 2009 Permalink
This should be done in the next week or so.
Lorelle VanFossen 2:32 pm on May 6, 2009 Permalink
Don’t forget to include Glenda Watson Hyatt of http://www.doitmyselfblog.com/ as she is an accessibility expert, WordPress fan, and living tester of these things. She has top connections, too, to help. @glendaWH on Twitter.
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