Last couple of weeks members of the MWA team organized joint test sessions on Skype and IRC #wordpress-ui. We had a mixed team of users and coders, all with different experience with assistive technology Assistive technology is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology (AT).
We installed the trunk version of WordPress on a server everyone could access and discussed tickets, tested the accessibility 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) of patches and of core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. functionality.
The combination Skype (voice) and IRC worked well. On Skype we could quickly discuss what to test and what the problems where and on the IRC developers could join in. So this turned out to be a productive way of working.
In the first session patches for ticket #28823 Plugin details screen is not given focus where tested. @ocean90 joined the conversation discussing a solution with @bramd. @ocean90 came up with a new patch. We tested that on different browsers and AT. The patch worked. @ocean90 committed the patch and closed the ticket.
During the second session we tested patches for the Add Media and Media Library functionality with screen readers and keyboard only. We were puzzled by the navigation with a keyboard in a logical way trough all the options. For example, how do you select two images using only a keyboard. The relevant patch for ticket #29326 Improve accessibility of edit-selection mode, was tested and discussed with @adamsilverstein.
As a result of this discussion @bramd opened a new ticket #29371 Media Library: Focus keeps jumping to URL field.
We plan to continue these accessibility test sessions every Monday from 17:00 – 19:30 UTC in IRC #wordpress-ui. Anyone wanting to join in on IRC and Skype is very welcome. Just contact @rianrietveld or @arush on Mondays in IRC.