Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: 13 Sept. 2019

Meeting transcript on Slack

Update on 5.3 TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. Tickets & Upcoming Bug Scrubs

There are now 49 open tickets in the 5.3 milestone report. Some of these are close to commit, a few more have patches but need finalizing. Still some tickets without owners.

Scheduling an additional bug scrub for Tuesday 17 September 2019 at 15:00 UTC to work through them further.

Review: 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/ Navigation/Edit Mode.

The team discussed the practical experience of using the mode switching in various AT we’ve tested. The call for testing did not yield any responses.

Several people noted that the new UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. works quite well for keyboard users.

For screen readers, it’s more mixed: requires double escape to exit edit mode, the experience with NVDA/Firefox is buggy. NVDA has some known issues right now with Firefox, so this should be tested with FF 71 Nightly, which is anticipated to fix some issues.

Overall:

– It’s a good improvement for keyboard 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) and some assistive tech.
– Doesn’t work well with Firefox and NVDA: this needs to be investigated and addressed before release.
– Add audible messages, e.g.: “WordPress edit mode activated” and “WordPress navigation mode activated”.
– The button text needs to communicate the available action. The 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. type is not an action. Should probably be ‘Edit [block name]’ That would be much more clear for all users.

Twenty Twenty: Should main menu and search be ARIA modal dialogs?

The accessibility team discussed ticket #80.

Team agreed that yes, this is an appropriate choice and would make a good model for implementation of an ARIA modal for menus. The source order should be retained in logical order rather than moving the menu source elsewhere so that child theming isn’t made excessively complicated.

Feedback on Gutenberg Proposal for Content Block Areas

Commented that the use of modes has potential for good UI, as discussed for Navigation/Edit in the editor, above.

No other new comments, other than reiterating that the 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. continues to be a concern in Gutenberg.

Open Floor

  • Discussed accessibility of 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/. threads. They are now navigable and readable. Notifications are limited, but this is also true for all other users. Slack threads can be used, but (as always) are not the right place for primary topics of conversation.
  • @nataliemac needs volunteer teaching assistants for WCUS.