Krupa Nanda 10:38 am on December 11, 2025
Tags: ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: December 04, 2025

On Thursday, December 04, 2025, 15:00 UTC, a team meeting started in #accessibility facilitated by Krupa Nanda. You can read the full transcript or see the meeting agenda.

📢 Important Announcement

  • WordPress 6.9 “Gene” is here!
  • State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by Community
  • Updating 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) Contributor Badge Criteria
    • There has been a rise in one-off contributors requesting badges, increasing workload for reviewers. The team discussed creating more scalable and meaningful badge criteria. Proposed updates include:
      • Requiring around 5 minor contributions (such as testing, documentation clarifications)
        OR
      • 2 major contributions (significant patches, substantial documentation updates)
  • WordPress 7.0 Admin Redesign – “Coat of Paint”
    • The team discussed the ongoing work toward visually reskinning the WP Admin for 7.0.
    • Key points:
      • Changes are mainly CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. and 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. refresh, not functional overhauls.
      • The color palette will shift to the 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/ palette.
      • This will require heavy accessibility testing, especially around color contrast, design consistency, and any missed regressions due to wide UI updates
      • Checkout TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket for more details.

Updates from working groups

Docs

@rianrietveld had already shared an update about the docs team beforehand.

  • wpaccessibility.org has a new design and improved search.
  • Feedback from 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. Netherlands highlighted the need for “why accessibility matters” resources.
  • Multiple documentation pages have been added or updated recently.

General

The 7.0 milestone is taking shape, following the release of WordPress 6.9. @joedolson had share the post about accessibility improvements in 6.9

Gutenberg

Some major new features like the Tabs 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. have landed and will require accessibility review.

Themes

@joedolson shared that the work is progress on updating theme review guidelines for accessibility. This is expected to be a major documentation focus in December.

NOTE: If you’d like to have a topic added to the agenda for our next meeting, please mention it in the comments on an upcoming agenda.

#accessibility, #meeting-notes

Nazmul Hasan Robin 12:59 am on August 28, 2025
Tags:   

Introducing Accessibility Team Reps for 2025–2026

We’re excited to share 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 Reps for the September 2025 – September 2026 term!
Muhammad Yeasin (@thisisyeasin) and Krupa Nanda (@krupajnanda) will serve as Accessibility Team Reps, and Nasim Miah (@muddassirnasim) will join the team to contribute and gain experience in the role.

This structure will add strong organizational skills while creating opportunities for new contributors to grow within the team.

About our new Team Reps

Muhammad Yeasin (@thisisyeasin)

Yeasin is from Bangladesh and has built his professional career around partnerships, affiliate management, digital marketing, and business development in the WordPress and SaaS ecosystem. He has contributed to the Photos and Polyglots teams, volunteered at multiple WordCamps, served as table lead at several events, organized 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. NEO, and will organize WordCamp Dhaka 2025.

He also co-organizes the WordPress Dhaka MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. chapter and is currently focused on expanding the CampusConnect program in Bangladesh, encouraging students and young professionals to contribute to open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL.. Yeasin is eager to deepen his involvement with the Accessibility team to make WordPress more inclusive for everyone.

Krupa Nanda (@krupajnanda)

Krupa has spent over 7 years focusing on testing, ensuring products don’t just work, but work beautifully and inclusively for everyone. She is currently serving as the Test Team Representative for 2024–2025 and recently led the testing efforts for the WordPress 6.8 release.

Krupa’s journey in the WordPress community includes co-organizing local meetups and WordCamps, volunteering, and speaking at community events. She is passionate about creating seamless, inclusive experiences, where accessibility and usability are central to product quality. As an Accessibility Team Representative, she looks forward to helping build a web that works for all users, regardless of ability.

Nasim Miah (@muddassirnasim)

Nasim is a WordPress developer based in Malaysia with 6 years of experience building websites, plugins, and themes for individuals, companies, and nonprofits. He began contributing to WordPress in 2023, supporting CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Training, Translation, and Test teams, and has developed custom plugins and themes with a focus on performance, responsiveness, and SEO.

Nasim is active in the community as a mentor in the Training Team Guide Program, organizer of WordCamps, and host of meetups and presentations. He is passionate about accessibility and looks forward to contributing to the Accessibility Team, blending technical expertise and community engagement to help make WordPress more inclusive for everyone.

#team-reps

Nazmul Hasan Robin 10:05 am on August 3, 2025
Tags:   

Call for Accessibility Team Representatives

The Make WordPress Accessible team is looking for two new Team Reps to step into this important role. Our current reps, @nhrrob and @rcreators, will be wrapping up their term at the end of August after serving for a year. Now it’s time to pass the torch!

What is a Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.?

Ideally, all Make WordPress teams should have two representatives which allows them to share responsibilities, divide tasks, and cover each other when needed.

Team Reps work with other teams across the project, share key updates across all contributor teams, and generally help to support the team as a whole.

  • Team Rep is an organizational role that is mostly administrative in nature; it is not a Lead role.
  • Letting go of the Team Rep title is not a loss of status, just a handing off of responsibilities.
  • Someone who is a leader in a team can lead whether they are doing the team rep job or not.

What to Expect in the Role?

Expectations vary from team to team, but here are some of what to expect:

  • Prepare meeting agenda by requesting updates from 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) working groups;
  • Conduct the team’s bi-weekly meetings on the Make Accessibility 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; and
  • Document meeting notes and share updates with other teams as necessary

This would be a great opportunity to move the Meeting time to accommodate other time zones around the world, continue increasing participation and incorporate new voices.

Additional information, including orientation topics including the title, responsibilities, team site, current team reps, and your official role can be found on the Team Updates – https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/ page.

What are our Next Steps?

Are YOU interested in contributing? Just provide a name in the comments section of this post and plan on joining us at our Friday, August 6, 2025 Meeting at 15:00 UTC.

If you would like to be considered for the role or know someone who would be a great fit, you have the opportunity to nominate yourself or others by adding a comment to this post. Remember that, if someone nominates you, but you don’t feel like accepting, you should feel more than free to say no: your nomination be considered only if you explicitly agree.

#team-reps

Nazmul Hasan Robin 11:32 am on November 1, 2024
Tags: ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: Nov 06, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the weekly 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 on Wednesday, November 06, 2024, 15:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • Documentation
  • General
  • 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/
  • Media
  • MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.
  • Themes

New Time for Accessibility Office Hours Meeting

Twenty Twenty-Five Theme Accessibility Testing

Open floor

If you want to have a topic added to the agenda, please mention it in the comments of this post.

The Accessibility Team bug scrub has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making WordPress 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/ (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda

Joe Dolson 3:37 pm on October 14, 2024  

Next Steps for the Accessibility Team

Following discussion with @nhrrob, one of our current team representatives, he has determined that he is still able to participate. The complications surrounding the vagueness of the login gatekeeping are still present; but he has concluded for himself that he is comfortable logging in. If this changes, we will once again suspend 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) meetings. Since there has been no guidance given regarding the definition of “affiliation” with WP Engine, this will continue to be an individual choice that may change in an ongoing manner.

This leaves us with one active team representative and one inactive team representative. We all continue to have the same overarching motivation: making WordPress more accessible.

With only one available team representative, we will be temporarily reducing to one meeting per month. The next team meeting will take place on November 6th.

Historically, getting anybody willing to be the team representative has been a hard challenge. We’re all busy doing the daily work of improving accessibility, and it’s hard to find people who are willing to coordinate meetings. The willingness of @rcreators and @nhrrob to take on this management task is greatly appreciated.

Feel free to comment on this post with your opinions on this path. Please restrict your comments to productive ideas about ways to move forward and make WordPress more accessible.

Joe Dolson 8:04 pm on October 12, 2024  

Accessibility Team Meetings Suspended

As neither of the current 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 representatives are able to log-in to 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/, team meetings are suspended until further notice. Bug scrubs will continue to run as normal.

Rishi Mehta 7:07 am on September 26, 2024
Tags: ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: Oct 02, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the weekly 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 on Wednesday, October 02, 2024, 15:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • Documentation
  • General
  • 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/
  • Media
  • MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.
  • Themes

New Time for Accessibility Office Hours Meeting

Twenty Twenty-Five Theme Accessibility Testing

Open floor

If you want to have a topic added to the agenda, please mention it in the comments of this post.

The Accessibility Team bug scrub has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making WordPress 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/ (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda

joesimpsonjr 3:25 pm on July 24, 2024
Tags:   

Call for Accessibility Team Representatives

The Make WordPress Accessible team is in need of two Team Reps to assume this role. With @alexstine stepping away in June and @joesimpsonjr at the end of August after almost three years in this role, we are making a Call for 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 Reps.

What is a Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.?

Ideally, all Make WordPress teams should have two representatives which allows them to share responsibilities, divide tasks, and cover each other when needed.

Team Reps work with other teams across the project, share key updates across all contributor teams, and generally help to support the team as a whole.

  • Team Rep is an organizational role that is mostly administrative in nature; it is not a Lead role.
  • Letting go of the Team Rep title is not a loss of status, just a handing off of responsibilities.
  • Someone who is a leader in a team can lead whether they are doing the team rep job or not.

What to Expect in the Role?

Expectations vary from team to team, but here are some of what to expect:

  • Prepare meeting agenda by requesting updates from Accessibility working groups;
  • Conduct the team’s bi-weekly meetings on the Make Accessibility 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; and
  • Document meeting notes and share updates with other teams as necessary

This would be a great opportunity to move the Meeting time to accommodate other time zones around the world, continue increasing participation and incorporate new voices.

Additional information, including orientation topics including the title, responsibilities, team site, current team reps, and your official role can be found on the Team Updates – https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/ page.

What are our Next Steps?

Are YOU interested in contributing? Just provide a name in the comments section of this post and plan on joining us at our Friday, August 2, 2024 Meeting at 16:00 UTC.

If you would like to be considered for the role or know someone who would be a great fit, you have the opportunity to nominate yourself or others by adding a comment to this post. Remember that, if someone nominates you, but you don’t feel like accepting, you should feel more than free to say no: your nomination be considered only if you explicitly agree.

#team-reps

Amber Hinds 3:13 pm on June 13, 2024
Tags:   

WordCamp Europe 2024 Contributor Day Summary

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 had a great turnout for 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/ 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, including 14 people who were new to the accessibility team. Thank you to everyone who participated!

@joedolson and @alh0319 led two tables, focusing on accessibility testing themes that had requested the Accessibility Ready tag and addressing open accessibility tickets in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and 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/.

During the day, contributors accomplished the following…

Accessibility-Ready Theme Review

Several contributors reviewed all four themes that had requested the accessibility-ready tag. They provided feedback to theme developers about elements that need to be fixed before the themes can be approved for the tag.

@rianrietveld started reviewing the current accessibility-ready requirements and is putting together a doc with suggested updates and possible new items to include. The current accessibility-ready requirements are many years old and outdated. This doc is a work in progress, but the idea is to update the accessibility-ready tag requirements so themes with it will provide a better starting point to align with current best practices and accessibility standards.

@alh0319 is building a tool to walk contributors and developers through testing themes for the accessibility-ready tag. The idea for this tool is to make it easier for anyone to determine if a theme meets the accessibility-ready requirements and to generate reports that can be easily posted in TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. when the tag is requested.

We’ve also opened an issue to update the accessibility theme unit test data to better support accessibility testing of 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.-based and full site editing themes.

Core Tickets Worked On

Contributors worked on testing issues that have been reported and reviewing patches for tickets. The following tickets were worked on:

Committed: #40331

Thank You to Contributors

Thank you to all the contributors who helped in-person in Italy and virtually via 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/! Here are some of the people who contributed:

Please leave a comment if we missed you, and I will add you to the list of contributors.

#accessibility-ready

joesimpsonjr 7:03 pm on February 16, 2024
Tags: , ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: February 16, 2024

These are the bi-weekly notes 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 that happens on Fridays. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

Updates from the working groups

NOTE: Only groups that provided updates are shown below.

Team Updates

Documentaton Working Group:

General Working Group:

  • @joedolson shared that 6.5 betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. is out and in testing, so please take a look! There are still some important bug fixes in hoping to get in.

Gutenberg Working Group:

@annezazu shared this update from the 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/ Working Group:

Outside of the chaos and joy of 6.5, some quick items to note for you all:

Also want to flag up whether anyone is game to write a recap of accessibility improvements for 6.5.

Open Floor for Discussion:

  • Joe asked for more feedback on the Accessibility Vision Document;
  • @joesimpsonjr asks due to attending 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. Asia (in transit March 1), should we cancel our next regularly scheduled meeting?
  • Joe Jr also shared a message from @bethannon1: I’m reaching out to see if you think there might be interest in exploring the idea of having an accessibility-specific “happiness table” at WCUS – potentially alongside the more generic happiness table. Even if it was only for one morning or one afternoon, it might be a great way to raise awareness about accessibility. One morning or afternoon could be staffed by 4 to 6 people. One whole day might require 10 to 12 people. With my existing commitments around the event I don’t think I would be able to help staff it – but we could plan for Meg Miller from our team to help. Maybe there would be a handful of other folks from the accessibility team that might be interested?

NOTE: If you’d like to have a topic added to the agenda for our next meeting, please mention it in the comments on an upcoming agenda.

#accessibility-ready, #design, #website-redesign