Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: July 24, 2020

These are the 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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect 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 on our Slack channel and find the meeting’s agenda here.

Review of 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 β€˜blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ issues marked as accessibility regressions

The first part of the meeting was dedicated to reviewing Gutenberg issues marked as accessibility regressions; it was a continuation of the bug scrub that had started an hour before. In the end, the team analyzed eleven issues and discussed which of them were considered as must-have to be included in WordPress 5.5.

The complete discussion about Gutenberg accessibility regressions (including items addressed during the bug-scrub) is in the #accessibility channel on 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/..

Planning of an extra pre-alpha triage session

Following the discussion we had two weeks ago about how to better address accessibility bugs in WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and issues in Gutenberg, the team agreed on organizing an extra bug-scrub after WordPress 5.5 Release CandidateRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. 1. The scope of the additional triage is to identify easier and self-contained tickets and issues to mark as good-first-bug.

The team agreed to separate the Friday bug-scrub from the extra once-per-release triage: half of it will be focused on WordPress Core tickets and the other to Gutenberg issues.

The suggested time for this extra bug-scrub is Tuesday, August 4th, 2020 at 15:00 UTC, but the team will choose the final date and time and the bug-gardener in charge of conducting the triage during next weekly meeting. If we can’t get through all tickets and issues in a single meeting, a follow-up will be planned.

Updates on WordPress Accessibility Day organization

Organization of WordPress Accessibility Day, the 24-hour event about WordPress and accessibility starting on Friday, October 2nd, 2020, is in progress, but the organizing team asked for some help.

They are looking for people to volunteer as Emcees, moderators, and monitors during the event, and a specific call for volunteers will go live in the next few days.

If someone wants to participate to a greater extent, please join the #accessibility-events channel, where discussion about the event is ongoing and a weekly meeting happens every Wednesday at 16:30 UTC.

#meeting-notes

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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect 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.Β  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

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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect 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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect 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.

WordPress Accessibility Day: kickoff meeting notes

Slack transcript of the meeting

The initial planning meeting for the proposed 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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) event occurred on Tuesday, December 17th at 16:00 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.

Goals of the Event

What do we hope to achieve with this event?

  • Build awareness in the WordPress community around accessibility
  • Develop the accessibility knowledge of the members of the WordPress community

Outcomes

  • Things to measure: participants, number of live events, participation follow-up behaviors
  • Can we set practical numeric goals with no prior comparison? Perhaps specific goal setting is a thing for a repeat WPA11y Day.
  • Consider possible goal targets as we develop the event further.

Logistics

We made the decision to plan a 24 hour event, world-wide. Currently planning is targeted towards a date in late September, to avoid collisions with major WordPress releases, WordCamps Asia, EU, and US, and to also try and avoid the probable date for ID24.

A secondary goal is to prepare a mini-event to promote this as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2020.

Naming

The official name of the event will be β€˜WordPress Accessibility Day’.

The next meeting is tentatively proposed for Tuesday January 14th 2020 at 16:00 UTC. In the next meeting we’ll further examine the logistics, refine the timeline, and begin to discuss content.

WP Global Accessibility Day

The initial planning session for the proposed WP Global 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 β€œdirect access” (i.e. unassisted) and β€œindirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Day will happen on Tuesday 17 December 2019 at 16:00 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.

All are welcome to participate – registration and an account in the WordPress Slack instance are required. Instructions on joining the WordPress Slack.

Meeting agenda (in Google Docs).

This is an early planning session, so come prepared with a open mind and lots of ideas!