Tag Archives: accessibility

Krupa Nanda 10:29 am on July 8, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: July 02, 2026

These is 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 alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

Announcements 📣

Discussion: Pure White and Pure Black Color Combinations

  • The team discussed accessibility concerns around using pure white text on dark backgrounds and near-black text on pure white backgrounds, which can cause visual discomfort for people with astigmatism, dyslexia, and other vision impairments.
  • Current research and discussions around 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/. 3 and the Accessible Perceptual Contrast Algorithm (APCA) suggest that extreme contrast may not always provide the best accessibility experience.
  • A proposal was made to create a TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket documenting authoritative research and evidence supporting the use of off-white and off-black color combinations instead of pure white and pure black.
  • Team members were invited to contribute research and references to a shared document to support the proposal.
  • It was also noted that 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/ already uses an off-white color in many places, suggesting the use of pure white in the WordPress 7.0 admin color scheme may have been unintentional. A follow-up ticket will be opened to propose updating the color in a future point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality..

Docs

  • For now we do not have much to share but will have more updates during the next meeting as @rianrietveld took some time off. And we already have monthly doc progress updates which is been shared as part of the announcement.

General

  • Work on WordPress 7.1 is progressing, with ongoing discussions around proposed admin bar design changes that may have accessibility implications.
  • The next few weeks will be critical as enhancements need to land before 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. 1 to be included in the release.
  • The team emphasized that accessibility testing continues throughout the release cycle, even after features are committed, allowing issues to be identified and addressed before the final release.

Gutenberg

  • Ongoing Gutenberg work is focused on bringing the admin bar to both Gutenberg and classic admin screens for a more consistent experience.
  • Progress continues on the Icon, Playlist, and Tabs blocks, while work on the Table of Contents 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. appears to be stalled.
  • Accessibility reviews are still needed for lightbox captions, the client-side media experience, and the media editor modal.
  • Additional Gutenberg features are also under review as part of the team’s accessibility testing efforts.

Themes

  • The deadline for accessibility-ready theme reviews has been extended to allow more time for completing the backlog of reviews.
  • The team is currently working through more than 100 themes, with 79 themes still awaiting an initial review, alongside themes requiring re-tests, updates, and report reviews.
  • Once the backlog is cleared, the review process is expected to become more manageable by focusing primarily on new theme submissions.
  • The team also discussed the value of hosting another live theme review and Q&A session to help contributors build confidence in the review process.

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

Krupa Nanda 9:29 am on July 1, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: July 02, 2026

This is the proposed agenda for the bi-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 Thursday, July 02, 2026 15:00 UTC

Announcements 📣

Proposed Discussion

Team perspective on the use of pure white text on dark backgrounds (and vice versa), including 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/. 3 and APCA research. (Proposed by Afercia.)

Updates from the working group

  • 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/
  • Themes

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 is every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make 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/ (registration required).

#accessibility, #agenda

Krupa Nanda 6:42 am on June 23, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: June 18, 2026

These is 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 alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

  • Core Committers WCEU recap is published.
  • Check out What’s new for developers June 2026
  • What’s new in Gutenberg 23.4? (June 17, 2026)
  • Discussed accessibility considerations for how different types of contributions are recognized and represented in the new 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/ contributor activity tracking system.
    • The Accessibility Team created a shared Google Doc to brainstorm and define criteria for tracking contributor activity and impact, aiming to avoid subjective human judgment in the process.
    • @Rian Rietveld suggested that the Google Doc should also cover how contributions are tracked and what constitutes “meaningful” contribution.

The WordPress 7.1 release squad announcement

The WordPress 7.1 release squad has been announced, with @joedolson and @Aki Hamano serving as tech leads, ensuring accessibility will be a top priority for the August 19, 2026 release.

Docs

General and Guternberg

  • Progress was limited during the WordCamp Europe week, with more active development expected in the coming weeks. Priorities for the WordPress 7.1 release began to take shape following the announcement of the release squad.

Themes

Themes Updates

  • Significant progress was made on re-reviewing accessibility-ready themes, with additional work still remaining.
  • The previously announced June 30 deadline was expected to be treated as a milestone for themes to begin the review process rather than complete it.
  • The post will be published with updated guidance to clarify the review expectations if needed.

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

Krupa Nanda 1:19 pm on June 17, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: June 18, 2026

This is the proposed agenda for the bi-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 Thursday, June 18, 2026 15:00 UTC

Updates from the working group

  • 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/
  • Themes

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 is every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make 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/ (registration required).

#accessibility, #agenda

Krupa Nanda 9:29 am on June 9, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: June 04, 2026

These is 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 alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

  • 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 held last week, and contributors were encouraged to join the Accessibility Team table during 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.
  • The Accessibility Team shared updates on ongoing documentation improvements for May 2026.
  • The call for volunteers for the WordPress 7.1 release is closed.
  • Contributors were reminded that one week remained to apply as a speaker for WordPress Accessibility Day.
  • A hotfix addressing the publish button placement issue was released.

Docs

  • @rianrietveld shared an update that work on improving the Accessibility Team documentation continued.
  • During WordCamp Europe Contributor Day, attendees reviewed the new documentation and provided valuable feedback to help refine and improve the content.

General

  • @joedolson shared that most tickets milestoned for 7.1 already have patches, so the focus of bug scrubs over the coming weeks will be on reviewing those patches and confirming they still apply correctly.
  • It was also mentioned that some bug scrubs may need to be rescheduled due to scheduling constraints. Any schedule changes will be communicated as far in advance as possible.

Gutenberg

  • @joedolson shared that 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/ team is still primarily focused on polishing items that missed shipping in the 7.0 release.

Themes

Only four weeks remain to complete re-reviews of all current accessibility-ready themes. By June 30, all accessibility-ready themes are expected to be either:

  • Approved,
  • Actively in progress with participation from the theme author, or
  • Delisted if they do not meet accessibility standards and there is no evidence of author engagement to address the identified issues.

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

Krupa Nanda 12:49 pm on May 20, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: May 21, 2026

This is the proposed agenda for the bi-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 Thursday, May 21, 2026 15:00 UTC

Updates from the working group

  • 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/
  • Themes

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 is every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make 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/ (registration required).

#accessibility, #agenda

Aki Hamano 3:14 am on April 3, 2026
Tags: accessibility, wcasia2026   

Contribute to Accessibility at WordCamp Asia 2026 Contributor Day

WordCamp Asia 2026 is coming soon! This year’s WCAsia will take place in Mumbai, India, from April 9 to 11, 2026. 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 works to make WordPress as accessible as possible for as many people as possible, and we are always looking for new contributors. We look forward to meeting many people who are interested in accessibility at Contributor Day.

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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ Schedule

Important Note: Remote support is available during the following hours:

What Should I Prepare to Contribute?

The most important thing is your desire to make WordPress accessible. Whether your interests are in code, testing, or documentation, we will guide you to the best way to contribute. If you would like to contribute with code, we recommend setting up a local development environment in advance.

If you are joining online, please join the #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 feel free to say hello to us.

Our Goals

One of the main goals of Contributor Day is to welcome contributors who are interested in accessibility and guide them on how to get involved. Below are some examples of specific goals:

  • Contribute to Documentation: Learn what documentation exists and how it is managed. Read the documentation and report areas that could be improved. Write new documentation.
  • Contribute to Code: Set up a development environment. Identify accessibility-related issues. Learn how to work on those issues.
  • Contribute to Testing: Test accessibility-related issues. Test WordPress and identify and report accessibility problems.

About Table Leads

Experienced members will support you. Please feel free to ask any questions—about what accessibility is, how you can contribute, what is required to contribute code, or anything else.

Helpful Resources

If you would like to learn about accessibility, we recommend reviewing the WP Accessibility Knowledge Base in advance. This document is a comprehensive accessibility guideline for WordPress and is continuously being improved. If you are interested in helping improve the documentation, please visit the GitHub repository.

Are you interested in contributing through testing or code? The Accessibility Handbook has a helpful page for finding accessibility-related tasks.

Another helpful resource is the Contributor Pathway for testing accessibility.

Props to @krupajnanda and @joedolson for peer review of this post.

#accessibility, #wcasia2026

Krupa Nanda 8:26 am on March 31, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: March 26, 2026

These is 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 alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

  1. WordPress 7.0 RC2 released
  2. Only a week to go for WCAsia2026

Working Group Updates

Docs

@rianrietveld shared the updates for docs team as mentioned below.

  • Work is ongoing to extend and update documentation around alternative text (alt text) for images in WordPress
    • The goal is to make it useful not just for content creators, but also for developers
  • There is an active discussion around introducing a “Can I Use” section for coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks
    • This would highlight the accessibility status of each 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., helping users understand current support and limitations both.

Generic Updates was shared by @joedolson. He is currently working on preparing the post about accessibility changes in WordPress 7.0 release and working on identifying tickets targeted for 7.1 release.

He mentioned that most focus right now should be on testing 7.0, to ensure that any new issues or regressions are caught before the actual release.

@joedolson also mentioned that the work on the theme accessibility-ready updates has been delayed due to the complexity of last-minute changes in WordPress 7.0 release. It is expected to resume post-release.

The upcoming bi-weekly meeting is cancelled in favour of 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 activities.
Our next meeting will take place directly on 23rd April on a regular time 15:00 UTC

#accessibility, #meeting-notes

Krupa Nanda 10:39 am on March 25, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: March 26, 2026

This is the proposed agenda for the bi-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 Thursday, March 27, 2026 at 12:30 AM GMT+5:30

Updates from the working group

  • 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/
  • Themes

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 is every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make 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/ (registration required).

#accessibility, #agenda

Nasim Miah 5:53 pm on March 18, 2026
Tags: accessibility,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: March 12, 2026

On Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 08:30 PM GMT+5:30, a team meeting started in #accessibility kicked of by Krupa Nanda. You can read the full transcript or see the meeting agenda.

  • Change in meeting time for next two meetings
    • There is the change in meeting time from next meetings till the release is over. (~ for 2-3 meetings). The new time is 19:00 UTC
  • Table Leads for 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 2026
    • 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 is looking for Table Leads for WordCamp Asia 2026 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.
    • Contributor Day will take place on April 9, 2026, at the Jio World Convention Centre.
    • We may consider having two table leads: one onsite and one supporting remotely.
    • If you’re attending and willing to take on this role, please fill out the application form shared 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/ channel. Feel free to pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @krupajnanda for more details.
    • Remote support is also welcome.
  • It’s time to test real-time collaboration! With WordPress 7.0, real-time collaboration—the centerpiece 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 ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Phase 3—lands in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. This is the first iteration, and there’s much more to come. But you can test it now!
  • Call For Feedback: Increasing Value of Release Party Testing Phase

Working Group Updates

Documentation

added Quick Wins and a Reading Guide (content by role/expertise), included a disclaimer that docs support the WordPress community but don’t replace 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/... Currently work is done on documentation on focus management, alt text, WCAG intro, business accessibility, and legislation.

General Updates

@joedolson shared many updates, with a few items still being worked on.
Only one accessibility ticket remains open for the WordPress 7.0 milestone (likely won’t make it), 32 tickets were closed for 7.0, focus will shift to accessibility goals for 7.1 after RC1, and RCRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. is the key time to review and fix accessibility issues in new features before final release.

Gutenberg

Real-time collaboration needs accessibility testing (especially with screen readers); contributors should test RTC with multiple users editing simultaneously, coordinate testing with @joedolson, and also review visual revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. though they are less urgent.

Themes

So far no updates here.

The following two meetings will be scheduled at 19:00 UTC due to a timing conflict with the WordPress 7.0 release. After the release, we will return to our regular meeting time of 15:00 UTC. This change is temporary.

#accessibility, #meeting-notes