WordPress 7.0 continues to polish 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) across WordPress Core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and Gutenberg 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/, advancing the goals to meet accessibility standards. WordPress 7.0 includes fixes across the platform, improving media management, usability for voice control, and improvements to color contrast with the new admin (and super admin) color scheme. The editor ships with new blocks and improvements to editor navigation and interaction.
Core
Improvements to WordPress Core include 24 accessibility enhancements and bug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes. Major changes include enhancements to the media library for voice control users and the import of alternative text from image metadata, improvements to control semantics, and fixes to color contrast.
Media
Significant changes to media will improve both the editor and user experience. In WordPress 7.0, using the media library with voice control technology is now possible. Alternative text embedded in photo meta 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. data will be imported and automatically set as the image text alternative when available.
- #23562 – Using Speech Recognition Software with the Add Media Panel
- #55535 – Pre-populate Image Alt Text field with IPTC Photo Metadata Standard Alt Text
- #63895 – Accessibility: Alt Text Metadata is not imported but Description is
- #63984 – Assess if the tabpanels in the media modals should receive focus
- #64374 – Alt text helper text can be more educational and visual indicator of opening in new tab
- #63980 – Set featured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. button incorrectly coded as link and missing required ARIA attributes
Admin
Improvements to predictability and verbosity for screen reader users have been made across the admin to provide users with a more consistent and stable interface.
- #23432 – Review usage of
target="_blank" in the admin
- #33002 – List table: avoid redundant Edit links and reduce noise for screen readers
- #43084 – dashboard confuses published posts count with all posts
- #64065 – Dragging theme/plugin 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. ZIP outside file input field, downloads file instead of uploading.
- #64375 – Set
word-break property in screen reader only css.
- #64313 – Color Contrast raises errors in automated tests for WordPress Dashboard
- #64382 – Post search input “close” (×) button should use
cursor: pointer
- #64811 – Zero comment notification in admin toolbar has insufficient color contrast
Themes
Numerous improvements to theme template functions and core themes.
- #62835 – Remove title attributes from author link functions
- #62982 – Twenty Twenty-Five: The Written by pattern on single posts has too low color contrast in some variations
- #64064 – Twenty Ten: remove auto-focus script from 404 template
- #64594 – Block 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. Support: Allow serialization skipping for ariaLabel
- #64361 – Leverage HTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. API An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. to implement block template skip link
Miscellaneous
Improvements in the classic editor, code editing, the Customizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings., and login and registration.
- #63981 – Taxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. meta box tabs not programmatically identified
- #42822 – CodeMirror: HTML attributes values hints not fully operable with a keyboard
- #60726 – The WordPress core password reset needs to pre-populate the username to meet WCAG 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
- #63861 – Explore removing wpmu activation styles
- #64013 – Color contrast below WCAG standards for newly-added items in customizer menus
Gutenberg
Changes within Gutenberg include 16 accessibility fixes and enhancements, including the addition of new interactive blocks that have undergone accessibility reviews. Numerous fundamental components have had accessibility improvements to ensure that interfaces across the editor are more consistent and understandable.
While there are relatively few accessibility fixes and enhancements in the editor for WordPress 7.0, there are many new interfaces that have undergone accessibility review, per the WordPress commitment to meeting WCAG 2.2 at level AA for all new and updated code. These include the Visual Revisions inspector, Gallery lightboxes, and the new Connectors interface.
Bug fixes:
- #75165 – RangeControl: support forced-colors mode
- #66735 – Resize meta box pane without ResizableBox
- #74387 – Use 12px as minimum font size for warning on fit text (see also #73730)
- #74205 – add ariaKeyShortcut and shortcutFormats exports
- #73674 – Fix block toolbar icon CSS Cascading Style Sheets. when using show icon label preference
- #73245 – Make DataViews table checkbox permanently visible
- #72997 – DataViews: Add grid keyboard navigation
- #70787 – Button: update font-weight to 500
- #75689 – DataForm: Fix focus loss and refactor Card layout
- #75271 – Accordion block: Add list view support.
- #75407 – Gallery: Add list view block support
- #73823 – Add Heading level variations
New Features:
- #62906 – Gallery: Add lightbox support
- #16484 – Add an Icons block
- #75833 – Add Connectors screen and API
- #74742 – Add visual revisions 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.
Reviewed by @amykamala, @sabernhardt
#7-0, #accessibility, #dev-notes, #dev-notes-7-0
