Title: accessibility – Team Updates – WordPress.org

---

#  Tag Archives: accessibility

 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/) [Jb Audras](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
11:50 am _on_ October 26, 2019     
Tags: accessibility   

# 󠀁[Accessibility team update – October 26, 2019](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/10/26/accessibility-team-update-october-26-2019/)󠁿

## WordPress 5.3 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) focus

[51 accessibility focused tickets were closed](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.3&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=id)
in milestone 5.3.

The biggest changes are related to Admin CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading 
style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site.. These
changes were documented in a fully detailed dev note:

> [Noteworthy Admin CSS changes in WordPress 5.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/10/18/noteworthy-admin-css-changes-in-wordpress-5-3/)

These changes were extensively tested by [@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
and a full report of his tests is available on Make/CoreCore Core is the set of 
software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 
as well:

> [Report: WP 5.3 Admin CSS changes tested against top 20 plugins](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/10/15/report-wp-5-3-admin-css-changes-tested-against-top-20-plugins/)

Widgets now use `aria-current` attribute to indicate if the current page in the 
concerned widgets:

> [Core Widgets: new aria-current attribute in WordPress 5.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/09/23/core-widgets-new-aria-current-attribute-in-wordpress-5-3/)

`aria-label` is now used in Post and Comments navigations to add proper context 
to the related navigation systems:

> [Use aria-label to ensure Posts and Comments navigation has proper context in WordPress 5.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/10/15/use-aria-label-to-ensure-posts-and-comments-navigation-has-proper-context-in-wordpress-5-3/)

Twenty Nineteen’s HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It
is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. 
structure was improved to avoid to generate invalid HTML:

> [Changes on Twenty Nineteen HTML structure in WordPress 5.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/09/04/changes-on-twenty-nineteen-html-structure-in-wordpress-5-3/)

`wp_die` HTML output was improved to avoid to generate invalid HTML:

> [Changes to wp_die() HTML output in WordPress 5.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/10/15/changes-to-wp_die-html-output-in-wordpress-5-3/)

There were also a number of accessibility focused changes in 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. editor to handle
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/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)
Accessibility Audit issues.

The accessibility team also contributed intensively to the development of the new
bundled theme, Twenty Twenty.

WordPress 5.3 was a key release for the WordPress accessibility team. Thanks to 
everyone involved in the accessibility focused TracTrac Trac is the place where 
contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.[https://core.trac.wordpress.org/](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/).
tickets and Gutenberg issues 👏

## New accessibility team reps election for 2020

The new team reps will be elected on [Friday 8 November 2019 at 15:00 UTC](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20191108T1500)
on Accessibility SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
channel.

For further information, see the related post on Make/Accessibility:

> [Accessibility team representatives election for 2020](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2019/10/26/accessibility-team-representatives-election-for-2020/)

## Accessibility table 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/)󠁿. US 2019 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/](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/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/)󠁿

[@nrqsnchz](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nrqsnchz/) will lead the accessibility
team table at WordCamp US contributor day. [@rianrietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/)
and [@nataliemac](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nataliemac/) will help running 
the table. [@nataliemac](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nataliemac/) will also present
an accessibility workshop.

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/) [Jb Audras](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
11:48 am _on_ August 5, 2019     
Tags: accessibility, [accessibility team meeting ( 21 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/)

# 󠀁[Accessibility team update: August 4, 2019](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/08/05/accessibility-team-update-for-august-4-2019/)󠁿

## WordPress 5.3 tickets

As of today, we have [75 accessibility focused tickets planned to ship with WordPress 5.3](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=closed&status=new&status=reopened&status=reviewing&focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.3&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=focuses&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority).

 * [23 of them are already closed as fixed](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.3&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=focuses&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority)
 * [14 of them are still open and assigned to various owners](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=assigned&focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.3&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=focuses&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority)

Therefore we have [38 open tickets without any owner](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=accepted&status=new&status=reopened&status=reviewing&focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.3&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=focuses&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority).
One of our main task next week will be to find owners for each ticket in the milestone.

## 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/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)󠁿 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) tickets

As of today, we have:

 * [217 open accessibility issues](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/labels/Accessibility)
 * [863 closed accessibility issues](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues?q=label%3AAccessibility+is%3Aclosed)
 * [38 open issues labelled ](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/labels/Needs%20Accessibility%20Feedback)_
   [Needs Accessibility Feedback](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/labels/Needs%20Accessibility%20Feedback)_
 * [42 closed issues labelled ](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues?q=label%3A%22Needs+Accessibility+Feedback%22+is%3Aclosed)_
   [Needs Accessibility Feedback](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues?q=label%3A%22Needs+Accessibility+Feedback%22+is%3Aclosed)_

The Accessibility Team need more persons able to follow that closely.

Besides the fact that we try to be more numerous to take care of this work, we also
evaluate the possibility to find ways to have more sponsored contributors (even 
a couple hours a week would be a great sponsorship!).

## WordPress Accessibility Day organization

By the end of July, the Accessibility Team decided to evaluate the possibility of
organizing a dedicated WordPress global accessibility event, like polyglots do with
_WordPress Translation Day_ (WPTD).

The idea is to organize a 24-hour virtual event all around the world with some video
conferences and focused on contributing to WordPress accessibility.

A couple of weeks ago, [a spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xNbFKhGhTL3HNH7YkRVEtyI6e51QrJQIFgIPJkv2spM/edit?usp=sharing)
was shared so Accessibility team contributors could sign up to be involved in this
organizing team. A dozen of people signed up to the organizing team.

The next step is to discuss the main focuses of the event and to divide the roles
between the organizing team.

For information, [WP Tavern already published a blog post about this initiative](https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-explore-the-possibility-of-a-global-accessibility-event).

## Various other tasks

 * **Usage of .screen-reader-text class in accessibility documentation:** Theme 
   Review Team contributors raised some concerns about [the current screen-reader-text class documentation](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/markup/the-css-class-screen-reader-text/).
   We are going to take care of rewriting the related docs and will work with Theme
   Review Team to ensure the new documentation is clear enough for theme authors
   and WordPress developers.
 * **Theme Review Team Accessibility requirements:** The team was asked to perform
   Theme Review Team blog post copy review for [new accessibility requirements about keyboard navigation](https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2019/08/03/planning-for-keyboard-navigation/).
 * **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. Directory in WordPress Admin:** the Accessibility Team raised
   some initial feedback for these early design. For reference, see first section
   of [Meeting Notes from July 26 Accessibility team meeting](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2019/07/29/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-26-july-2019/).
 * **Gutenberg: Support Navigation and Edit Mode:** All meeting attendees agree 
   that this is a good improvement. It would be necessary to be extensively tested
   by as many persons as possible, including users of assistive technologies. For
   reference, see first section of [August 2 team meeting notes](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2019/08/02/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-2-august-2019/).
   The next Gutenberg 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)
   or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. release is planned for August
   12th. The Accessibility Team will publish a _call for testers_ with some testing
   scenarios to test this big improvement.

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/), [#accessibility-team-meeting](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/) [Jb Audras](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
8:04 am _on_ March 9, 2019     
Tags: accessibility, [core-editor ( 14 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/core-editor/)

# 󠀁[Accessibility team update for March 9, 2019](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/03/09/accessibility-team-update-for-march-9-2019/)󠁿

 * **Health Check 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)
   or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. review:** [9 issues opened, 7 already fixed](https://github.com/WordPress/health-check/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+label%3Aaccessibility+).
 * **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) automated testing tools:** The project is close to be
   publicly released and the team is now moving it into the [WPAccessibility GitHub repository](https://github.com/wpaccessibility/wp-theme-auditor).
 * **TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature
   requests much like GitHub.[https://core.trac.wordpress.org/](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/).
   tickets triage:**
    - [24 Tickets milestoned in 5.2](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?focuses=~accessibility&milestone=5.2&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority),
      the next major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the
      same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for 
      example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions
      in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often
      are the introduction of new major features and functionality. (30 last week),
      all assigned to an owner.
    - There is some good progress on at least other 3 of the most tricky tickets.
    - [8](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?focuses=~accessibility&resolution=fixed&milestone=5.2&group=resolution&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority)
      [Tickets committed this week](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?focuses=~accessibility&resolution=fixed&milestone=5.2&group=resolution&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority).
 * **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/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)
   accessibility issues triage:** the accessibility team is going to give a triage
   document to the [#core-editor](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/core-editor/)
   team to help to prioritize the issues. However, both Accessibility and Editor
   teams are a bit short in term of developers availability so the idea is to handle
   3-4 issues per week if possible.
 * **Gutenberg User Documentation: **awaiting feedback from Docs team.

Last meeting recap:

> [Accessibility Team Meeting notes: March 8, 2019](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2019/03/09/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-march-8-2019/)

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith/) [Marius L. J.](https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith/)
10:33 am _on_ October 16, 2018     
Tags: accessibility   

# 󠀁[October 11th Support Team Meeting Summary](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2018/10/16/october-11th-support-team-meeting-summary/)󠁿

## Quarterly Check-in

There was one special item that was Quarterly Check-in in which following questions
are asked & discussed.

 * What is the team’s one-sentence top priority right now (and what’s the ETA)?
    - Preparing for the upcoming 5.0 release
 * What struggles is the team having?
    - Finding a good balance when being stonewalled by users seeking help and when
      to walk away, and avoiding escalated tempers in such cases.
 *  - Recruitment (always a crows favorite)
 * What is one thing you are all proud of this quarter?
    - With how well the team, on a global level, has managed to maintain a good 
      flow of user engagement through support.

## ⏎ Checking in with international liaisons

Members of the Swedish, Italian, Greek, Urdu, Dutch, Spanish, Brazilian, Russian
and Serbian communities were there to let us know how things are going in the other
corners of our lovely support community.

## Open Floor

In open floor following stuff is shared:

 * 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. 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).
   team is planning to convert the WordCamp shortcodes into [blocks](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/10/10/converting-wordcamp-shortcodes-to-gutenberg-blocks/).
 * The 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 “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 ([#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/))
   has recently experienced some change-ups and we could use some more volunteers–
   if any of you have 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) experience (or want to learn more)
   you’re more than welcome to attend our weekly chats.

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/juliekuehl/) [Julie Kuehl](https://profiles.wordpress.org/juliekuehl/)
12:17 pm _on_ May 4, 2018     
Tags: accessibility   

# 󠀁[Training Team Update – 3 May 2018](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2018/05/04/training-team-update-3-may-2018/)󠁿

## 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/](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/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/)󠁿 Onboarding

The information requested by the WordCamp EU Team for Contributor Day info can be
found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mh0vGq075pH-CqyUbMNdrOz9AVaEUm9ofli0YrNaFsg/
edit?usp=sharing. It outlines how contributors can help the Training Team during
a Contributor Day event, but it is also helpful for the team in general. The Marketing
Team is also helping to create a handout specific to the Training Team that can 
be used to help people get started.

## The learn.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/](https://wordpress.org/)󠁿 site

That site has always been the end game for the team’s lesson plans. So in this whole
workflow revamp an attempt to reverse engineer our product/processes based on that
being the end game was attempted. This Trello card (https://trello.com/c/ck3UjgcA)
has a PDF with a few wireframes of what perhaps that site could look like. It has
identified a couple of things missing from our lesson plans/workflow. We need to
gather more information regarding the learn.wordpress.org site.

There was a big takeaway from that exercise: we need to be writing lesson plans 
with time constraints in mind. So we should be writing lesson plans that identify:

 1. Length: < 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, possibly multi-day
 2. Audience: Speaker, User, Themer, Plugins, Developers
 3. Level: beginner, intermediate, advanced

## Update on slides (Shower – show-er)

The Slides card on the TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts
of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.
com/marketing team uses for example: [https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing.](https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing)
board has the original discussion regarding slides including the requirements and
pros/cons of the various alternatives. The [#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)
team suggested https://github.com/shower/shower / https://shwr.me/

So we need to do some work on whether there are pros/cons to Reveal.js (which is
what we had been considering as a solution) versus Shower (pronounced show-er). 
But HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language
that is used in the development of web pages and websites./CSSCSS CSS is an acronym
for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of
a site./JS still seems the best “official” alternative. Unofficial alternatives,
such as Google Slides or PPT files, could be shared, hosted, used for drafting and
linked to on the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation
of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers.
Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription.
GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches
by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository
owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/) /slides/README.md files.

May not be the most friendly solution, but we can still allow people to create their
slides using whatever tool they like best. Then one of the final tasks before publishing
a lesson plan to learn.wordpress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress
code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your
content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest
multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you
have never touched WordPress before. [https://wordpress.com/](https://wordpress.com/)
would be to convert the slides to Reveal or Show-er. Either way the actual slides
are just HTML lists divided by sections and has the ability to “theme” the slides.
Just like WordPress itself we can keep presentation separate from content.

It’s probable that it won’t be the authors creating these slides (but they can if
they want to!), but perhaps a“specialized” role on team to do before “official” 
publishing.

## Team members, roles, meetings

Random thoughts:

 * First random thought: There’s a feeling of a desperate need for a nearly all-
   day “summit” to talk through things and or make decisions.
 * Second random thought: A survey of members to see what their skills and interests
   are might be something we need to do.
 * Third random thought: Perhaps a few GitHub help sessions would be good to schedule.
 * Fourth random thought: Our meetings are a bit one-sided at the moment. It should
   be more of a team event.
 * Fifth random thought: We are missing quality control in our lesson plans – there’s
   wide variance in what we have.
 * Sixth random thought: We may need another Trello list/job description/step in
   our workflow to take care of that.
 * Seventh random thought: All these random thoughts reiterate the first random 
   thought.

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/) [Rian Rietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/)
9:23 am _on_ April 10, 2018     
Tags: accessibility, [accessibility team meeting ( 21 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/)

# 󠀁[Accessibility team meeting, April 9, 2018](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2018/04/10/accessibility-team-meeting-april-9-2018/)󠁿

## Agenda

 1. 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)
    statement
 2. Handbook
 3. 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/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/),
    priorities 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). London
 4. Contributor drives
 5. Open floor

## Meeting notes

### Accessibility statement

The WordPress project now has an [accessibility statement](https://wordpress.org/about/accessibility/).
We still need to add an ATAG ([Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines](https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag.php))
statement to add to that page. [@joedolson](https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/)
will write that, sometime in the near future.

### Accessibility Handbook

At the moment [@rianrietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/) and 
[@samikeijonen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/samikeijonen/) are writing pages 
about how to test for accessibility to add to the [handbook best practices chapter](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/),
for developers, designers and content managers. This at the request of the Gutenberg
team. The pages are in draft now, to be published this or next week.

### Gutenberg, priorities for WordCamp London

[@karmatosed](https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/) suggested the following
workflow for this:

 * sit down together at 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 “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) table on the 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/](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/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/)
   prioritising all a11y issues in a spreadsheet
 * create a solid few weeks plan for accessibility, get everything in milestones,
   get everything so we all know we’re on track
 * get a ‘hot list’ from that and give easy wins to developers present at  the contributor
   day
 * leave that clearly knowing what needs to be done for a11y and how help can get
   there
 * focus on a plan of tasks and that all tasks have enough information to be developed
   by anyone working on project

### Contributor drives

Angela Jin asked us to write up content for their info pages about work that can
be done for the different teams during a contributor drive (a bite sized contributor
day). [@rianrietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/) also adjusted
the page [Getting Started at a Contributor Day](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/get-involved/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/)
for this too.
 If a contributor wants to select an a11y task:

 1. Tell the [#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)
    channel in WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
    The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
    that you are hosting a Contributor Drive and request specific projects and direction.
 2. If you need assistance during the Contributor Drive, ask questions in Slack.

To avoid having to maintain a page with a list of tasks in the documentation of 
the contributor drive.

### Open floor

 * [@postphotos](https://profiles.wordpress.org/postphotos/) came with the idea 
   of organising “contributor drives” in regions across the world, focused on a11y.
   Like the [translation days](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2016/04/26/global-wordpress-translation-day-recap-results/).
   He will research this further. We agreed this is a fun idea (wpa11y day?)
 * [@arush](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arush/) will publish her research on 
   the screen reader accessibility of Gutenberg this week
 * We had a discussion about adding `hreflang` to links in translatable strings,
   like e.g. `<a href="%s" hreflang="en">` . Adding the `hreflang="en"` in the translation
   triggers a warning
 * We discussed setting a new date/time for the meetings. There will be a separate
   post about this tomorrow.

 

[#accessibility-team-meeting](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/) [Rian Rietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/)
8:41 am _on_ August 9, 2017     
Tags: accessibility   

# 󠀁[Accessibility Team update, August 7th, 2017](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2017/08/09/accessibility-team-update-august-7th-2017/)󠁿

 * [Original post by Joe Dolson](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2017/08/07/this-week-in-wordpress-accessibility-august-7th-2017/)
 * [Transcript of the meeting](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4X03/p1502125782162104)

## 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) of Select2

WooCommerce makes use of Select2, and has forked Select2 to create a more accessible
version. Select2 has not been updated since the beginning of the year, and none 
of the accessibility pull requests made by [@afercia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/afercia/)
had been incorporated into the repository. Because of this, WooCommerce elected 
to fork the project so that they could make better progress. The new fork lives 
at [WooCommerce/SelectWoo](https://github.com/woocommerce/selectwoo).

Select2 was of interest to the accessibility team a couple of years ago as a possible
solution to some significant performance problems relating to multisiteMultisite
Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites
on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite
is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project
was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core. [Advanced Administration Handbook -> Create A Network.](https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/multisite/create-network/)
networks and sites with many users. However, the project had a lot of accessibility
issues that made it non-viable for coreCore Core is the set of software required
to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. usage.

[@claudiulodro](https://profiles.wordpress.org/claudiulodro/) attended our meeting
as a representative from WooCommerce. He’s been working on integrating accessibility
in SelectWoo. He will set up a test page with sample usages of SelectWoo and prepare
a list of known issues that he would like assistance with so that the accessibility
team can effectively provide feedback. Feedback should be provided via comments 
on [the Accessibility review thread](https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/16003),
as GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories
that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories
are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced
the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors
can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)
doesn’t allow people to raise issues on a fork.

[@claudiulodro](https://profiles.wordpress.org/claudiulodro/) will make a post about
SelectWoo on the WooCommerce blog later this week.

If we determine that SelectWoo provides a viable mechanism to address issues in 
WordPress core, we will comment to that effect on pertinent tickets within TracTrac
Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests 
much like GitHub.[https://core.trac.wordpress.org/](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/)..

## Accessibility Handbook and Documentation

[@samikeijonen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/samikeijonen/) gave a report on the
meeting to discuss accessibility documentation on 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/](https://wordpress.org/)
and in the accessibility team handbook. See [the WordPress Accessibility documentation meeting notes](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2017/08/03/wpa11y-documentation-meeting/)
for details.

The documentation subgroup requested a native English speaker to review documents
as they are completed, as the majority of the team are non-native speakers but writing
in English. [@joedolson](https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/) agreed to do
that.

Accessibility documentation that exists as specific guidelines for developers, such
as the theme accessibility review documents, needs to stay where it is. In order
to avoid duplication, the team handbook will link across to those documents when
that content serves the purpose needed effectively.

## Open Floor

[@afercia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/afercia/) encouraged anybody who’ll be
in Europe in November to propose to talk 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).
Milano (November 18-19).

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/) [Rian Rietveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/)
6:53 pm _on_ July 17, 2017     
Tags: accessibility   

# 󠀁[Accessibility Team update July 17, 2017](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2017/07/17/accessibility-team-update-july-17-2017/)󠁿

## 0 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/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)󠁿

There has been some progress on minor issues.
 Major issues still need to be addressed
but those will require discussion and decisions.

One of the main issues reported in the first testing round is that there are too
many tab stops.
 Currently, navigation through all the interface works with tabs
meaning ALL the controls are tabbable.

Considering how some of the Gutenberg 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. parts are actually ARIA widgets, ideally, they
should implement focus as recommended by the ARIA spec and the ARIA Authoring Practices.
For example, toolbars and menus should be navigated with arrows only.

There’s definitely a need for more people to do testing and give feedback but we
also need help with coding solutions.

The code can be confusing for those who are new to reactReact React is a JavaScript
library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and
stateful user interfaces. [https://reactjs.org](https://reactjs.org/). In light 
of this, it was proposed that we add an additional label to help React devs understand
the expected outcome and make sure they know the end goal. Some possibilities are`[
Type] 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 “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)
Task`, `needs React dev` or `has-a11y-feedback-needs-implementation`

**To clarify the issue about too many tab stops, consider this example:**

[[

This is a Gutenberg “inline toolbar”. They change depending on 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..

All the controls in the toolbar are tabbable.

Instead, according to ARIA, if we want to treat this an ARIA toolbar, there should
be just one tab stop on the toolbar and then all the controls should be navigated
with arrows only.

That would greatly help to reduce the number of tab stops. The mixed tab/arrows 
navigation is a solid ARIA pattern borrowed by our operating systems.

## 1 Handbook

Sami Keijonen asked about the handbook: I actually really like the structure of 
theme handbook, can or should we use the same kind of format?

Also, the Breathe Theme is broken that we are using for https://make.wordpress.org/
accessibility is broken:

 1. On mobile Genericon is missing on “hamburger” menu.
 2. Mobile menu doesn’t open at all.

We would like to do an a11y review on the theme for the theme handbook and fix the
theme itself

### 2 Other a11y documentation in wp.org

We’ll start next week’s meeting with the handbook as well as other wp.org documentation.

## 3 Open floor

Joe Dolson shared some information about 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) in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group
Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/). The WordPress community 
has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/).
You can find here: [https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115003340723](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115003340723)(
new as of today)

_Link to Slack archive of meeting:_ [https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4X03/p1500311213351043](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4X03/p1500311213351043)

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/accessiblejoe/) [Joseph Karr O'Connor](https://profiles.wordpress.org/accessiblejoe/)
8:17 pm _on_ August 31, 2015     
Tags: accessibility, [accessibility team meeting ( 21 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/),
[team reps ( 27 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/team-reps/)   

# 󠀁[Team Chat Summary August 31, 2015](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2015/08/31/team-chat-summary-august-31-2015/)󠁿

### Headings

More work is being done on headings in admin. [Jeffrey de Wit created some tickets](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&status=reviewing&description=~%23a11y-headings&order=priority)
some of which are already patched and committed. [Follow the headings discussion](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/accessibility/p1441044260000352)
in [#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/) on SlackSlack
Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/).

### Handbook

Devised a strategy for building out the [Make WordPress Accessible Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/).
Page leaders will help others build out the handbook.

### Twenty Sixteen

[Twenty Sixteen is on Github](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/08/29/twenty-sixteen-is-now-on-github/).
[Twenty Sixteen is also available in the theme directory](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/08/31/twenty-sixteen-in-the-theme-directory/).
It’s not in trunk yet. According to David Kennedy ” I did a 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)-ready review before it went
on GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories
that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories
are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced
the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors
can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)
and the directory to make sure nothing was way off accessibility-wise. It’s solid.
Takashi knows the drill.” We will ask the testers to test it. David Kennedy did 
[an #accessibility-ready audit of Twenty Sixteen](https://cloudup.com/cSxoSFIzLcB).

### Select2

We continued a discussion about [Select2](https://github.com/select2/select2/issues/2499)
as an alternative to the autocomplete/tagging input field types. There are two main
accessibility issues: it doesn’t do a good job of providing feedback to screen readers
and it requires the ‘enter’ key to begin typing for autocomplete, a non-standard
interaction. The testers have tested Select2 and it is not very accessible. Rian
Rietveld will collect all the data and report next week.

### 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/)󠁿. US

Several of us are [submitting proposals for talks at WordCamp US](https://2015.us.wordcamp.org/speakers/)
and depending on funding assistance some of us will be attending. Today is the last
day for submitting proposals.

[#accessibility-team-meeting](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility-team-meeting/),
[#team-reps](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/team-reps/)

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/accessiblejoe/) [Joseph Karr O'Connor](https://profiles.wordpress.org/accessiblejoe/)
8:47 am _on_ July 8, 2015     
Tags: accessibility, [team reps ( 27 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/team-reps/),
[weekly meetings ( 2 )](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/weekly-meetings/)

# 󠀁[Accessibility Team Meeting July 6, 2015](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2015/07/08/accessibility-team-meeting-july-6-2015/)󠁿

### H1 in the admin

For 4.3 there will be an H1 in the admin. [#31650: Missing H1 heading in the admin](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/31650).
Assistive technologyAssistive technology **Assistive technology** is an [umbrella term](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_term)
that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for [people with disabilities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability)
and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. Assistive
technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that
they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, 
by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the [technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology)
needed to accomplish such tasks. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology)
users look for the H1 for way finding. Though there is the page title, when AT separates
out elements such as links, lists, and headings, the info needs to be there too.
Two weeks ago we ran this by [Mika Epstein @Ipstenu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu)
and she helped us understand heading levels and plugins. Mika spot checked some 
plugins and it showed that they are using H2 and her opinion is that “[we can post about that in make/plugins to try and spread the word](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/accessibility/p1434996747000162).”
Thanks Mika. More work will be done on the rest of the hierarchy.

### Main Open Tickets

We also briefly discussed:

 * [#31661: Quicktags: Can’t add them using just a keyboard in IE](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/31661),
 * [#26601: Inappropriate content in headings on admin screens](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26601),
 * [#32152 List table: sortable column headers accessibility](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/32152),
 * [#26601: Inappropriate content in headings on admin screens](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26601),
   and
 * [#31336: Customizer: separate navigation from options UI for better UX by removing accordion behavior](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/31336).

[#accessibility](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/accessibility/), [#team-reps](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/team-reps/),
[#weekly-meetings](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/tag/weekly-meetings/)

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