The WordPress Accessibility Team presented at the 29th International Technology and Persons With Disabilities conference on March 20, 2014. This deck lists what we are doing, our responsibilities, how you can get started helping, and progress in the Cities project.

1. @WPAccessibility #csun14

2. Roadmap to
WordPress Accessibility
Presented by the WordPress Accessibility Team
http://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/

3. Active Accessibility Team
• Graham Armfield
• Sharon Austin
• Joe Dolson
• Rian Rietveld
• David A. Kennedy
• Mel Pedley
• Karl Groves
• Jordan Quintal
• Amanda Rush, Co-Lead
• Joe O’Connor, Lead
Graham Armfield with a
greeting from London

4. – Cynthia Waddell
“Accessibility is the degree to which a product,
device, service, or environment is available to as
many people as possible.”
Enterprise
Accessibility Statement

5. Enterprise
Accessibility Statement
WordPress is founded on the principles of an inclusive
community and democratization of publishing.
The development of WordPress, based on standards and
best practices, offers a constantly improving environment
with flexibility and choice.
We promise to always work toward creating an
environment accessible to as many people as possible,
inclusive of technology and ability.
https://codex.wordpress.org/Accessibility

6. Theme Check Process
• The Theme Accessibility Audit provides an optional
theme review for themes submitted to
the wordpress.org Theme Repository
• Themes that pass this level of review successfully
will be allowed to use the accessibility-
ready tag
• http://make.wordpress.org/themes/guidelines/
guidelines-accessibility/

7. Theme Repository
• 2,399 Themes, 95,293,171 Downloads
• 6 themes are accessible
• Twenty Fourteen went through a lot of accessibility
checks and has the accessibility-ready tag
• Twenty Thirteen is committed and fixed recently to
correct keyboard accessibility of drop-down menus
and fix accessibity issues
• Twenty Twelve is also committed and fixed

8. Audit of Admin Screens
• First pass: keyboard accessibility
• Keyboard - All functionality of the content is
operable through a keyboard interface.
• No Keyboard Trap - Ensure that content does not
“trap” keyboard focus within subsections.
• Bypass Blocks - A mechanism is available to
bypass blocks of content that are repeated on
multiple Web pages.

9. Audit of Admin Screens
• First pass: keyboard accessibility
• Focus Order - When users navigate sequentially through
content make sure they encounter information in an
order that is consistent with the meaning of the content.
• Focus Visible - Any keyboard operable user interface has
a mode of operation where the keyboard focus indicator
is visible.
• On Focus When any component receives focus, it does
not initiate a change of context.
http://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/testing/3-8-
admin-screens-results/

10. Outreach
Curriculum
• Joe Dolson: University of Colorado at Boulder
Continuing Education - Implementing
Accessibility in WordPress
WordCamps
• Montreal, Las Vegas, Reno/Tahoe, Europe,
Minneapolis, Chicago, Sheffield, Brighton, UK,
London, Netherlands, Buffalo, Raleigh, Orlando
Various Meetups, Accessibility Camps, Other Venues

11. Group Responsibilities
• accessibility audits of admin screens
• add new accessibility features
• help developers and designers understand
accessibility needs
• create and follow accessibility trac tickets
• devise code to improve accessibility
• create accessibility documentation
• work on the accessibility of new default themes
• create and maintain accessibility theme check
process

12. What It Takes To Help
• a basic understanding of the functionality needs of
persons with disabilities
• general technical writing skills
• general organizational skills
• some familiarity with WordPress is beneficial but
you don't need a deep understanding to get started
• familiarity with manual accessibility testing tools is
a plus
• knowledge of manual accessibility testing is a big
plus

13. Contributor Day Activities
• See list of Trac tickets with focus “accessibility”
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/focus/accessibility
• Testing tickets - checking if issues are still
occurring, close tickets if no longer needed
• Fixing tickets
• Add detail to tickets
• Suggesting amendments for Make WordPress
Accessible and Codex: Accessibility

14. CitiesMaking Accessible WordPress Themes and Plugins

15. Anna Belle Leiserson
http://www.a11yall.org

16. David A. Kennedy
http://wordpress.org/themes/accessible-zen

17. Rian Rietveld
http://genesis-accessible.org/2014/03/announcing-leiden-and-plugin-genesis-accessible/

18. Natalee MacLees
WordPress Slideshow

19. Natalee MacLees
WP Slideshow
• Slide presentation plugin
• Accessible input, accessible output
• Accessible UX research now
• Fundraiser: Spring 2014

20. – WordPress Accessibility Team
Much thanks to the many people who work to
make WordPress accessible: to the people who
create, maintain, upgrade, and document
WordPress, and to those who create and publish
accessible sites.