Accessibility Ticket Priorities for 4.1 beta

Now that WordPress 4.1 is into beta, it’s time to tighten the focus on accessibility tickets to the top priorities to get into the 4.1 release. As always, early in the cycle is a great time for general accessibility work, and late is time for polishing new interfaces and tackling small details that can make the whole thing better with minimal impact.

Update, 11/22/2014: 6 issues fixed.
Update, 11/25/2014: 1 issue fixed, one punted for 4.2-early
Update, 12/4/2014: 1 issue fixed
Update, 12/8/2014: 1 issue fixed

New features

New interfaces should be checked immediately, to verify that there aren’t any major issues. In WordPress 4.1, the significant UI changes are Session Manager (found on the user profile page when logged into multiple instances), Site Language (Settings > General), Focus (editor distraction-free-writing). Other changes are more iterative, including changes to focus states and color contrast – on the whole, there are only minor updates to the UI in 4.1.

Twenty Fifteen is also a major addition in 4.1, and has received a lot of feedback already.

Relevant tickets:

• #30364 – Destroy sessions feedback and valid HTML Fixed.
• #28599 – Better Visual Focus Indication in Admin Menu

There are currently no other outstanding tickets pertaining to these new features or Twenty Fifteen. Woot!

Iterations to recent features

The Add Media Panel is still a source of enormous complexity with outstanding issues, as is the Customizer. These tickets are JS heavy, for the most part, and could use somebody with a good JS sense to weigh in.

Add Media Panel

• #29326 – Improve accessibility of edit mode (slated for 4.1 already) Fixed
• #29371 – Focus keeps jumping to URL field – Closed, replaced with #30512
• #29455 – Plugin Info modal close button does not announce (just needs commit) Fixed
• #28864 – Cannot access edit menu options with keyboard inside Image Editor
• #25103 – Submit buttons on form fields in the Add Media Panel
• #30348 – Arrow key navigation in Media Grid skips ids Fixed
• #30390 issue with keyboard/VO accessibility for uploading new images in Safari using the Add Media Panel. Fixed

Customizer

• #22237 – Add keyboard shortcuts for collapse/expand, panel-back, and close to the Customizer
• #28892 – Customizer – Widgets – Feedback for screen reader users when moving widgets/other actions Fixed

Miscellaneous issues

• #26167 – Plugin activation links need to contain plugin name and the “Plugin” column should be marked as row header
• #26758 – Edit tags form on submission does not stay at the same page and gets redirected
• #28873 – JS code for adding bookmarklet Press This hard to access from keyboard
• #29022 – Screen reader text (and link title) isn’t updated when plugin update count is updated
• #29958 – Collapse admin menu keyboard accessibility
• #30010 – Hide admin menu separators from screen readers Fixed
• #29715 – Remove accesskeys from quick edit and bulk edit

Iterations to front-end output and related functions

• #21221 – Image title and alt attribute content should be texturized.
• #30180 – wp_get_attachment_image_src does not return alt or meta.
• #29808 – Post/paging navigation template tags Fixed
• #29974 – Focus handle at wrong place when you click reply

I’m specifically targeting easy targets to whittle down the ticket list, to clear space in the report for new issues and some of the long-outstanding major concerns for 4.2. In 4.2, it would be nice to hit some broad issues like the settings pages in general and the usage of anchor vs. buttons across the UI.

This isn’t everything, but it hits a lot of issues that have received work and just need to be finished off.