joesimpsonjr 3:25 pm on July 24, 2024
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Call for Accessibility Team Representatives

The Make WordPress Accessible team is in need of two Team Reps to assume this role. With @alexstine stepping away in June and @joesimpsonjr at the end of August after almost three years in this role, we are making a Call for 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 Reps.

What is a Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.?

Ideally, all Make WordPress teams should have two representatives which allows them to share responsibilities, divide tasks, and cover each other when needed.

Team Reps work with other teams across the project, share key updates across all contributor teams, and generally help to support the team as a whole.

  • Team Rep is an organizational role that is mostly administrative in nature; it is not a Lead role.
  • Letting go of the Team Rep title is not a loss of status, just a handing off of responsibilities.
  • Someone who is a leader in a team can lead whether they are doing the team rep job or not.

What to Expect in the Role?

Expectations vary from team to team, but here are some of what to expect:

  • Prepare meeting agenda by requesting updates from Accessibility working groups;
  • Conduct the team’s bi-weekly meetings on the Make 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
  • Document meeting notes and share updates with other teams as necessary

This would be a great opportunity to move the Meeting time to accommodate other time zones around the world, continue increasing participation and incorporate new voices.

Additional information, including orientation topics including the title, responsibilities, team site, current team reps, and your official role can be found on the Team Updates – https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/ page.

What are our Next Steps?

Are YOU interested in contributing? Just provide a name in the comments section of this post and plan on joining us at our Friday, August 2, 2024 Meeting at 16:00 UTC.

If you would like to be considered for the role or know someone who would be a great fit, you have the opportunity to nominate yourself or others by adding a comment to this post. Remember that, if someone nominates you, but you don’t feel like accepting, you should feel more than free to say no: your nomination be considered only if you explicitly agree.

#team-reps

joesimpsonjr 10:29 pm on July 21, 2024  

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: July 19, 2024

These are 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 Fridays. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

Updates from the working groups

NOTE: Only groups that provided updates are shown below.

Team Updates

Design Working Group:

Documentation Working Group:

  • Joe also mentioned that @Amber Hinds and the contributors at WCEH spent some time on theme accessibility-ready documentation.

General Working Group:

  • WordPress 6.6 is released. Also, bug scrubs have been continuing; I’ve now got about 30 tickets milestoned for 6.7, so Joe will be getting started on those soon. @afercia has been getting a number of tasks done in 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/, as well.

Gutenberg Working Group:

  • @joedolson ran the bug scrub this week on Gutenberg issues, and @jeryj made a PR for one of the open issues that we wanted to have available to test conceptually. Here: is the link to the Github PR. This automatically opens the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. panel for 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. settings when a block is selected. Currently, the block sidebar stays in whatever mode you’ve selected, which requires you to switch modes if you want to configure blocks. This PR would change that so that the block sidebar auto-switches to be active when you select a block. We want to test this to see whether it makes an easier flow; it might be an improvement, but we’re not really sure. I’m going to try and set up a test environment that can be shared so that I can ask some people to try it out. When I (Joe) do, I’ll post on Make WordPress Accessible.

Themes Working Group:

Work is starting on Twenty Twenty Five, so that’s the biggest new thing. But the progress on the accessibility-ready tag is also moving forward; continuing work as I mentioned earlier, but also some tickets with movement to add information about the accessibility-ready tag in user facing environments in the theme directory.

These two items would really help in letting people know what exactly the accessibility-ready tag means.

Media Working Group:

  • @antpb is working on experimentation for the next generation media library; we discussed it on Wednesday. Nothing else to report there. It’s still in very early stages, but we talked about some long-term goals that we want to think about, so that the media library can be built in a way that would support those features. Things like an in-browser captioning environment, etc.

Meta Working Group: 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. is giving feedback to @elblakeo31, who is getting his process refined, on the following update:

Also, FYI- Looks like there’s a comment on the Alt issue here: https://github.com/WordPress/wporg-main-2022/issues/462#issuecomment-2214176587.

The hardest part is the timing; the scans of the old design are mostly being ignored, because (rightly) they’re going to be redesigned soon.

Open Floor:

@joesimpsonjr will follow up with @nhrob and @rcreators regarding expressed interest in assuming the Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. roles and asked Joe for thoughts on procedure and preparing for a vote to make it official. He suggested posting a post for a Call for Team Reps, documenting what is seen as responsibilities to pass on as well. You can use this as a reference https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/.

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.

joesimpsonjr 1:44 pm on July 18, 2024
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Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: July 19, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the 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 Friday, July 19, 2024, 16:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • 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/
  • Media
  • 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.
  • 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 has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making 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/. (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda

joesimpsonjr 3:38 pm on July 5, 2024
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Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: July 5, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the 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 Friday, July 5, 2024, 16:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • 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/
  • Media
  • 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.
  • 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 has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making 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/. (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda

joesimpsonjr 12:37 am on June 20, 2024
Tags: ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: June 21, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the 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 Friday, June 21, 2024, 16:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • 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/
  • Media
  • 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.
  • Themes

Additional Updates

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 has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making 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/. (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda

Amber Hinds 3:13 pm on June 13, 2024
Tags:   

WordCamp Europe 2024 Contributor Day Summary

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 had a great turnout for 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://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. 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. Europe, including 14 people who were new to the accessibility team. Thank you to everyone who participated!

@joedolson and @alh0319 led two tables, focusing on accessibility testing themes that had requested the Accessibility Ready tag and addressing open accessibility tickets in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and 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/.

During the day, contributors accomplished the following…

Accessibility-Ready Theme Review

Several contributors reviewed all four themes that had requested the accessibility-ready tag. They provided feedback to theme developers about elements that need to be fixed before the themes can be approved for the tag.

@rianrietveld started reviewing the current accessibility-ready requirements and is putting together a doc with suggested updates and possible new items to include. The current accessibility-ready requirements are many years old and outdated. This doc is a work in progress, but the idea is to update the accessibility-ready tag requirements so themes with it will provide a better starting point to align with current best practices and accessibility standards.

@alh0319 is building a tool to walk contributors and developers through testing themes for the accessibility-ready tag. The idea for this tool is to make it easier for anyone to determine if a theme meets the accessibility-ready requirements and to generate reports that can be easily posted in TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. when the tag is requested.

We’ve also opened an issue to update the accessibility theme unit test data to better support accessibility testing of 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.-based and full site editing themes.

Core Tickets Worked On

Contributors worked on testing issues that have been reported and reviewing patches for tickets. The following tickets were worked on:

Committed: #40331

Thank You to Contributors

Thank you to all the contributors who helped in-person in Italy and virtually via 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/.! Here are some of the people who contributed:

Please leave a comment if we missed you, and I will add you to the list of contributors.

#accessibility-ready

joesimpsonjr 10:45 am on June 8, 2024  

Accessibility Team Meeting Notes: June 7, 2024

These are 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 Fridays. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

Updates from the working groups

NOTE: Only groups that provided updates are shown below.

Team Updates

Documentation Working Group:

  • @Dani Guardiola has stepped up to do a review of the Accessibility Handbook and start updating it. @joedolson has already fixed a handful of issues in the Handbook thanks to Dani’s feedback.

Team Updates

General Working Group:

Here’s the latest for the General Working Group.

  • Lots of progress recently on tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. tickets, so things have been moving forward at reasonable pace in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Joe also shared that we’re currently in the Release CandidateRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. phase, so enhancements for 6.6 are closed.

Team Updates

Gutenberg Working Group:

@annezazu shared this update from 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/ Working Group:

Pulled from last week’s Core updates:

  • Grid layout: Stabilise grid layout visualiser and resizer saw a bonus aspect of the grid layout work land, offering a visual way to resize. Tied to this, a recent change makes the outlines of the visualizer easier to see based on the text color.
  • Unify publish flows: Curious to hear from folks around a change to the 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. panel making it behind a three dot menu (adding an extra step) rather than displaying it as a top level item in the post sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.. For scheduled posts, a PR is underway to ensure the publish date control selection is shown within the modal.
  • 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. shadows: Edit/create shadows in global styles landed and is in a solid spot for the release.
  • Block HooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.: after more research and experiments, work to Add support for block name aliases for variations is being mostly pushed to 6.6 except for items from this list, which should all be significantly lower risk, and prepare the ground for the bigger changes (for are targeted for 6.7).
  • Inserter: a PR landed to show all blocks when searching for blocks while a block is selected. The current experience shows either a limited set or no blocks depending on allowed blocks.
  • Data Views: a recent PR bootstraps an APIAPI 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 allow third-party developers to register and unregister post type actions. This is going to be available in the 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/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party only for now and is not planned for 6.7 but relates to the overall efforts.
  • Accessibility: review and join a discussion around a recently opened issue for Consistent Sidebar DOM and Open/Closing Interactions.

Joe stated that there was a project to merge the code base for the site editor and the post editor. That has created a few new accessibility problems that need to be ironed out; I don’t know whether that will happen in time, but we’ll see.

Themes Working Group:

@Amber Hinds is starting to work through the backlog of accessibility-ready theme reviews.

Media Working Group:

  • Media is continuing to work through issues; but most major work is being slowed due to the future planning for the media library redesign.

Meta Working Group:

  • 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. is continuing to work on the site redesign; work is currently mostly in Learn.

Open Floor:

@joesimpsonjr shared three items for consideration/discussion:

  • 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 kicks off next week. Anything to share on 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://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. or the event to share at this time?
  • The Accessibility Team is in need of new Team Reps to take over for Alex and myself who have served two plus years. @nhrrob has shown interest and would like more info on what the role entails (Alex has shared some basic info). Alex also mentioned a short voting period as part of the process as well. If you are interested, please reach out;
  • WordCamp US happens in August in Portland, OR. Are there any folks from the team planning on attending the event AND contributor day? Joe is NOT planning on attending, unfortunately.
  • @amberhinds shared this thread for our Accessibility Team plans for WCEU. Joe and Amber are leading the Contributor Day table at WCEU; Amber is focusing on doing theme accessibility reviews and Joe is focusing on developer onboarding and tickets.
  • Team Reps: I’m open to stepping back on with @nhrrob
  • Amber and Joe will be at WCUS as well.

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.

joesimpsonjr 1:43 am on June 7, 2024
Tags: ,   

Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: June 7, 2024

This is the proposed agenda for the 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 Friday, June 7, 2024, 16:00 UTC.

Updates from working groups

  • Design
  • 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/
  • Media
  • 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.
  • 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 has moved to Tuesdays, 16:00 UTC.

This meeting is held in the #accessibility channel in the Making 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/. (requires registration).

#accessibility, #agenda