E-mail List Archives
Thread: WordPress Accessibility Question
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Karlen Communications
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 5:24AM
Subject: WordPress Accessibility Question
No previous message | Next message →
Does anyone have information on how to use WordPress to create an accessible
blog entry? I can't seem to find the ability to add headings to my text -
only bolded text. If there is an accessible Theme or template can you point
me to it?
Also any articles on creating accessible blog content using WordPress would
be appreciated.
Cheers, Karen
From: Patterson, David (ITD)
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:06AM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility Question
← Previous message | Next message →
Hi,
There are a couple article on how to add headings within WordPress. One
of the better ones is on "Designing Headings"
http://codex.wordpress.org/Designing_Headings.
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:24AM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility Question
← Previous message | Next message →
You can add the HTML code by switching to the HTML view tab (upper right)
instead of the Visual view tab.
Regarding the accessibility of WordPress (WP)...perhaps others will chime in
with specific references, but my experience has been that some templates are
better than others in terms of accessibility - it is a matter of finding one
you like and one built to standards. The major flaw on the "public" side of
WP is that the Search function built into the WP core is missing the
appropriate label code.
But the major accessibility issue for WP is the same for all content
management systems...there is no controlling the behavior of users who post
content. Someone can easily make a post and not include an ALT description
for an image or post a video that has not been captioned.
Lastly, I am not sure the back end of WP is very accessible. It does rely on
some scripting that may be problematic.
I seem to recall a tweet or list message that there was a group working on
an accessible version of WP. Perhaps others on the list will be more
helpful.
~j
John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com
From: Karlen Communications
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:36AM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility Question
← Previous message | Next message →
Both responses to this were quite helpful and yes, I can't use my screen
reader to work with WP I had to switch to screen magnification which I can
do although I am primarily a screen reader user.
I will be very interested in an accessible version of WP. I can switch to
screen magnification but many others can't and I hate using alternate tools
rather than my primary one.
Am going to try and fix my first post to include headings. Thank you.
Cheers, Karen
From: Dan Conley
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:57AM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility Question
← Previous message | Next message →
It's possible to insert headings using the visual editor; in the 'more
options' (or something) dropdown there is a list of paragraph styles.
Also, highlighting text and hitting control and a number will switch it
to that heading (which is actually annoying, as I'd hit ctrl-2 to switch
to tab 2 in Firefox and suddenly everything would be in a h2 tag).
The default search box: is it in a function you include in a template?
It should be possible to overload the function then, shouldn't it? If no
one else has done it, maybe I'll take a stab at a plugin.
And as far as accessible themes go, I used Mike Cherim's Beast Blog for
a while <http://green-beast.com/beastblog/>;
(I think you can overload most of their functions, so in theory it might
be possible to recode the admin menu to be fully accessible. It would be
quite a lot of work, though, and the next update might break it all. If
posting is really an issue, there may be external clients that will post
to the blog with a better interface. I used ecto for a while, though I
have no idea of how accessible it was, and at least back then it did not
always play well with tags/categories)
Dan Conley
Information Specialist
Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE)
University at Buffalo, Health Sciences Library B6
Phone: (716) 829-5728
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu
On 8/5/2010 8:36 AM, Karlen Communications wrote:
> Both responses to this were quite helpful and yes, I can't use my screen
> reader to work with WP I had to switch to screen magnification which I can
> do although I am primarily a screen reader user.
>
> I will be very interested in an accessible version of WP. I can switch to
> screen magnification but many others can't and I hate using alternate tools
> rather than my primary one.
>
> Am going to try and fix my first post to include headings. Thank you.
>
> Cheers, Karen
>
>
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Thu, Aug 05 2010 1:21PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility Question
← Previous message | No next message
Thanks, Dan. That must be a new feature that came in during one of the
recent updates.
The button is called the "Kitchen Sink" - literally. It is the last button
on the right of the menu bar. Click on it (or Alt-Shift-Z) and it opens a
second line of buttons which includes format styling.
And all this time I have been handcoding this stuff.
Learn something new every day!
John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com