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From: Michael Bullis
Date: Wed, Aug 07 2019 1:09PM
Subject: WordPress Accessibility
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My organization is contemplating whether to move our website from html to
WordPress for the reason that we would much more easily be able to update
information in real time.

We absolutely cannot and do not wish to create anything that is less
accessible than we currently have.



1. Does anyone have advice on what we ought to consider prior to making
such a move?
2. Are there consulting companies that really know the accessibility
themes in WordPress we should consider hiring in order to put a correct
foundation on our site?
3. I hear some stories about WordPress introducing inaccessible editors
that might become a problem. Is that so, and, how can we avoid problems?

And finally,

4. Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not put
ourselves through the headache of WordPress?



Thanks to all on this list. I am a lurker for many years and consistently
find this list delivers high value content.







Michael Bullis

Executive Director,

The IMAGE Center of Maryland

Direct phone: 443-275-9394

Main-410-982-6311

Cell:443-286-9001

Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

Website: www.imagemd.org <http://www.imagemd.org>;

Address

300 E. Joppa RD, Suite 312

Towson MD 21286

From: Don Raikes
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 12:08PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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Anything that uses the codeMirror editor will be ompletely unaccessible. I know the codeMirror developers are trying to correct the accessibility issues, but it has been the bane of my existence with our cloud applications.

From: chagnon
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 12:53PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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Michael wrote: "Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not
put
ourselves through the headache of WordPress?"

Well, yes.
For all the reasons you stated in your questions!

Plus, WP is open source, which really comes down to people doing whatever
they want. There are few standardizations within the WP system. And people
get burned out working on it for little or no pay, so they eventually give
up and we end up with half-baked themes, widgets, and plug-ins created by
well-intentioned people who don't know jack about accessibility.

Maybe only parts of your website could benefit from the CMS of WordPress,
and the remaining sections could be HTML.

- - -
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
- - -
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
- - -
Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at www.PubCom.com/blog

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 1:45PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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I had a WordPress site and used one of the Accessibility Themes and my
website got hacked through WordPress. My web host said the hackers got in
through the accessible theme I used. I got rid of the WordPress component to
my website...I just used it to blog so not much was lost. Still don't trust
WordPress although I know a lot of people use it extensively and
inclusively.

Cheers, Karen

From: Jeremy Echols
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 2:33PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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It could be worth looking at static site generators like Hugo or Jekyll. These tend to be a lot less full-featured than anything like a CMS, but they also tend to mean very simple content administration. Somebody has to be willing to work with raw text files, but there are a lot more accessible text editors than there seem to be accessible CMS page editors. And when you generate the site, the output is raw HTML, so you can scan for accessibility locally without having to run a web server. You don't have to worry about the logged-in user's experience separately from the anonymous user's experience. Administration is all done in flat text files, which, though cumbersome, means again that accessibility isn't a problem you have to solve for admins.

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 7:43PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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I am more familiar with Drupal than WordPress, but I try to keep track
of WordPress accessibility news.

> 3. I hear some stories about WordPress introducing inaccessible editors
> that might become a problem. Is that so, and, how can we avoid problems?

WordPress version 5 introduced a new page editor called "Gutenberg" with
a dramatically different interface and a significantly new "block" model
for structuring page content. The new editor was less accessible than
the previous "Classic" editor, though it added new capabilities for some
users. However, the "Classic" editor can still be installed as a plugin
to fully replace Gutenberg.

While not perfect, my impression is that the Classic editor is
considered passable in terms of accessibility and workarounds have been
developed to deal with probably most of the inaccessible aspects of the
interface.

I have the impression that it is somewhat more difficult to ensure that
WordPress outputs fully accessible HTML when your content editors use
the Classic editor instead of the new Gutenberg editor.

A professional, third-party accessibility audit of the new WordPress
Gutenberg editor was completed by Tenon.io in May 2019, and it is
publicly available:
https://wpcampus.org/2019/05/gutenberg-audit-results/

> 4. Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not put
> ourselves through the headache of WordPress?
I personally believe that Drupal (!) may often be a better choice of CMS
than WordPress for those organizations that place a high priority on
accessibility principles. However, the choice of which CMS is best for
you, or whether you should stay with raw HTML instead of moving to a CMS
at all are complex questions that require a full understanding of your
current content, your future plans, your budget, your staff training and
structure, your publishing approval workflow, etc., so I'm afraid I'll
have to leave  that question up to you! ;-)

Phil.

Philip Kiff
D4K Communications


On 2019-08-07 15:09, Michael Bullis wrote:
> My organization is contemplating whether to move our website from html to
> WordPress for the reason that we would much more easily be able to update
> information in real time.
>
> We absolutely cannot and do not wish to create anything that is less
> accessible than we currently have.
>
> 1. Does anyone have advice on what we ought to consider prior to making
> such a move?
> 2. Are there consulting companies that really know the accessibility
> themes in WordPress we should consider hiring in order to put a correct
> foundation on our site?
> 3. I hear some stories about WordPress introducing inaccessible editors
> that might become a problem. Is that so, and, how can we avoid problems?
>
> And finally,
>
> 4. Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not put
> ourselves through the headache of WordPress?
>
> Thanks to all on this list. I am a lurker for many years and consistently
> find this list delivers high value content.
>
> Michael Bullis
> Executive Director,
> The IMAGE Center of Maryland
> Direct phone: 443-275-9394
> Main-410-982-6311
> Cell:443-286-9001
> Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Website:www.imagemd.org <http://www.imagemd.org>;
> Address
> 300 E. Joppa RD, Suite 312
> Towson MD 21286
>

From: Pamela Riesmeyer
Date: Fri, Aug 09 2019 11:08PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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Having worked with WordPress for over 10 years on a university's website, I
observed that the biggest challenges to accessibility were the content
creators. When we trained people to create accessible content, our
WordPress sites were accessible, from the front end.

There are great advantages to database driven sites, over hand-coded static
HTML pages.

There are now a number of WordPress themes that result in accessible code.
Any theme is vulnerable, potentially, to hacking. Accessible themes are not
more likely to be hacked than any others.

I have been hoping that a member of the Make WordPress Accessible working
group would respond to this. I thought some of the members were on this
list. That group is doing great things to improve the accessibility of the
platform from the administrative side.
https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/

Pam



On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 8:43 PM Philip Kiff < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> I am more familiar with Drupal than WordPress, but I try to keep track
> of WordPress accessibility news.
>
> > 3. I hear some stories about WordPress introducing inaccessible
> editors
> > that might become a problem. Is that so, and, how can we avoid problems?
>
> WordPress version 5 introduced a new page editor called "Gutenberg" with
> a dramatically different interface and a significantly new "block" model
> for structuring page content. The new editor was less accessible than
> the previous "Classic" editor, though it added new capabilities for some
> users. However, the "Classic" editor can still be installed as a plugin
> to fully replace Gutenberg.
>
> While not perfect, my impression is that the Classic editor is
> considered passable in terms of accessibility and workarounds have been
> developed to deal with probably most of the inaccessible aspects of the
> interface.
>
> I have the impression that it is somewhat more difficult to ensure that
> WordPress outputs fully accessible HTML when your content editors use
> the Classic editor instead of the new Gutenberg editor.
>
> A professional, third-party accessibility audit of the new WordPress
> Gutenberg editor was completed by Tenon.io in May 2019, and it is
> publicly available:
> https://wpcampus.org/2019/05/gutenberg-audit-results/
>
> > 4. Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not put
> > ourselves through the headache of WordPress?
> I personally believe that Drupal (!) may often be a better choice of CMS
> than WordPress for those organizations that place a high priority on
> accessibility principles. However, the choice of which CMS is best for
> you, or whether you should stay with raw HTML instead of moving to a CMS
> at all are complex questions that require a full understanding of your
> current content, your future plans, your budget, your staff training and
> structure, your publishing approval workflow, etc., so I'm afraid I'll
> have to leave that question up to you! ;-)
>
> Phil.
>
> Philip Kiff
> D4K Communications
>
>
> On 2019-08-07 15:09, Michael Bullis wrote:
> > My organization is contemplating whether to move our website from html to
> > WordPress for the reason that we would much more easily be able to update
> > information in real time.
> >
> > We absolutely cannot and do not wish to create anything that is less
> > accessible than we currently have.
> >
> > 1. Does anyone have advice on what we ought to consider prior to
> making
> > such a move?
> > 2. Are there consulting companies that really know the accessibility
> > themes in WordPress we should consider hiring in order to put a correct
> > foundation on our site?
> > 3. I hear some stories about WordPress introducing inaccessible
> editors
> > that might become a problem. Is that so, and, how can we avoid problems?
> >
> > And finally,
> >
> > 4. Are there reasons why we should just stick to html and not put
> > ourselves through the headache of WordPress?
> >
> > Thanks to all on this list. I am a lurker for many years and
> consistently
> > find this list delivers high value content.
> >
> > Michael Bullis
> > Executive Director,
> > The IMAGE Center of Maryland
> > Direct phone: 443-275-9394
> > Main-410-982-6311
> > Cell:443-286-9001
> > Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> > Website:www.imagemd.org <http://www.imagemd.org>;
> > Address
> > 300 E. Joppa RD, Suite 312
> > Towson MD 21286
> >
> > > > >
--
Pamela Riesmeyer
Wings of Mercury
http://wingsofmercury.com
Phone: 219-730-2751
SKYPE: pamela.riesmeyer
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Sat, Aug 10 2019 10:42AM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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On 2019-08-10 01:08, Pamela Riesmeyer wrote:

> the biggest challenges to accessibility were the content creators
Truth!!!

And I think it is safe to say that goes for other CMSes as well.

Phil.

Philip Kiff
D4K Communications

From: Colleen Gratzer
Date: Sat, Aug 10 2019 12:08PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
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Pamela made great points. To add to those…

When we build accessible sites, we provide training so the client
understand more about properly formatting content. We do live training
and provide a PDF of guidelines.

A huge advantage to WordPress, though is the ability to customize the
back end. For example, for sites we build, we:

- remove the client's ability to add an H1 to the page content since
that's reserved for the page title.

- add the ability for them to make text *look* like a heading but it is
really just a P *styled* that way.

- add custom fields for where we want them to enter screen reader text.

- put instructions next to those custom fields in the editor, with
guidelines. One example would be instructing them to add screen reader
text to hyperlinks where there might be multiple "read more" links on
the same page.


Colleen Gratzer
Certified Branding Expert + Accessibility Specialist, Gratzer Graphics LLC
https://gratzergraphics.com
Design Mentor and Host of the Design Domination podcast
http://creative-boost.com


On 8/10/19 1:08 AM, Pamela Riesmeyer wrote:
> the biggest challenges to accessibility were the content creators. When we trained people
to create accessible content, our WordPress sites were accessible, from
the front end.
>
> There are great advantages to database driven sites, over hand-coded static
> HTML pages.

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Tue, Aug 13 2019 1:10PM
Subject: Re: WordPress Accessibility
← Previous message | No next message

On 2019-08-07 15:09, Michael Bullis wrote:
> 2. Are there consulting companies that really know the accessibility
> themes in WordPress we should consider hiring in order to put a correct
> foundation on our site?
FYI, I happened to see this in my Twitter feed today. I only skimmed the
article, and cannot speak to its quality or accuracy.

How To Choose An Accessibility Ready WordPress Theme (And Why):
https://www.abrightclearweb.com/choose-accessibility-ready-wordpress-theme/#comments

Phil.

Philip Kiff
D4K Communications