[wp-docs] Accessibility page on Codex (James GIll)

Tue Nov 20 20:12:45 UTC 2012

on 20/11/2012 19:17 Lorelle on WordPress said the following:
> On the issue of WordPress "preventing building accessible sites,"
> that's not true.

Out of the box, WP + Twenty Eleven is pretty accessible. It's not 
perfect but it's a lot better than many CMS out there. There's also a 
very strong commitment to make WordPress core even more accessible - 
which is a far cry from some of the stories I've heard about Drupal or 
Joomla. Without the current accessibility level and the desire to 
improve it, I doubt I'd be hanging around here. :-)

> Accessibility is mostly reliant upon Themes and
> Plugins.

To some extent, yes but there is room for improvement in core. And this 
is being worked on but, like all improvements, good stable changes tend 
to happen slowly.

> That must be clear, however, WordPress does not enforce
> compliance with images and links which is part of the requirements for
> accessibility and part of the WordPress core programming.

The problem here (as I see it) is that WordPress is a tool that has to 
be everything to everyone. And like any tool, it helps if you understand 
how to use it properly. Make it too restrictive in an effort to enforce 
accessibility and you will cause problems - not least for those who do 
actually know what they're doing. So you have to strike a reasonable 
balance and try to educate those using the "tool" badly.

Site owners must take responsibility for their own sites. WordPress 
core, themes & plugins can only do so much. Everything else is down to 
site authors. They have to create their content intelligently to 
complete the accessibility picture and we can help them to some extent. 
That's why I re-wrote <http://codex.wordpress.org/Accessibility> to try 
and focus on practical steps that non-technical site authors can take.

It's also worth bearing in mind that disabled users also have a 
responsibility to learn how to use their AT software effectively (a 
factor often gets overlooked).

<snip>
> An accessibility expert told me one time that it would be interesting
> to see a WordPress specific lawsuit over this. Would the site owner be
> completely liable or would some of the onus be on WordPress and/or the
> web developer(s), Theme designers, and Plugin authors for
> non-compliance. I think that's a valid question that needs answering
> to help protect all parties involved. Hold harmless can only go so
> far, and we all know that ignorance of the laws means squat.

Under UK law, the responsibility lies fairly and squarely with the site 
owner. It is up to him/her to choose the right CMS and there is a fair 
amount of documentation available to help would-be site owners in this 
regard. We even have a published British Standard:

<http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/Browse-by-Subject/Accessibility/>

I'm pretty sure that other European countries have similar laws & 
resources. Germany & the Netherlands spring to mind. The Philippines are 
also being very pro-active in promoting accessibility across the ICT board.

> I hope I am not muddying the waters. I just want to make sure that
> compliance with international law is considered in the article so we
> can best serve our audience. This is no longer an ethical decision but
> a legal one. Having followed the lawsuits of these cases over the
> years closely, there is a lot of legal involved, but it boils down to
> simple things that could have been done right in the first place, if
> people understood these are not ethical or "right" choices but the
> law.

That's definitely The Stick but there's also The Carrot. Accessible 
sites very often out-perform their less accessible counterparts - both 
in terms of SEO and user popularity. Tesco.com (one of the world's 
largest grocery retailers) take web accessibility really, *really*, 
seriously. Ever since the response to their first "accessible" site 
exceeded their wildest expectations. Legal & General (a big UK insurance 
firm) reported a 90% increase in online sales 12 months after launching 
their first accessible site.

These are not fluffy social organisations. They're hard-nosed 
corporations with their eyes firmly fixed on the bottom line. They both 
made their initial site changes based on the fear of legal action but 
became very public advocates of accessibility once they realised its 
benefits.

I think that's the line that we need to promote to site owners.

In terms of supporting disabled owners of WordPress, I agree that we've 
not really got much in the way of specific Codex documentation or pages 
in <http://make.wordpress.org/support/user-manual/> to support them. And 
that's something that should really be rectified. Perhaps I could ask 
some of the AT users on contributors to 
<http://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/> to help with this? A couple 
of them are pretty experienced.

Mel
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