[wp-edu] Ensuring WordPress sites meet accessibility standards?

[Laurie Miles]

Hi David.

We also have a multisite. Our students request sites for their academic
classes. It is their responsibility (Terms of Use) to incorporate
accessibility features in their site content. They don't always do it, mind
you!

I looked at the WP Accessibility Plugin and didn't find it all that
helpful. It does offer some features that a site visitor could use to make
the site more accessible - changing the font size, "high contrast" mode,
skip-links. But, it doesn't really address making the site's content
accessible from the start.

When I teach WordPress workshops, I show users how to create accessible
content - text formatting using headers, descriptive hyperlinks, accessible
fonts, good contrast, alt text for images, captioning and transcripts, etc.
Below are some references and tools I use.

*References*

   - WebAIM <https://webaim.org/>
   - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/>
   (WCAG)
   - WordPress Accessibility Handbook
   <https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/>

*Accessibility Tools*

   - ChromeVox Screen Reader
   <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromevox-classic-extensi/kgejglhpjiefppelpmljglcjbhoiplfn>
   (Chrome extension)
   - Read & Write Gold
   <https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/read-write-for-google/>
   (Chrome extension)
   - NVDA <https://www.nvaccess.org/download/> (free downloadable screen
   reader)
   - YouTube Captions
   <https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en>
   - Online Transcript Creator <http://otranscribe.com/>
   - Google Doc Voice Typing
   <https://qz.com/work/1087765/how-to-transcribe-audio-fast-and-for-free-using-google-docs-voice-typing/>
   - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool <https://wave.webaim.org/> (website
   accessibility checker)

*Simulations*

   - Funkify Disability Simulator <https://www.funkify.org/simulators/> (Chrome
   extension)
   - Web Disability Simulator by Metamatrix
   <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/web disability simulator>
   (Chrome extension)
   - Color Blindness Simulator
   <https://www.toptal.com/designers/colorfilter/>

As far as themes go, you can search in WordPress (
https://wordpress.org/themes/) > *Feature Filter *for "Accessibility Ready"
themes. For more information, see the WordPress Accessibility Handbook
<https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/handbook/which-themes-can-you-use/>.
This is probably WAY more information than you wanted, but I hope it is
helpful.

Best.

*Laurie B. Miles*
Instructional Technology Specialist
UNC Asheville Center for Teaching and Learning <https://ctl.unca.edu/>
| Digital
Scholarship Team Ramsey Library
<http://library.unca.edu/digital_scholarship>
lmiles at unca.edu |828-251-6630

Interested in learning more about WordPress? See our website WordPress at
UNC Asheville <https://wp.unca.edu>
Ask me about Moodle and Instructional design! See Moodle Information
<http://ctl-unca.org/moodle3/>


On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 2:03 PM Grogan, David <David.Grogan at tufts.edu>
wrote:

> Hello all,
>
>
>
> Recent mandates and guidelines at our school have us taking a close look
> at how we can ensure sites created on our multi-site instance are meeting
> digital accessibility standards (keyboard access to all features of a site,
> accessible by screen readers etc.). Since we run our system as a
> self-service platform it’s going to be difficult to have all sites 100%
> accessible but we are looking at ways to mitigate issues.
>
>
>
> I’d be interested to know how others are approaching this issue.
>
>
>
> I’m going to assessing these three plugins:
>
>
>
> https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-accessibility/
>
> https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-accessibility-helper/
>
> https://wordpress.org/plugins/userway-accessibility-widget/
>
> Are there others people can recommend?
>
> Are there certain themes that are more accessible than others that you
> have tried?
>
>
>
> Any thoughts/experiences/ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> David Grogan
>
> Senior Solutions Specialist
>
> Tufts Technology Services – Educational Technology Services
>
> 617-627-2859
>
>
>
>
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> wp-edu mailing list
> wp-edu at lists.automattic.com
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>
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