Free Open Source Software, including WordPress, was going to change the world. My own experience working on Open Source projects over the last 2 decades shows me that it did. For many people. Not so much for disabled people. Many FOSS applications don’t take accessibility into account. Changing the culture of accessibility of a project…
Rob and panelists will address their experiences with the challenge of selling accessibility services as a generalized web design and development agency. How do you handle clients who theoretically want accessibility, but balk at every price point for additional work? How do you engage with clients who say explicitly ableist things (whether they know it…
How does a performance improvement model help us understand and develop accessible online content? Nick will report on how his EdD dissertation project is using a performance improvement model to identify a problem, analyze the data, then develop an intervention to solve the problem, all while managing change and evaluating the process. [able]
How do you know whether a plugin is accessible? Learn how to work through the issues of plugin accessibility, so you can select the best possible WordPress plugin for your needs! Sandy will introduce some key concepts in choosing products for accessibility: How to check and see if you can use the keyboard to access the site, How do you…
Starting out with learning web accessibility can feel overwhelming. There's a ton of information out there, which is great, but time and again you may find yourself lost or confused; knowing where to start from can greatly help navigate through the learning process. Knowing the big picture and understanding how the various concepts related to…
This presentation will be all about webforms. Forms are the most common and important interactive element on a website, the way you communicate with your visitor, so form accessibility is crucial. Everybody should be able to fill out a form. Morgan and Rian will talk not only about the WCAG standards and validating HTML, but…
When clients ask for digital accessibility advice, they’re often worried that improving the accessibility of their website will mean sacrificing aesthetic appeal. When we set out to redesign our own website on WordPress, one of our goals was to prove just the opposite. Inclusive design doesn’t have to be boring or clunky — in fact,…
Panel: Sumner Davenport, Alicia St Rose, Joe A Simpson Jr, Ron Amick, Sally Thoun
If you talk with anyone who's seen Sumner M Davenport speak at a WordPress Meetup, WordCamp, or an Accessibility Conference, you'll hear the same phrases describing her. "Inspirational", "Life-changing", "Paradigm-shifting", and "Empowering" are often thrown around. The Patriarch or Mother Hen of a legion of advocates for accessibility and inclusiveness in the valleys north of…
Being more accessible is a continuous effort rather than a one-time features application. Setting up that mindset will allow you to approach accessibility in a completely different way. But how to adapt to changes and requirements without complete recontruction of your existing website? Michal's presentation will teach you how to: Look for options to upgrade,…
Where does accessibility success start? What is the role of a hosting company in the larger ecosystem of accessibility? At the root, the cloud's fundamental role is to provide access and support for developers, end users. If the environment is accessible, that's an important first step to accessibility. Robert will talk about the many different…
Explore how to use CSS and Aria States to control the display of accordion cells. This take on modern CSS with aria based selectors brings aria states and controls into the forefront so that developers will create accessible first components instead of adding aria as an after thought. [able]
Introducing accessibility into the design process can be tricky, even more-so when you work within the confines of an existing design system and brand. In this talk, Katie will address how the Digital UX Design team at WP Engine tackled this process and laid the framework for accessible design moving forward. [able]
With the popularity of TikTok, Instagram/Facebook reels, YouTube, and other video sharing platforms, just EVERYONE thinks that their content should move into videos. While this is all great and fine to make videos, the more we do videos as content, the less we are adding in content, making transcripts of said videos, or even doing…
Many WordPress agencies are including accessibility audits as part of their launch packages, but what if we started with accessibility? WordPress offers a plethora of solutions to make the back-end code of themes more accessible at their core, but too few developers tap into them. This both costs companies extra money fixing the problems, and…
Maxwell Ivey will share how people with disabilities want to feel welcome or even needed by developers. People with disabilities are loyal consumers who influence friends, family, and our online communities, and communication during the creation process is where accessibility really needs to start. Help learn how to encourage developers to build relationships with disabled…
Accessibility can be overwhelming and it can be hard to know where and how to get started. Gregory will cover the basics, such as colour, images, headings, language, and more. This is a great beginner talk, but also a refresher for those who may have forgotten the basics or want to make sure they cover…
What do sticky navbars, ellipsis-hidden content, and overlays have in common? They all prevent me from accessing your content. I will touch on these and other design choices, of which your website or app is keeping a visually-impaired user, like me, from using your service. Join me for a brief glimpse into the inaccessible web…
Melanie manages the YouTube page for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) of Western Australia, and her work involves captioning the videos and writing transcripts. Over the years she has done a lot of captioning and learnt a great amount. Melanie will share her tips and tricks for doing good captions quickly and…
Alternative text: you know you need it. But how do you write beneficial alt text and how do you know when it's best not to? This talk is an in-depth guide with tricks and techniques for ensuring your alt text is as effective as possible. [able]
Overlays are an ongoing accessibility, privacy, and legal concern. Adrian will discuss issues with overlays broadly, avoiding focus on any single platform. Learn the weaknesses and risks in using website overlays on your website. [able]
When designing accessible content, it’s likely that the first two courses of action will be to include captions or a transcript and to employ colors with sufficient contrast. These are great, but accessibility is so much more! In addition to providing equitable access to individuals with hearing and vision disabilities, we need to expand to…
All people have the right and the ability to use the internet and participate in the digital world as they wish and as they are capable of. When speaking of users with disabilities, there are specific ways and functions by which people use digital products. Digital accessibility is the inclusive practice that removes barriers for…
Much has been made over the last few years about the accessibility of the new WordPress editor from the perspective of a content creator in the WP admin screens. Well, this session is not about that - but it is about the accessibility of the web pages that are shown to site visitors when content…
Blind people are often unable to do basic things on the web, because developers don’t follow accessibility standards. Where most talks explain ways to make websites equally available regardless of disability, experiences of real users are left behind. This speech aims to show how the inaccessible web affects daily life for the blind. With practical…
There are many ways thanks to which we can automate accessibility testing. Thanks to this, some parts of our website can be tested in an automatic way, preventing us from deploying a broken patch. While this solution isn't perfect, it's a great foundation to start your adventure with accessibility. Learn about how you can integrate…
When designing a new webpage for the Institute for the Blind and Visually impaired in Denmark, we chose to use Wordpress. Ole and Anna will talk about the process of designing the webpage and the considerations they had when designing the pages for both users with blindness and low-vision and for professional consultants in the…
In this session, Carlos will explore the features and changes the Joomla accessibility team made to Joomla to improve its accessibility: from improving Joomla's accessibility as a content editing tool to helping Joomla 4 users create more accessible websites. Joomla and WordPress share a lot of user base, and are both free open source projects…
In the first part of this panel Anne Bovelett (all-rounder accessibility advocate) and Piccia Neri (UX & UI designer focussing on accessibility) will discuss daily web usage experiences with a blind user, Lazar Bulatovic, and a colour-blind developer, Antonio Carreira. In the second part, we’ll focus on examining their experience specifically when it comes to…
A picture is worth a thousand words, and we know the value images, graphics and pictures bring to a website and blog. Eye catching images enhance any website. Yet for those with vision loss those very images can communicate exclusion if alt text is not provided. Empish will share importance of alternative text to creating…
You've made your site and content accessible, but have you thought about the content that you post on social media? What about your Tweets, stories and TikToks? Are you making sure that your audience can read, watch and understand your messaging? What if you think you're doing a good job, but you're actually making it…
Peteris will teach you about Accessibility Statements and introduced the Accessibility Statement WordPress plugin and its development vision: A machine readable, standardised format, Local accessibility guidelines integrated/referenced, Automated tools for accessibility evaluation. [able]
Damon will cover a brief history of dialogs (also known as popups, modals), then dive into the best practices for building an accessible experience in this type of interface. [able]
