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Justin Tadlock I’m unsure if the Themes Team has claimed that end-users care about accessibility. I’d wager the vast majority of users do not even know what accessibility is. It is not something that should be in the forefront of the average user’s mind. They should simply be able to create their content. It is the tools they use that are primarily responsible for making sure that content is output in a way that is accessible to everyone. The team has claimed that accessibility is important. It is important because WordPress is about democratizing publishing for everyone, including those that have a disability or other issue that makes it harder to use the web. It is important because it is simply the right thing to do as a decent and caring human being. We should always strive to be as inclusive as possible with our technology. And, if that’s not enough, there are existing laws, such as the ADA in the U.S., in place for making sure that businesses meet accessibility standards. Most small businesses cannot afford a web developer, so they must rely on, quite often, free themes and plugins to have an online presence. The Themes Team is aware of all this and has been slowly implementing accessibility guidelines. As for the accessibility of Astra, I have not looked into the theme deep enough to know where it stands. I do know that many themes meet the accessibility requirements of the Themes Team without tagging their theme as such. This is because it triggers an additional review and takes more time to get approval to use the tag. It is a long-standing issue of not having enough reviewers trained to handle those reviews, so many theme authors simply skip it. I’m not sure if that’s the case here, but it should be mentioned for context. You are likely correct that the majority are not concerned with accessibility. Awareness is a large issue, and we should be doing better with that. I guarantee this would change if there was a huge global push about the issue outside of web development circles. That means governments, businesses, and grassroots-people-led activism must play a part in creating that awareness.
Justin Tadlock
I’m unsure if the Themes Team has claimed that end-users care about accessibility. I’d wager the vast majority of users do not even know what accessibility is. It is not something that should be in the forefront of the average user’s mind. They should simply be able to create their content. It is the tools they use that are primarily responsible for making sure that content is output in a way that is accessible to everyone.
The team has claimed that accessibility is important. It is important because WordPress is about democratizing publishing for everyone, including those that have a disability or other issue that makes it harder to use the web. It is important because it is simply the right thing to do as a decent and caring human being. We should always strive to be as inclusive as possible with our technology.
And, if that’s not enough, there are existing laws, such as the ADA in the U.S., in place for making sure that businesses meet accessibility standards. Most small businesses cannot afford a web developer, so they must rely on, quite often, free themes and plugins to have an online presence. The Themes Team is aware of all this and has been slowly implementing accessibility guidelines.
As for the accessibility of Astra, I have not looked into the theme deep enough to know where it stands. I do know that many themes meet the accessibility requirements of the Themes Team without tagging their theme as such. This is because it triggers an additional review and takes more time to get approval to use the tag. It is a long-standing issue of not having enough reviewers trained to handle those reviews, so many theme authors simply skip it. I’m not sure if that’s the case here, but it should be mentioned for context.
You are likely correct that the majority are not concerned with accessibility. Awareness is a large issue, and we should be doing better with that. I guarantee this would change if there was a huge global push about the issue outside of web development circles. That means governments, businesses, and grassroots-people-led activism must play a part in creating that awareness.
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