Last week WordPress plugin developer Rachel Carden released wA11y, a new plugin that offers comprehensive feedback on web accessibility issues. wA11y was created to provide a toolbox of resources for site owners and currently includes support for two well known web accessibility evaluation tools: Tota11y and WAVE. “You know that (more…)
Udacity, an online education site, has launched a free web accessibility course built by Google. The site previously provided university-style courses, but is now focusing on its “Nanodegree programs,” offering courses and tracks created in partnership with industry leaders. The new “Web Accessibility: Developing with Empathy” course lasts for approximately (more…)
Among the improvements coming in WordPress 4.6 are accessibility enhancements to the Category and Tag management pages. The flow of each page has been changed so that the visual order of elements match the tab order. This allows those who navigate with keyboards to access the Add New Tag or (more…)
The World Health Organization estimates that 285 million people worldwide are living with some form of visual impairment and 39 million of those are estimated to be blind. Many people with low vision depend on speech recognition technology to navigate the web and communicate their thoughts. This type of software (more…)
Earlier this year, the WordPress project made a huge move by adopting accessibility coding standards for new and updated code. If you’re struggling to meet WCAG 2.0 guidelines in your WordPress projects and need help, check out the new Accessibility section in the WordPress.org support forums. Amanda Rush, who helps (more…)
Font Awesome, the open source vector icon collection used by more than 300 plugins on WordPress.org and many free and commercial themes, announced the beta release of its new CDN. Developers can now add a single line of code to bring the icons and CSS toolkit into their projects. The (more…)
Font Awesome creator Dave Gandy announced the release of version 4.6.0 this week. The open source vector icon collection is used on approximately 60 million websites, including high profile sites like whitehouse.gov, thebeatles.com, and washingtonpost.com. Additionally, more than 300 plugins on WordPress.org and dozens of themes use Font Awesome in (more…)
Last month WordPress contributors approved accessibility coding standards for the core handbook. All new and updated code will need to conform with WCAG 2.0 level AA guidelines. With WordPress core moving firmly in the direction of accessibility, its new guidelines set the bar for themes, plugins, and websites built on (more…)
The 31st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference was held in San Diego, California, last week. Every year thousands of attendees gather to share knowledge and best practices for technology that removes barriers for people with disabilities. This year Rian Rietveld was recognized by Knowbility.org for her accessibility (more…)
The Accessibility Team announced today that the WordPress Accessibility Coding Standards have been approved for the core handbook. The team sought feedback on the draft of the guidelines earlier this year and, after a few revisions, the coding standards are out of draft status. Contributors will now be required to (more…)
In June 2015 Deque, an accessibility consultancy, open sourced aXe, its accessibility rules engine for automated web UI testing. aXe is a compact JavaScript library (~100 KB) that executes automated accessibility tests inside your testing framework or browser. Deque outlined a number of advantages that the aXe library has over (more…)
The WordPress Accessibility team is seeking feedback on a draft that outlines accessibility coding standards for WordPress core. According to the draft, new features should meet the accessibility guidelines before merging into core. All code released in WordPress must conform with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines at level AA. These basic (more…)