#hcid2012 - Harnessing Themes, Plugins and Features to make Wordpress Accessible Graham Almfield - Coolfields Consulting

Transcript

1. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Harnessing Themes, Plugins and Features to Make WordPress Accessible Graham Armfield Coolfields Consulting
2. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Introduction Wordpress – Increasingly popular platform for websites – Originally a blogging tool but now a true Content Management System (CMS) – Useful for business websites of many types Q. But can you create accessible websites using WordPress? 2  
3. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 What Makes Up a WordPress Site? Theme •  The overall page template Plugins •  Extra functionality for specific tasks Content •  What you want the world to see 3  
4. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 4   WordPress  Themes  
5. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Themes – Thousands available – free and premium – Many/most are blog orientated – Many are hideously out of date – Bespoke themes can be built from designs •  This is what many developers do – including me 5  
6. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Themes contd Q. So are there themes that include or enable accessible features? A. Of the useful themes, many have some good practices but very few get close to delivering ‘full accessibility’ 6  
7. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Themes contd WordPress Default Themes – Twentyten – Twentyeleven Many sites are built with these themes – using the customisation options 7  
8. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Themes contd Weaver II –  Advantages •  extremely configurable •  suits business websites, •  also includes many useful a11y features – skip links etc –  Disadvantage – •  extremely configurable means huge learning curve so potentially hard work for anyone who is not a developer. •  still not perfect from accessibility perspective 8  
9. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Themes contd Others alleged to be accessible –  Temple Gate – configurable, suits small sites, blog orientated –  Dodo – suitable for blogs only, submenus not shown properly –  VeryPlainText – no visual focus –  Precious – blogs only, poor visual focus –  Whitepress - submenus not shown properly –  So not much of any use there 9  
10. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 My Future Theme Project To build a theme that is: •  As accessible as I can get it •  Sufficiently configurable but not too complex •  That suits needs of small businesses •  That can be used for blogs and brochureware sites 10  
11. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 11   WordPress  Plugins  
12. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Plugins Q: So what are plugins? A: Nuggets of extra functionality that can be added to existing WordPress sites. Many are free, but there are also premium ones 12  
13. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Plugins contd Q: So are there useful plugins that don’t compromise accessibility? A: Fortunately yes. – Relevanssi – improved search capability – Platinum SEO Pack – SEO for your site – Breadcrumb NavXT – breadcrumb trail – Plus others 13  
14. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Plugins contd Q: And any plugins that do compromise accessibility? A: Unfortunately yes. – Lightboxes – where does focus go? – Carousel/slider – keyboard focus, movement – Form builders – form elements without labels – Etc, etc 14  
15. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Plugins contd Q: Any accessibility-related plugins? A: Not many. – Remove title attributes – Wp-chgfontsize – Accessible tag cloud – Myreadmore – Plus my own… 15  
16. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Plugins contd My own plugin projects – Accessible dropdown menus – v0.1 – Accessible social bookmarks – v0.2 – Accessible admin menus – v0.1 – Accessible lightbox – designed – Accessible carousel – some way off 16  
17. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 17   WordPress  Content  
18. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Content Authors Images and alternate text 18  
19. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Content Authors contd Links and link text 19   Opening new windows
20. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Content Authors contd Using headings 20  
21. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Content Authors contd Lists If it’s a list of items – use the list capability Video Avoid auto-start Add captions (easier said than done) 21  
22. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 22   WordPress  Admin   Screens  
23. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Admin Q: How accessible is the WordPress Admin backend? A: Patchy – and can be a huge barrier in some areas 23  
24. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Admin contd Q: What are WordPress developers doing to help?? A: Progress is sporadic and uncoordinated 24  
25. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 WordPress Admin contd Plugins can help mitigate 25  
26. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk @coolfields #hcid2012 City University London, 12th April 2012 Any Questions 26