Re: ATAG testing

Some of you may already be aware that there are big changes planned for the
page/post editor within WordPress admin.

The project is called Gutenberg and there are many blog posts around it
within the WordPress community. The idea is to transition to a more block
orientated editor rather than having a single textarea for the entire page
or post.

Development has been ongoing since earlier in the year and the new editor
is scheduled for bundling with WP version 5.0 - so early next year in
theory. However, work has currently stopped on the new editor as it has
been built using React (javascript library) which has now to be removed
from WordPress because of licencing issues. Once a new framework has been
agreed upon, work will recommence.

I bet you're all wondering how the new editor shapes up for
accessibility...?

(What follows contains some of my own opinions - please don't take as
gospel)

Well, in typical style, design and development of the new editor has raced
ahead to add in the bells and whistles without much thought being given to
accessibility. The Make WordPress Accessible team within WP is a small
grouping but those volunteers have been trying to do a stirling job to
point out the accessibility issues in what's been developed so far, and in
some cases propose solutions.

The Gutenberg issues (not just a11y) are being managed in Github (see
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg) and there are a substantial number
of accessibility issues to be seen (See
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3AAccessibility
)

If people feel inclined it would be really useful if you could test the
Gutenberg editor as it currently stands, and maybe comment on accessibility
issues as you see them. The new editor is currently available as a plugin (
https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/) although I'd be cautious about
trying it on a production site. It's been a while since I've tested it.

When development resumes, I'm sure it'll follow the prior release schedule
in that there will be a new iteration every week - so don't spend hours on
a review, unless you want to...

There have been many critical comments of the new editor, and recently an
undertaking was given that when the new Gutenberg editor lands in WordPress
core, a plugin would be available which will allow the previous editor to
be maintained - so you don't have to use Gutenberg. However, that is only
likely to be the case for a couple of releases.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Graham Armfield