Accessibility is a huge conversation on WordPress. Giving you access to the site can be overwhelming, but if you don’t, you may miss the customer. Although this may seem like a difficult problem to solve, we have learned why and how Sanjay nasta, CEO of microassist, makes the site accessible to everyone. Talk: accessibility has become more and more important in websites and mobile applications, especially in recent years. What is the background of this increase in understanding? Sanjay nasta: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed by President George HW Bush on July 26th, 1990. For 31 years, people with disabilities have had to improve physical and digital accessibility. The
In the past few years, customers and enterprises have put more emphasis on comprehensiveness. About 25% of the population in the United States has disabilities. According to the latest research estimates, the discretionary expenditure of this population group is controlled at more than $500billion. To a large extent, this constitutes a part of customers, who must ensure that the organization does not inadvertently create barriers not only in customer service, but also in protecting the company’s reputation. ADA Title III litigation (accessibility) is increasing. According to seyfarth Shaw, a law firm focusing on accessibility, there were 10982 lawsuits in 2020. These lawsuits focus on the organization and industry, which may bring considerable reputation risk. The
At the same time, you can more easily use the tools, training, and developer knowledge you need to access the website. When addressing digital accessibility at the beginning of the design and development process, it becomes easier to manage from a technical perspective. Torque: why should site owners care about accessibility? SJ: about 25% of customers have faults. Whether on websites, online training, applications and conference platforms, or in documents that cannot be recognized as assistive technologies (such as screen readers), content can set obstacles for customers’ information. The
This will prevent purchases and transactions, inhibit job hunting activities, and hinder other positive experiences of the brand. In a comprehensive era, ignoring accessibility may lead to brand reputation risk. In many jurisdictions, accessibility is a legal requirement. Torque: what are the site owners \/ developers’ misconceptions about the delayed implementation of accessible web functions? What are people missing? SJ: many developers do not know accessibility best practices or only consider them at the end of the development lifecycle. This makes it difficult, time-consuming, or costly to transform an accessibility solution on an existing site. Accessibility should be considered at the beginning of the development life cycle, and a comprehensive design philosophy should permeate the whole process. The
Developers and website owners tend to view accessibility from a compliance perspective. In other words, I am more concerned about reaching the level that meets the regulatory standards. It is indeed a good thing to comply with these regulations, but the impact on human beings should also be taken into account. Achieving compliance should be the starting line, not the finishing line. Torque:wordpress is undoubtedly the leader in improving accessibility through various updates to the core. Despite these additional options and features, what is the biggest vulnerability that gives WordPress wide \/ full access? The
Sj:wordpress, like all organizations, must consider the accessibility of the entire ecosystem. Insufficient accessibility standards for plug-ins and topics. As you know, plug-ins and themes go beyond basic functionality and are required for WordPress sites in most cases. Unfortunately, there are many levels of accessibility, and accessibility features are often lost during version updates. An accessibility table
The promotion of a standard compliant plug-in will help push users to the plug-in. Talk show: specifically, Gutenberg’s situation is that it lacks accessibility when it was first listed. It has improved a lot since then. Is there any deficiency? The
Sj:microassist is dedicated to letting users access the word press site. We don’t pay attention to the accessibility of internal word press elements. Thank the WordPress project team for their efforts to find and modify accessibility. First of all, I would like to thank WordPress accessibility and the project team for their efforts and transparency in participating in the user and developer communities to find and solve accessibility problems. Emphasize that the technologies around accessibility are evolving. Accessibility is a journey and development takes time. Returning to the previous comments on the male plug-in, as for how to use gutenberk with assistive technologies and how to promote the adoption of accessibility standards, I think we will continue to focus on creating clear and useful documents for content producers. The
Torque: have you come across any plug-ins or topics that can solve most accessibility problems? Sj: theme producers began to consider accessibility in theme design. Is a positive trend. However, for various reasons, it is difficult to recommend specific topics that address \
We are alert to the access methods of plug-ins (or overlay). Plug ins often add tools such as high contrast color and font size switching. Unfortunately, the tools used to allow people with disabilities to access websites are often hampered. The goal is to give the faulted user control of the environment and let the plug-in often seize control. Talk: when should the site owner perform an accessibility audit during site construction? How often should I have someone registered? Sj: accessibility must be integrated throughout the software development lifecycle. Ux\/ui designers must be familiar with accessibility concepts in order to implement a comprehensive design from scratch. Developers should be familiar with the coding techniques that make these concepts easier to use, and the techniques that optimize the product for use in various assistive technologies and browsers. The quality assurance team includes accessibility testing in the test cycle and deals with accessibility defects just like other bugs or defects. Provide end users with the means to deliver and report accessibility issues. The
Talk: where can I see the accessibility title? What kind of technology do you expect in the near and long term? Sj: accessibility will be built into the tools we use to create digital assets. You have seen that Microsoft and adobe are building the accessibility of digital authoring tools. The Accessibility Wizard helps ordinary content creators create highly accessibility content. In addition, you will look at machine learning based assistants to help create accessible content. The initial example is an assistant that helps you create alternate text for uploaded images and add names to photos. The
Talk: what should website owners prepare? What else can you gain if you implement extensive accessibility measures across the site? SJ: one of the common problems is technology
Grow and develop at such a fast speed. For example, WCAG 2.0 is a standard used by the U.S. government to meet accessibility. When WCAG 2.0 was launched in 2008, the iPhone was only about one year old, so the guide did not provide specific instructions on what is ubiquits technology. The accessibility industry needs to constantly find new and creative ways to find solutions with changing technologies. My advice to developers and publisher is to do research. Learn about the technologies you can access and the missing technologies. Then, participate in encouraging technologies that do not adopt accessibility practices (technologies). Torque:how does microassist solve these problems? Sj:microassist focuses on training our team and customers to evolve guidelines and best practices to help customers predict the accessibility problems they face. We train internal and external stakeholders weekly through the accessibility of press releases screened in the news. We provide technical and standard training for internal teams and customers. We can study and share accessible solutions to problems, and recommend solutions that best suit customers’ needs. Our team can deeply participate in the disabled community and understand the problems they face when using technology.
