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WordPress 3.0 got a new default theme: Twenty Ten. It’s doctype is yet HTML5, but the rest is still old XHTML. This is where TwentyTenFive get’s into. It’s mission is to get Twenty Ten upgraded to HTML5.

This is indeed a real improvement, but still has the same accessibility issues as Twenty Ten, e.g. not enough contrast in colors, few improvements for keyboard users and you get no real information about user’s location within a web page.

Weiterlesen „WordPress Child Theme for TwentyTenFive: Accessible Five“

For developing purposes I am using now the newest WordPress release – aka nightly builds. I installed therefor the plugin WordPress Beta Tester. (Wow, linking is updated in WordPress editor – you can now make internal links easy by searching for terms or choosing articles directly – nice).

I tested Accessible 1.0 – the WordPress child theme – and MCE Accessible Language Change – both are working with the current developer release 3.1.

SteveAlee made an request in WordPress forum to merge the accessibility improvements of Accessible 1.0 into the WordPress default theme Twenty Ten. Of course this would be my favorite goal to get Twenty Ten fully accessible and not to make a child theme for that purpose.

But I followed the development of Twenty Ten in WordPress Core a lot and got the impression that it is not so easy to get Twenty Ten more and more accessible. There is a kind of effort there to get accessibility forward but it takes a lot of time. Even small improvements as the skip link which is not reachable for keyboard users is somewhere in the developing pipeline – in a future release. Weiterlesen „WordPress: Accessibility as a patch is not a good strategy“

One thing I always missed in WordPress editor TinyMCE is to add language change. So I made my first plugin. 🙂 This was somehow hard because it’s not only to get a plugin in WordPress running, you also have to get into programming with TinyMCE. So keep in mind when you use the plugin, I am a novice …

The Plugin MCE Accessible Language Change – now in the WordPress Plugin directory – adds two buttons to the editor: one for changing the language of a word or phrase within a span element and one for changing or adding the language of already existing block elements as paragraphs or headlines. Furthermore you can add the target language to a link:

Weiterlesen „WordPress Editor Plugin: MCE Accessible Language Change“

Accessible 1.0 – an accessible child theme for WordPress Twenty Ten theme – is now around for a while and get some attention and review:

• Accessible 1.0 was accepted for WordPress Honors 2010 in the category themes. I think you can still vote for it, but I fear as it is a child theme it will be hard to compete against real WordPress themes.
• The child theme was included in the free WordPress theme directory. This is nice, because there is no possibility to get a child theme in the official WordPress theme directory. The reason: The do not include child theme. It’s quite understandable, most of the child themes do only some layout changes. But the child theme concept can realize much more and get’s really involved in theming. So there should be a small place to put this more advanced child themes into …
• Dennis E. Lembrée tested the child theme for a while and was satisfied with its accessibility improvements so far. He made some tweaks, it would be interesting to hear about them.
• Martin Ladstätter – an austrian accessibility expert – installed the theme and was somehow astonished about the easiness and promptness of the installation. This is indeed the most important point for me to develop such a child theme – to have a lightweight and easy to use child theme which improves accessibility.
• Jens Grochtdreis – a german webstandards expert – made a small review of the child theme.
• In the podcast macpcnux the child theme was recommended.

Accessible 1.0 – an accessible child theme for WordPress Twenty Ten theme is now around for a while and is running live on following sites – thanks for testing and using it. 🙂 And just give me a note to put your site or blog into the list:

• A more accessible WordPress – my own site here of course 🙂
• Martin Ladstätters website – an accessibility expert from austria
• ZweitGedanken – Blog
• digi – Blog
• a more customized version: GRK Flood
• jebsblog
• even more customized: SGS
• Opening accessibility by Steve Lee
• Web Standards, Accessibility & More: website of  accessibility expert Dennis E. Lembree

It is interesting to see the child theme running in the wild and real action. Good examples to get the real edges of the theme.

WordPress 3.0 came out with a new default theme: Twenty Ten. The theme is compared to Kubrick an improvement, but still has mostly the same accessibility issues as its forerunner, e.g. not enough contrast in colors, few improvements for keyboard users and you get no real information about user’s location within a web page.

This is where Accessible TwentyTen get’s into: a child theme for the default theme Twenty Ten to get the parent theme more accessible. You get all functionality of Twenty Ten plus accessible features of the child theme. That’s a nice deal. 🙂

And: the child theme uses no templates, only a css file and some programming in functions.php. That’s all. Accessible TwentyTen should only be a small accessible enhancement.

Weiterlesen „WordPress Child Theme for Twenty Ten: Accessible TwentyTen“