Although the idea of addressing "accessibility" has its merits, the Theme Review Team has no access to add, delete, or modify tags a theme author chooses to use. The WPTRT reviewers should expect to validate the tags applied are correct, but on their own it would be a tough call to not-approve on a theme tag error by itself.<br>
<br><br clear="all">Cais.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Joe Dolson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:design@joedolson.com" target="_blank">design@joedolson.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
So, this is my first post to the theme-reviewers list, so I hope I'm<br>
proposing this in the best possible place.<br>
<br>
I've been in a number of discussions with people in the Accessibility<br>
and the WordPress communities about the need to improve accessibility<br>
in WordPress themes -- or, more specifically, improve the ability to<br>
locate accessible WordPress themes which have had vetting beyond an<br>
authorial claim of accessibility.<br>
<br>
I know that the theme review team hardly has the time to review what<br>
they already do, let alone add an accessibility review -- and as much<br>
as I'd like it, I don't think that we're ready to impose accessibility<br>
as a requirement in order to publish a theme -- it wouldn't be<br>
practical or realistic.<br>
<br>
I'd like to propose a way to improve the ability to find quality<br>
themes by establishing a team, working to a standard set of<br>
guidelines, which could review themes in the theme repository after<br>
they have been approved. This team would have the mission of assigning<br>
or removing accessibility related tags from themes.<br>
<br>
This review team, tasked with identifying and labeling accessible<br>
themes, would create an imposition that the 'accessible' tag and<br>
related tags would be controlled. Authors could self label as<br>
accessible, but if it didn't meet review, the tag could be removed.<br>
<br>
At least at this early stage, it could be a pretty straightforward triage:<br>
<br>
1) If theme tagged with accessible, a11y, wcag, etc. it gets a review to verify<br>
2) Popular themes should be reviewed.<br>
3) Other themes could be reviewed as time allowed or by request.<br>
<br>
I would be happy to head up the process of establishing guidelines for<br>
reviewing themes and participate in the review and tagging of themes<br>
-- or to provide expert assistance to anybody else who wanted to take<br>
this on.<br>
<br>
Obviously, this is largely my own concept, and can and should be<br>
modified to best fit the WordPress theme review workflow; which I'll<br>
admit to being more than a little ignorant about.<br>
<br>
I don't want to create a substantial burden on either theme developers<br>
or reviewers, but any incremental progress in improving the ability to<br>
identify accessible WordPress themes in a consistent manner would be<br>
wonderful.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Joe Dolson<br>
(Accessibility consultant and WordPress plug-in developer)<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>