[theme-reviewers] Accessible theme issues

[Joe Dolson]

I'm actually not recommending any approve/unapprove consideration due
to accessibility; I'm actually recommending a completely separate
process from theme review, which would provide access to modify tags
within the theme repository according to accessibility issues.

Since there is no existing theme review group with an access along
those lines, I'm proposing this within the theme review group due to
necessity - the make.accessibility group would be appropriate, but
does not have any ability to effect anything within the theme
directory.

Thanks for responding!

Best,
Joe

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Edward Caissie
<edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>
>
> Cais.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Joe Dolson <design at joedolson.com> wrote:
>>
>> So, this is my first post to the theme-reviewers list, so I hope I'm
>> proposing this in the best possible place.
>>
>> I've been in a number of discussions with people in the Accessibility
>> and the WordPress communities about the need to improve accessibility
>> in WordPress themes -- or, more specifically, improve the ability to
>> locate accessible WordPress themes which have had vetting beyond an
>> authorial claim of accessibility.
>>
>> I know that the theme review team hardly has the time to review what
>> they already do, let alone add an accessibility review -- and as much
>> as I'd like it, I don't think that we're ready to impose accessibility
>> as a requirement in order to publish a theme -- it wouldn't be
>> practical or realistic.
>>
>> I'd like to propose a way to improve the ability to find quality
>> themes by establishing a team, working to a standard set of
>> guidelines, which could review themes in the theme repository after
>> they have been approved. This team would have the mission of assigning
>> or removing accessibility related tags from themes.
>>
>> This review team, tasked with identifying and labeling accessible
>> themes, would create an imposition that the 'accessible' tag and
>> related tags would be controlled. Authors could self label as
>> accessible, but if it didn't meet review, the tag could be removed.
>>
>> At least at this early stage, it could be a pretty straightforward triage:
>>
>> 1) If theme tagged with accessible, a11y, wcag, etc. it gets a review to
>> verify
>> 2) Popular themes should be reviewed.
>> 3) Other themes could be reviewed as time allowed or by request.
>>
>> I would be happy to head up the process of establishing guidelines for
>> reviewing themes and participate in the review and tagging of themes
>> -- or to provide expert assistance to anybody else who wanted to take
>> this on.
>>
>> Obviously, this is largely my own concept, and can and should be
>> modified to best fit the WordPress theme review workflow; which I'll
>> admit to being more than a little ignorant about.
>>
>> I don't want to create a substantial burden on either theme developers
>> or reviewers, but any incremental progress in improving the ability to
>> identify accessible WordPress themes in a consistent manner would be
>> wonderful.
>>
>> Best,
>> Joe Dolson
>> (Accessibility consultant and WordPress plug-in developer)
>> _______________________________________________
>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>
>
>
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Joseph Dolson
Accessibility consultant and WordPress developer
http://www.joedolson.com
http://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson