[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #35392: Dashboard "Recent Comments" widget improvements

[WordPress Trac]

#35392: Dashboard "Recent Comments" widget improvements
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 Reporter:  afercia            |      Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)       |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal             |  Milestone:  4.5
Component:  Widgets            |    Version:  4.4
 Severity:  normal             |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  ui, accessibility  |
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 While working on #35049 I've noticed there's room for some accessibility
 and functional improvements for the "Recent Comments" dashboard widget.
 I'd propose some simple changes, trying to summarize:

 '''Semantics'''
 Since it's a '''list''' of comments, should be marked up as a list.
 Practical benefits: screen readers will announce the number of items
 ("''list with n items''") and users will be able to jump through list
 items using their screen reader dedicated keys (for example in NVDA is
 "i").

 '''Link to the post'''
 When users have the `edit_post` capability, the widget displays the title
 of the commented post with a link to the post (see screenshot below on the
 left). Otherwise, the title is completely removed (on the right). Notice
 also the small glitch for Pingbacks where a stray "on" is displayed.

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/XL8til_xa1.png)]]

 This seems a bit inconsistent with what seems to me an established
 convention in the admin. As far as I see, usually the item title is always
 displayed. It's just the link that gets removed for users without the edit
 capability. Maybe I'm missing something :) Wondering how a comment without
 any reference to the post it was submitted on would be of any help, see
 below. Sure, users can't edit posts but at least they will have some
 contextual information.

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/YmMrJp_jRO.png)]]

 '''Heading'''
 I'd propose to restore the text "Recent Comments" that was used before the
 Dashboard redesign, see [26144]. Saying just "Comments" doesn't help users
 to immediately understand this is just a short list with the latest 5
 comments.

 '''Views links'''
 At the bottom of the widget, the links "All, Pending, Approved, etc." are
 not so clear when read out of context. These links should either be
 expanded with some `aria-label` attributes or be preceded by a new
 heading. To keep it simple I'd propose to add a heading, something like
 "View more comments".

 '''Pending status'''
 Only the pending comments (not pingbacks or trackbacks) have a small
 "flag" icon followed by a text string `[Pending]` to indicate their
 status. This info is dynamically displayed/hidden when approving or
 unapproving comments. Was considering to hide all this from screen readers
 and provide a more meaningful, expanded, text hidden with `screen-reader-
 text`. Open to suggestions.
 About the flag icon, maybe worth considering some visual improvements too
 :)

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35392>
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