Let this blog post serve as a cautionary tale for all of my readers, but most especially for those of you who use screen readers. So as to avoid losing you to mind-numbing boredom, I’ll just cut right to the chase: Never update your Word Press blog until well after a million others have already done so.
Skipping…skipping…welcome to my nightmare.
The latest version of Word Press offers a super-cool new flyout style dashboard that is not accessible. According to WP support (see the comment thread here), the flyout menus "are accessible & do meet access guidelines if you are using the latest version of JAWS (or at least that’s what the last round of testing appeared to indicate) but that may not be the case with other screen reader software."
Can we all just ponder that a moment? Ahem. Not everyone uses Jaws. Just for laughs, and to toss in my two cents, my own testing “appears to indicate” it does not work with the latest version of ZoomText, or the latest version of NVDA, both of which I use. Hey, I ought to try it with Narrator, see what happens.
So that you know, and so that I can save you from grief, the recommended plugin mentioned in the support thread does not work with my configuration, either. I’m running Win 7 on a PC with IE 8. Quit laughing.
I’ve actually tried two different plugins that purport to make the WP dashboard more accessible, but no luck. If you find a solution to this latest access annoyance, besides schooling me on the benefits of being an Apple user, please comment and share. So many will be so grateful, most of all me. By the way, don’t bother asking just any random WP “guru” about this. Believe me, they’ll treat you like you’re insane. Just don’t go there, it’s a pathway to madness. Only a screen reader user is going to understand this problem, not someone who claims to know about web accessibility and Word Press. Let’s start writing to the good folks at WP, or appeal to the many genius plugin developers out there.
I’m growing tired of playing “menu roulette.” Come on, code cowboys (and cowgirls), drop a few lines of those mysterious symbols, letters and numbers that look to me as if you slammed your fist down on the keyboard, and I’ll be the first to promote it for you. That is, if I can manage to install it with the magical invisible dashboard.
LL
Hi,
I found this post via Twitter. The dashboard has been screwed up since at least WP 3.3.1, probably 3.0. And I’m using the latest version of Jaws, latest version of FF, and even the latest version of IE! I am going to submit a ticket on this, if one hasn’t already been submitted, and would like to get as many WP users using AT to add to it if possible. For one thing, there’s no way to get to anything other than options general. Hope you’ll be willing to help.
Could you describe what isn’t working for you?
I’ve used the navigation with Jaws 13, Jaws 12 and NVDA 2012.1 in FF12 and IE9 without any difficulty. The interaction is different, but the result is the same as though using a mouse.
For example, hovering a mouse over the “Pages” menu item causes a child menu with two options to appear: “All pages” and “Add new”.
Activating the “Pages” link with any of the aforementioned screen readers causes the same child menu to appear as a list, immediately below the originating link.
I know that doesn’t cover the full range of screen readers being used out there, but it does mean the menu is functional with at least one free screen reader and two recent browsers.
I wonder if IE8 might be a bigger part of the problem?
Hi Leonie,
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my blog post.
In response to your questions, all I can say is that I don’t know how to answer. If my screen reader doesn’t see it, then I don’t see it. My WP dashboard does not behave as you described.
Currently, I am unable to upgrade to IE9 because of a ZoomText particularity that will be fixed shortly with a new version. I’ll update IE at that time, and report back as to any improvements with the dashboard usability. However, as was pointed out by the previous comment, it is not working for her, either, and her configuration is more current.
Others with whom I’ve corresponded report similar issues, so I suspect the problem could be a bit more elusive than that which you suggested. I’ll post an update if and when a solution becomes available.
Thank you so much for your comment. Laura
Out of curiosity, what happens when you try it with Jaws or NVDA? Perhaps if we can compare the differences we can start to unpick the problem and find a solution, although I won’t get too far ahead of myself there!
Amanda, if you’re still tracking comments, could you do the same?
When I activate the “General options” link, the child menu items do appear but they’re not immediately below the originating link. They’re just after the “Settings” link instead.
It would be interesting to know if the menu items are reported as links, whether they are but nothing happens when you activate them, or whether something else entirely happens.