These is the bi-weekly notes for the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team meeting that happens on alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

• WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe held last week, and contributors were encouraged to join the Accessibility Team table during Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.
• The Accessibility Team shared updates on ongoing documentation improvements for May 2026.
• The call for volunteers for the WordPress 7.1 release is closed.
• Contributors were reminded that one week remained to apply as a speaker for WordPress Accessibility Day.
• A hotfix addressing the publish button placement issue was released.

Docs

• @rianrietveld shared an update that work on improving the Accessibility Team documentation continued.
• During WordCamp Europe Contributor Day, attendees reviewed the new documentation and provided valuable feedback to help refine and improve the content.

General

• @joedolson shared that most tickets milestoned for 7.1 already have patches, so the focus of bug scrubs over the coming weeks will be on reviewing those patches and confirming they still apply correctly.
• It was also mentioned that some bug scrubs may need to be rescheduled due to scheduling constraints. Any schedule changes will be communicated as far in advance as possible.

Gutenberg

• @joedolson shared that the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ team is still primarily focused on polishing items that missed shipping in the 7.0 release.

Themes

Only four weeks remain to complete re-reviews of all current accessibility-ready themes. By June 30, all accessibility-ready themes are expected to be either:

• Approved,
• Actively in progress with participation from the theme author, or
• Delisted if they do not meet accessibility standards and there is no evidence of author engagement to address the identified issues.

#accessibility, #meeting-notes

These is the bi-weekly notes for the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team meeting that happens on alternate Thursday in #accessibility. You can read the full transcript here or see the full meeting schedule.

1. WordPress 7.0 RC2 released
2. Only a week to go for WCAsia2026

Working Group Updates

Docs

@rianrietveld shared the updates for docs team as mentioned below.

• New and updated documentation has been published on wpaccessibility.org
  • Frontend code: Handling visual and keyboard focus, with subpages addressing:
    • Tabindex and tab order
    • Visual focus
    • Trapping focus
    • Restoring focus
    • Autofocus
    • Focus and hover interactions
    • Keyboard traps
  • Forms: No positive tabindex.
  • Design and user experience: Styling focus and hover states of interactive HTML elements.
  • Training
    • Start with accessibility: How to get training to learn web accessibility, with subpages addressing:
    • Online training
    • Books
    • Online events
    • Knowledge resources
    • Education & Discussion Groups

• Work is ongoing to extend and update documentation around alternative text (alt text) for images in WordPress
  • The goal is to make it useful not just for content creators, but also for developers

• There is an active discussion around introducing a “Can I Use” section for coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks
  • This would highlight the accessibility status of each blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., helping users understand current support and limitations both.

Generic Updates was shared by @joedolson. He is currently working on preparing the post about accessibility changes in WordPress 7.0 release and working on identifying tickets targeted for 7.1 release.

He mentioned that most focus right now should be on testing 7.0, to ensure that any new issues or regressions are caught before the actual release.

@joedolson also mentioned that the work on the theme accessibility-ready updates has been delayed due to the complexity of last-minute changes in WordPress 7.0 release. It is expected to resume post-release.

#accessibility, #meeting-notes