Accessibility Issues For Multiply Disabled Blogger

  • Unknown's avatar
    campb04 · Member ·

    Hello again campbellsworld visitors.
    Below is a letter I intend to send to WordPress.
    I’ll send you whatever reply I receive from them in the comments section of this post.

    Dear WordPress.
    I am a blind writer who uses your site to blog.
    I promote my books and other’s businesses and books, and I have an issue with you.
    While you claim that your site is accessible I would dare to disagree to a large extent.
    First yes, your site is sort of accessible.
    But.
    There are still many issues that need addressed.
    First, we will talk about your buttons.
    Some show up and are read by my talking screen reading software, Jaws For Windows and some do not show up and are not read by my talking screen reader.
    Secondly when I am on my computer and am using the buttons that are marked with two and three lettered initials I have no idea what those buttons are.
    I have yet to discover things like spell-check, which I am told you have, and even on my iPhone things are not clearly marked.
    Thirdly the customer Support you have is extremely lacking.
    While I will admit my last note to you about my publish button having suddenly become invisible for me was a bit vague due to my being so upset, I would also like to say that others experienced this and are still experiencing it and not all of them are blind and using screen reading software.
    I’d also like to respectfully let you know that my screen reading software cannot read screen shots so please do not send those to me unless you label it with descriptive text.
    While I’m on this topic I’ve had it said to me that certain background and letter color combinations are hard for people to read.
    So, I wanted to change that.
    It is not doable for me.
    Why?
    Once again, the buttons I need to use are not accessible.
    Myself and other blind writers would also like it if when you update things like editor programs and other portions of your site you would work directly with the software companies who create and maintain talking screen reader software programs so that when you update we do not lag.
    I do not at all think my requests are invalid.
    I also do not think that I need to just be “Grateful” that the darn thing works at all as some have suggested.
    I am using internet explorer. I cannot as of yet use Microsoft Edge, and that is a topic for another day.
    But.
    I am using Windows 10 latest version and JFW (Jaws For Windows) 18 latest updates.
    So, my system should be in compliance.
    I, and other disabled bloggers would very much like to see more done to make our blogging experience better.
    While I’m here let me also speak to the issue of the disabled reader.
    I’ve already addressed the issue of background and lettering colors.
    But.
    The blind screen reader users who are following my blog are having some trouble navigating my site.
    Even after I send detailed instructions they are having trouble.
    They speak of issues such as…
    • Not being able to remain in the edit fields while commenting.
    • Having issue reading the buttons such as like, and comment.
    • And the post reply feature where one can reply directly from their email not working correctly.
    Again, we disabled writers are a large community and we would like to be recognized as important enough to be heard and have our issues addressed.
    Thanks very much for your time and attention to this very important matter.

    Patty L. Fletcher
    Self-Published Author and Owner and Founder of Tell-It-To-The-World Marketing

    Email: (email visible only to moderators and staff)

    http://campbellsworld.wordpress.com/ .

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    kosiew · Member ·

    hi,

    Thank you for taking the trouble to elaborate the shortcomings at WordPress.com.

    I have tagged modlook for a Staff to help you with this.
    Thank you for your patience while they get back to you.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Good morning –

    Thanks for tagging this kosiew.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Hi Patty –

    We are committed to accessibility and inclusion, and very much appreciate the time that you took to outline these obstacles.

    I’ve passed this letter along to our accessibility team and will report back to you hear once I hear back from them.

    In the meantime I will check our tracking in GitHub to see if any of these have previously been reported to us.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Hi Patty –

    I just wanted to stop by and let you know that a member from the accessibility team has sent an email your way to go over these one by one.

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