New comment form difficult for blind users

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  bethfinke · Member · Jun 24, 2011 at 4:08 pm

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  I am blind, and my blind blog readers are having trouble leaving comments now that you’ve changed the form to include FB/twitter log ins. I’ve read through the forum discussions and you say there is no way to revert to the old comment form, I’m sorry to hear that.
  Blog url: http://bethfinke.wordpress.com/

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  mdawaffe · Staff · Jun 24, 2011 at 5:34 pm

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  Can you tell us more about the difficulties the new comment form is causing?

  What makes the current experience worse than the old one?

  We want to make commenting easier, not harder, so any information you can give use will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help.

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  bethfinke · Member · Jun 24, 2011 at 8:12 pm

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  They say they type in a comment, then they tab and hear “”same page link guest.” They tab again and hear “same page link log in.” They tab again and hear “same page link log in” again. They tab again and hear “same page link log in” again. None of these links explain exactly what the user would be logging into, so they go back and hit enter on same page link guest” because they assume they are commenting as a guest. They tab until they get to the part where they leave their email and name and they fill all that in, but then when they hit the “post comment” button, nothing happens. They get a message that says “please leave a comment” and then they have to start all over again.
  Most of them don’t bother redoing it, they give up and just don’t leave comments. So I’m not receiving comments from my blind blog readers anymore.
  Before the change, they used to type in their comment then tab to the part where they leave their email and name and fill all that in, then hit the “post comment” button and voila, the comment would appear.

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  mdawaffe · Staff · Jun 25, 2011 at 6:36 am

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  Thank you for the details. All those log in links are confusing; we’re working on making it better.

  I’m having trouble reproducing the “please leave a comment” problem, though. Do you happen to know what browser/screen reader combination your readers are using when the problem occurs?

  If you log out of WordPress.com and try to leave a comment on one of your posts, do you encounter the same problem as your readers?

  Thanks again for your help!