Took my ball & went home

[Elpie]

I've played the WordPress game through every release since 1.0, and was using b2 before that. I run the betas and RC's locally to ensure I am familiar with changes before final release and to feed back on issues & offer possible solutions. 2.7 was when I started a season of discontent - mainly due to the backend admin changes. By 2.9, I was used to them and no longer had any of the old clients that lost out due to accessibility issues. New people come along though and so I was back to hacking the core, if I had to, and providing new admin interfaces. With every release lately, WordPress gets less accessible. People with experience in UX, UI and accessibility are ignored, despite requests to contribute.

With 3.2, an epiphany came. WordPress isn't going to become more accessible and the plans for 3.3 move it even further away from being usable for me. So, like any kid in the playground that realises the game isn't what they want to play, I've ditched WordPress.

I'm still supporting clients and still working with WordPress but I won't touch anything now that requires accessibility. For my own sites, I've moved on and its just wonderful!

So, you are not likely to see me around here much. Thanks for all the good conversations and the free beer Cya on the other side.

[Jeffro]

Can't fault you for leaving if WordPress is no longer fulfilling the needs of yourself or your clients. It's interesting regarding your case against WordPress and it's inaccessibility because I remember seeing a few dev chats or posts on the dev prologue of the team trying to get things done in that department before major releases. That is, it's an area of WordPress that is noticed and gets attention but perhaps, not as much as it should.

What have you decided to switch to as my curiosity has gotten the best of me?

[Elpie]

It's interesting regarding your case against WordPress and it's inaccessibility because I remember seeing a few dev chats or posts on the dev prologue of the team trying to get things done in that department before major releases. That is, it's an area of WordPress that is noticed and gets attention but perhaps, not as much as it should.

It's an area where there is talk and a willingness by some to listen, but not others. Accessibility is seen by WP as something you do after you do the rest and this approach doesn't work. However, while my frustration over accessibility is a major factor in taking my sites to a different platform, it's not the only factor - just the last straw.

For people wanting a blogging platform, WordPress is the best around. I'll still be recommending it for people whose needs it suits. For my sites though, WordPress had become a platform that was having to be so highly customised to meet my needs that I was running my own svn and effectively writing a fork. This was in continual development to keep pace with changes in WordPress itself and once I realised how much time this was taking up it made sense to look for a better way.

What have you decided to switch to as my curiosity has gotten the best of me?

Although my personal sites don't generate income, I bit the bullet and paid for ExpressionEngine. It's by no means a "drop in and go" CMS but it's ideal for me.

[inkrunner]

Be objective. Point in what accessibility issues WordPress falls short, and how did they changed for worse. Don't state something without supporting it with proper arguments.

[WraithKenny]

In case you where wondering, inkrunner, I assume this is where she is talking about being ignored. http://core.trac.wordpress.org/query...osed&cc=~Elpie

My 2 cents is that her Trac and forum activity are as active, or less active, then my own involvement. Don't know how much she investing in IRC support or anything. I figured early that more activity equals more weight to tickets and patch responses.

Anyway, there's an awefull lot of contributors and an almost insurmountable number of tickets in Trac. Things do fall off the table. It's not personal. Asking for general support, support of someone more known in the community, or participation in better venues like Make UI could help get patches through.

[inkrunner]

thanks WraithKenny, however I still find so weak the argument of leaving WP. Btw... Proudly powered by WordPress, as well :)

[Elpie]

Be objective. Point in what accessibility issues WordPress falls short, and how did they changed for worse. Don't state something without supporting it with proper arguments.

If you have to ask that question then clearly accessibility isn't an issue for you. Prior to 2.7, I didn't have to make many changes in order to satisfy client's needs for accessibility. With increasing use of JavaScript/AJAX more work had to be done. Each admin UI change since 2.9 has led to even more work. The biggest change since <2.7 is that creating an accessible backend has required core hacks. Prior to that I could do most of what was needed just by building a new backend theme.

Accessibility on the front end is largely up to the theme. There are some aspects that require core hacks for front end accessibility but, with a good theme, these are minor.

I've contributed to discussions about accessibility and was responsible for getting a mailing list set up to encourage accessibility professionals to work together on making WordPress ATAG and WCAG compliant. This list didn't gain much traction, was not promoted anywhere, and participation wasn't encouraged. People whose skills in this field have routinely been chased out of contributing and a lot of excellent talent has been lost along the way. I contributed to trac tickets and discussions in the UI working group over issues in 3.2 too. Some of my suggestions made it into the final release.

But, at the end of the day, it was no longer meeting my needs. If you had to run file compares and hack the core on every release to factor in accessibility you might feel the same. This isn't an attack on WordPress and I don't expect to be attacked in return. We should all use the best tool for the job. If you want a great blogging platform and accessibility isn't a major issue for yourself or your clients then WordPress is the best tool around.

[jwack]

You keep saying accessibility issues but have failed to provide more specific examples of what you mean, even after being asked... "Point in what accessibility issues WordPress falls short, and how did they changed for worse. Don't state something without supporting it with proper arguments."

I was interested in your point of view until you failed to make one.

[chipbennett]

You keep saying accessibility issues but have failed to provide more specific examples of what you mean, even after being asked... "Point in what accessibility issues WordPress falls short, and how did they changed for worse. Don't state something without supporting it with proper arguments."

I was interested in your point of view until you failed to make one.

I'm going to trust Elpie on this one. Her point here wasn't to re-hash existing/previous discussions about accessibility issues, but rather simply to offer a "goodbye" message to the WPTavern community of which she has been a contributing member for quite some time.

[Elpie]

You keep saying accessibility issues but have failed to provide more specific examples of what you mean, even after being asked... "Point in what accessibility issues WordPress falls short, and how did they changed for worse. Don't state something without supporting it with proper arguments."

I was interested in your point of view until you failed to make one.

• Specific examples: Thoughts on WordPress 3.2 UI Refresh
  This was all given to the core devs and some of the issues were fixed in the final release of 3.2. Some weren't.
• Labels being used where they shouldn't be. Labels not present when they should be (eg. with widgets and default theme).
• Titles being used inappropriately, eg. on links and images, and in the visual editor editing mode.
• comment_reply_link breaching WCAG (a patch for this has been approved but not yet included. It's only been sitting around for 5 months: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16433).
• Move to HTML5 plus WAI-ARIA roles, when HTML5 is still in flux and is not supported by any assistive devices. Screen readers are not likely to recognise HTML5 any time soon so this is a significant barrier. (As soon as the backend goes HTML5 + roles, expect to see more people having to find an alternative platform).
• Poor document outline. Some work was done on fixing this in twentyeleven (http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17611) but the backend is horrendous.
• Modal window/overlays cover editing areas, keeping the focus hidden behind the overlay and making the editing area inaccessible. Backend menu system inaccessible - this is an issue the core team knew about before implementing it, see: http://lists.automattic.com/pipermai...ry/000009.html Although there have been changes to the menu it is still inaccessible.
• None of the backend is accessible if JavaScript is off. Even with it on, keyboard navigation is not possible due to poor structure/layout and incorrect use of tabindex. Focus is screwed up (try it for yourself - install a default 3.2.1 and try to get around using just your tab key). Click to toggle gives no clues about what happens if its accidentally clicked. Keyboard navigators can't get to it even if they want to toggle. Accidental menu reordering can happen with no notice, as can suddenly arriving on the frontend of your site. In each of these cases, there is no screen reader around that can understand what has happened or where you are on the page.
• Ultimately, WordPress is getting more broken than it was and efforts to get accessibility issues fixed have come to little.The greatest barrier to making WordPress accessible is with attitudes. I think Jane made it clear two years ago, when this came up (http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/2009/05...accessibility/) that the team consider code development, UI, and accessibility to be separate issues. For those of us who work with accessibility all the time, accessibility is a part of UX and must be considered as part of any UI development. This is not happening with WordPress and I can't see any sea change happening anytime soon.

I really don't need to go into every issue to satisfy you that I've found WordPress is no longer meeting my needs do I? There's upwards of 10 pages of issues & these are just some. I've put thousands of hours in and given back where I could. I posted here so people I know will understand why I am not going to be around, either here, in wp-hackers, or WordPress stackexchange. As I said, I am still supporting some WordPress installs and intend to continue doing so. Just not as much as I was.