Accessibility Statement is not in footer

[elblakeo31]

I expected to find the WordPress accessibility statement (​https://wordpress.org/about/accessibility/) in the wordpress.org footer but didn't. Many organizations that take accessibility seriously choose to display their accessibility statement in a place that is easy to find, usually the footer. Moreover, I've noticed in user tests those who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, often look for an accessibility statement in a footer to understand a site's accessibility program before they start browsing content.

Beyond meeting users' expectations and establishing Accessibility as a WordPress priority, linking to the WP accessibility statement in the footer keeps WP.org in line with best practices and rules established by the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Check out the "Where to put an accessibility statement" section of Developing an Accessibility Statement: ​https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/.

In researching tickets, an accessibility statement was mentioned as part of #3975. That ticket generally referred to footer/header links, while this ticket is only concerned with adding an accessibility statement link.

As for placement, I would suggest adding "Accessibility Statement" between "Matt" and "Privacy". Putting "Accessibility Statement" before "Privacy" follows the link order that is in the About page navigation.

[joedolson]

I agree that an accessibility policy statement should live at the same level of importance as the privacy statement; although I'll also observe that the the page at ​https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/ is different from the the accessibility statement; ​https://wordpress.org/about/accessibility/

​https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/ is the privacy statement for WordPress.org, reflecting the privacy somebody can expect while browsing and using the network of WordPress.org websites.

​https://wordpress.org/about/accessibility/ is about the accessibility goals of the WordPress project, and is about the WordPress CMS.

For clarity, I think what we'd actually need is a statement about the accessibility of the site. Perhaps we could combine those into a single document, as long as we're clear about which sections refer to the software vs the site.

[alh0319]

I agree with @joedolson that there's a separate accessibility statement needed for the website versus the software. Is there actually anyone who has knowledge of the current accessibility status of wordpress.org?

I've seen a fair bit of content published that looked like it was published without regard to accessibility or without an accessibility audit prior to publishing. That leads me to believe that before we can draft an honest accessibility statement about the website, we would need to get the Meta team to agree on what the accessibility policy is. I.e.:

• What standard are they following (if any), and what testing are they committing to doing while editing/adding content?
• What issues already exist on the site, and what is being done to address them on what timeline? (We may need an audit to answer the first part.)
• If someone encounters an accessibility issue on the site, how can they report that issue and get help?

We need answers to those questions before we can even draft an accessibility statement for the website.

[joedolson]

Drupal handles this in an interesting way; they just have a very brief section about Drupal.org community sites, and point users to submit issues if they encounter accessibility problems. This could be a short-term solution, given that a complete audit of the WordPress.org network is simply not feasible in the short term.

See ​https://www.drupal.org/about/features/accessibility, under "Community Sites".