Labeling comment field (for accessibility)

  • One of my commenters on my new website today said:

    >>Testing the comment system using Voiceover. Not sure I’m typing in the right place. The comment field isn’t labeled.<<

    I’m not sure what Voiceover is, but I’m guessing it’s a screen reader since my commenter is blind.

    My website is sharonwachsler.com and it uses Weaver Pro. Can someone tell me how I label the comment field so it’s clear and navigable to blind readers?

    Thank you!

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

  • I’m not sure there’s anything you can directly do to fix that comment form – it’s being supplied via the JetPack plug-in.

    The default WordPress comment form is quite accessible; if you convert back to using the default form, you should be fine. I don’t know, however, whether Weaver customizes that form — so it’s no guarantee.

    Voiceover is the screen reader that is built into Mac OS X.

    I think that this needs to be posted in https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/jetpack as a bug.

    @sharon: Would you like to do that as you’re the one that’s brought this to light? If you do, please also tag the post with “accessibility” again, so we can keep an eye on it and possibly weigh in with some comments or ideas.

    I’ve just asked for the comment form on your site to be tested in JAWS & NVDA and both of these screen readers have the same problems. So this is definitely something that needs to be fixed in Jetpack asap.

    @after Gadget: Can you confirm what version of Jetpack you are using?

    Thread Starter After Gadget

    (@after-gadget)

    @esmi
    I’m using version 2.2.4 although I see that there is now an update to 2.2.5, but I haven’t installed that yet.

    I’m not promising that the latest version will be any better but I would advise you to upgrade asap. In the meantime, Joe has posted a bug ticket for the attention of the plugin’s development team and we’ll both be trying to help to get to the the root the problem over the next few weeks.

    Thread Starter After Gadget

    (@after-gadget)

    OK, I just updated.

    Thank you, esmi and Joe, for working on this. My understanding is that I don’t need to post about this on the Jetpack plugin forum now because Joe’s already done that. Is that right?

    Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic ??

    Thank you all! Here is the Trac ticket, for reference: #1710

    We’ll have a look at it, and I’ll post again here once the problem is fixed.

    Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic ??

    We’ve now fixed this issue. The comment form should be more usable now!

    We’ve now fixed this issue. The comment form should be more usable now!

    I just finished emailing you about this, Jeremy, but in any case I just tested with JAWS 14 and VoiceOver and can confirm that things are working properly.

    Thank you!

    That’s excellent news! ??

    Thread Starter After Gadget

    (@after-gadget)

    Thank you!

    Is there something I need to do on my site, an update or something, to make this change happen on my site, or is that already done?

    Nope, you don’t need to do anything, Sharon.

    Thread Starter After Gadget

    (@after-gadget)

    Thank you all so much! It feels really good to ask for help with a problem and have it be paid attention to right away and then fixed. I’m really impressed with the way you guys work. It feels like a really supportive atmosphere to me.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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