| CARVIEW |
- Notes feature in WordPress 6.9
- WordPress Importer can now migrate URLs in your content
- Planning for 7.0
- Holiday updates
Updates from the working group
- Documentation
- General
- Gutenberg
- Themes
Open floor
If you want to have a topic added to the agenda, please mention it in the comments of this post.
The Accessibility Team bug scrub is every Tuesday at 16:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make WordPress Slack (registration required).
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Important Announcement
- WordPress 6.9 “Gene” is here!
- State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by Community
- Updating Accessibility Contributor Badge Criteria
- There has been a rise in one-off contributors requesting badges, increasing workload for reviewers. The team discussed creating more scalable and meaningful badge criteria. Proposed updates include:
- Requiring around 5 minor contributions (such as testing, documentation clarifications)
OR - 2 major contributions (significant patches, substantial documentation updates)
- Requiring around 5 minor contributions (such as testing, documentation clarifications)
- There has been a rise in one-off contributors requesting badges, increasing workload for reviewers. The team discussed creating more scalable and meaningful badge criteria. Proposed updates include:
- WordPress 7.0 Admin Redesign – “Coat of Paint”
- The team discussed the ongoing work toward visually reskinning the WP Admin for 7.0.
- Key points:
- Changes are mainly CSS and UI refresh, not functional overhauls.
- The color palette will shift to the Gutenberg palette.
- This will require heavy accessibility testing, especially around color contrast, design consistency, and any missed regressions due to wide UI updates
- Checkout Trac ticket for more details.
Updates from working groups
@rianrietveld had already shared an update about the docs team beforehand.
- wpaccessibility.org has a new design and improved search.
- Feedback from WordCamp Netherlands highlighted the need for “why accessibility matters” resources.
- Multiple documentation pages have been added or updated recently.
The 7.0 milestone is taking shape, following the release of WordPress 6.9. @joedolson had share the post about accessibility improvements in 6.9
Some major new features like the Tabs block have landed and will require accessibility review.
@joedolson shared that the work is progress on updating theme review guidelines for accessibility. This is expected to be a major documentation focus in December.
NOTE: If you’d like to have a topic added to the agenda for our next meeting, please mention it in the comments on an upcoming agenda.
- WordPress 6.9 “Gene” is here!
- State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by Community
- Review and update guidelines for earning the Accessibility Contributor badge
- WordPress 7.0 Admin Redesign Planning
Updates from the working group
- Documentation
- General
- Gutenberg
- Themes
Open floor
If you want to have a topic added to the agenda, please mention it in the comments of this post.
The Accessibility Team bug scrub is every Tuesday at 15:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make WordPress Slack (registration required).
]]>- new design and a better search option wpaccessibility.org;
- contributors feedback on WordCamp Netherlands;
- new and updated documentation;
- accessibility audit on the website.
New design and a better search option wpaccessibility.org
Jeffrey Lauwers from Vals Plat created a beautiful new design for wpaccessibility.org. He aimed to ensure optimal readability combined with a style that aligns with WordPress. Read his rationale about the new design.
He created also a Wapuu for the project.
Meet the WPA11yPuu!
@joedolson improved the search: there is an actual search result page now, instead of only a autocomplete dropdown. Rian implemented the design just before WordCamp Netherlands.
Contributors feedback on WordCamp Netherlands
At WCNL Rian gave a presentation about the project and there were two contributor sessions. The main takeaway was that we also need a more prominent section about why we need accessibility. To have documentation to share with clients, team members or, for example, stackholders that do not see the point.
New and updated documentation
- Start with accessibility – Debunking myths:
- Standards and best practice – Web forms – Group form fields:
- Standards and best practice – Web forms – Required fields:
Accessibility audit on the website
In the first week of December, Florian Schroiff (@floll) from Level Level will perform a WCAG-EM accessibility audit on the website, including the new design and the updated search option. We will fix what he found in December, because we want to practice what we preach.
Plans for December 2025
- Continue to write the documentation.
- Make sure wpaccessibility.org is WCAG 2.2 AA accessible.
Biweekly Team Meeting Time Update
The bi-weekly chat meeting time has changed to alternate Thursdays at 15:00 UTC, and the meeting calendar is also updated.
- WordPress 6.9 RC1 is released.
- Template management is no longer part of 6.9 release cycle and has been punted to 7.0
The release leads have also updated the docs accordingly. - Get ready for 6.9 RC2
Updates from working groups
@joedolson shared a documentation update on behalf of @rianrietveld:
- wpaccessibility.org now has a proper search function.
- Several documentation updates about webforms are under review and expected to be published soon.
- The new “Debunking accessibility myths” page is available here: https://wpaccessibility.org/docs/start/myths/overlays/
- Rian is also working on implementing the new design, after which the WCAG EM-audit can begin.
A key reminder: contributors should contact @rianrietveld before starting work on any documentation section, and should not submit PRs for issues that already have an assigned owner.
@joedolson also noted ongoing problems with PRs containing AI-written documentation, which currently does not meet quality standards.
On the topic of the accessibility profile badge, @joedolson suggested that contributors working on accessibility documentation should be eligible.
- Nasim Miah agreed, noting it encourages consistent, quality contributions.
- Both agreed badge criteria may need clearer standards, aligned with other teams.
- Increased Profile Associations requests were noted; Nasim Miah also observed this trend.
- @joedolson said smaller contributions are still considered, but must meet reasonable quality.
@joedolson reported that with the release of 6.9 RC1, work is now shifting toward preparing for 7.0. This week’s bug scrub focused on new tickets on Trac that were awaiting review, and most of those have been milestoned for the 7.0 release.
Next week, the focus will shift to older tickets, prioritizing ones that need attention.
In this release, 33 accessibility issues were resolved on Trac and 43 issues were resolved on GitHub.
@joedolson shared that all new Gutenberg features should continue to be tested during the Release Candidate phase, and accessibility bugs should be resolved before release.
Features that didn’t make it into 6.9 — such as Tabs Block, Icons Block, and Template Management are likely candidates for 7.0.
He also noted that major items requiring attention are listed in the Release Progress document:
https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/current-release-progress/
Next Meeting Schedule
@joedolson noted that the next meeting is currently set for November 27th, which falls during the US Thanksgiving holiday, meaning many contributors will be unable to attend. He proposed skipping the meeting or shifting it by a week.
Nasim Miah agreed, saying it makes sense to skip the November 27th meeting and resume on December 4th instead.
@joedolson confirmed he will update the calendar and ensure the change is clearly noted in the meeting minutes.
NOTE: If you’d like to have a topic added to the agenda for our next meeting, please mention it in the comments on an upcoming agenda.
Thank you, @joedolson for the pre-publish review.
]]>- WordPress 6.9 RC1 is released.
- Template management is no longer part of 6.9 release cycle and has been punted to 7.0
The release leads have also updated the docs accordingly. - Get ready for 6.9 RC2
Updates from the working group
- Documentation
- General
- Gutenberg
- Themes
Open floor
If you want to have a topic added to the agenda, please mention it in the comments of this post.
The Accessibility Team bug scrub is every Tuesday at 15:00 UTC, held in the #accessibility channel on the Make WordPress Slack (registration required).
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