WordPress Steps Back on Gutenberg

The WordPress Accessibility Team has recently published a report addressing the level of accessibility on Gutenberg. Comprised primarily of unpaid volunteers, the team worked together to produce the detailed assessment, which publicly recognizes the challenges that Gutenberg faces. The report is being called an transparent, honest assessment of Gutenberg’s readiness.

Accessibility of Gutenberg is a Hindrance

After a week of testing the most current version of the plugin, the Accessibility Team determined that they cannot recommend Gutenberg to be used by those who rely upon assistive technology.

The Accessibility Team, just like any other WordPress team, has no designated authority over the Gutenberg project. The Team made the following statement on the WordPress blog:

“Because we’re a small team of volunteers, we’ve been pragmatic in how we apply the guidelines. We have made tradeoffs in prioritization. Gutenberg is a place where we feel it is necessary to draw a line. The ability to author, edit, and publish posts is the primary purpose of WordPress.”

As the representative for the Accessibility Team, Joe Dolson cited “cognitive load and complexity, inconsistent user interface behavior, heavy reliance on keyboard shortcuts, and difficulties with keyboard navigation through blocks”, as chief concerns about Gutenberg.

In addition, he cited a specific example of a keyboard sequence necessary to make a simple font size change in a paragraph block. It takes a staggering 34 separate keyboard stops, and more if the user has no prior knowledge of navigating Gutenberg.

Is the Complexity of Interface Worth the Advanced Features?

Dolson also mentioned that the complexity of interacting with Gutenberg is even greater than the classic editor. Gutenberg may have features that the classic editor does not, but apparently that doesn’t make up for the complexity.

This assessment shouldn’t surprise anyone in the development community. Many reviews of the current version have been critical with the star ratings close to 2.3 out of 5 stars. Users have complained that the interface is “far too heavily reliant on hover based functionality.” Others have noted that it is confusing, unintuitive, and difficult to navigate through content. Some have complained that it is “impossible” to accomplish anything. Harsh words.

The positive reviews speak of the plugin as a work-in-progress and hope for a brighter future for versions to come. They are generally excited about the advanced features, but also express WordPress to allow it more time to develop and fix issues prior to making it the default editor.
The Accessibility Team is also certain that the primary accessibility problems in Gutenberg come fro design issues.

“Gutenberg is the way of the future in WordPress, but the direction it has taken so far has been worrying,” Dolson said. “We do not want to miss the opportunity to build a modern and inclusive application for WordPress, but in order to achieve that goal, accessibility needs to incorporated in all design processes in the project.”

Dolson also notes that the issues are resolvable, although retrofitting accessibility is an costly process that takes time, resources, and money.

In another recent post, Gary Pendergast, who leads the merge of Gutenberg into the core, agreed that the Accessibility Team should have been involved at a much earlier stage in the process.

“The Accessibility team should’ve been consulted more closely, much earlier in the process, and that’s a mistake I expect to see rectified as the Gutenberg project moves into its next phase after WordPress 5.0,” Pendergast said. “While Gutenberg has always aimed to prioritize accessibility, both providing tools to make the block editor more accessible, as well as encouraging authors to publish accessible content, there are still areas where we can improve.”

Gutenberg’s Ultimate Fate – Release

So far, no one has made an official response to the report released by the Accessibility Team. It is too late for it to have an effect on the release date. In fact, contributors still seem to agree with the timeline for its release.