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WordPress should deprecate themes — a modest proposal by Mike Schinkel
Personally, I have never found a theme that is 100% useable without some significant HTML+CSS customization and/or PHP/MySQL/Javascript customization. And even the best themes use approaches that result in sites that require a huge amount of time to maintain the content because the themer made easy coding choices rather than build functionality to allow managing content with less effort. Examples include using categories to group content where a custom taxonomy would be better, and a custom post would be best.

WordPress themes as they currently stand should absolutely be done away with, even though the concept of separating presentation from content is an excellent foundation.

Sepearating content from presentation might have been the original purpose of themes, but that definitely hasn’t proved to be the case in practice.

Put more succinctly, the law of unintended consequences strikes again.

As a general rule, I find that themes, (and I’m not including every theme developer or designer here, just lots of them), promise way more than they can ever deliver.

I can’t count the number of sites I’ve worked on over the years in which management of expectations with regard to what a client can do with a theme and what they can’t has played a significant role.

Add to this the complexities of customizing a theme so that it becomes accessible, (something required especially when there’s a lawsuit or demand letter or even just a desire to make the site accessible involved), and you have a recipe for more headache for the developer and the client than there should be.

There’s a reason I won’t touch anything from Theme Forest, which is admittedly the most extreme case but far from the only concentration of trashfire from a code standpoint that’s out there.

And I don’t see any of this changing until one of the least-modernized parts of WordPress, (the theme infrastructure) is gone.

If Gutenberg helps us get there, I’m all for it, even though I still think Matt should spend about three days without his mouse and monitor stuck with a screen reader and Gutenberg.

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Assistive technology testing on any site is important. I know that.

But effectively being demoted from someone who contributes content to a site to someone who simply tests the final product with assistive tech because Gutenberg required when Gutenberg is part of the project I’ve invested years in and accessibility is an afterthought for the top dog of said project is a thing I am never going to get used to.

I’ll get over this particular instance and steal myself for the next one but if I ever get the opportunity it’s no-mouse plus no-monitor plus screen reader plus Gutenberg challenge for said top dog.

For the entire next possible WordCamp US.

This is crap and while yeah we should all be professional bla bla bla this is personal and I’m not apologizing for it or even here for putting a positive spin on this.

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These days I don’t usually drink coffee past noon, but I’m going to make an exception for today because it’s cold outside.

Plus, the embargo has finally been lifted on my favorite peppermint mocha creamer and I haven’t had any of that today.

Right now I’m incredibly thankful for the radiator heat, and at the same time I think I totally get why people up here will open all the windows once it reaches 50. Compared to today, 50/55 was absolutely balmy yesterday.

We got our first flurries last Thursday and we’re supposed to get more today. That counts as the first technical snow if not the first impactful one.

And yeah, I can’t wait for the first one that sticks because there will be pictures of snowmen this year. I haven’t made a snowman since I was a kid and I’m really looking forward to it.

162 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

Cloudy

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Current status: Hangry.

Really, really hangry.

We are having tacos, and they will be in my belly, but I’m thinking I might end up literally inhaling them because I am that hangry.

We started a new book, and this is book 149 of 150 in my challenge. After this one I’m not going to up the challenge any more this year so we can read slower or read less, mostly so we can read slower though.

I’ll talk more about books when I’m no longer hangry.

921 S Pugh St, State College, PA 16801

46 °F Clear

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I agree with a lot of the posts I’m seeing from the Unfiltered Blind Tweets twitter account.

That said, I can’t get behind a single individual claiming to represent the views of every blind person.

It’s no different than the NFB claiming to be the voice of the nations blind, or anti-NFB people claiming to represent the views of blind people in opposition to the NFB.

And you’d never see this on Jewish Twitter, for example.

Any single individual claiming to post unfiltered Jewish tweets would be ratioed with a quickness because we’re all comfortable with the fact that there are a range of opinions and views on just about every issue, and we have a serious problem when someone else, (especially someone outside the community), attempts to speak for us or divide the community into good and bad Jews based on expressed opinions or actions of particular Jews.

See, for example, the frequent “What about Israel!” replies from the left any time a high-profile Jew expresses an opinion about any political subject, or Donald Trump’s label of “very disloyal” for Jews who don’t vote for him, which happens to be most of us.

We should be careful about who we allow to represent us, and the best representative we can have is ourselves, not someone whose primary goal is to acquire clicks, whether that’s the NFB, anti-NFB, or someone who’s using their voice to talk about what may be controversial topics they view as important.

117 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

32 °F Mostly Cloudy

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We had salisbury steak with noodles and green beans for dinner, and, wow.

Those were the thickest slices of salisbury steak I’ve ever eaten

It never occurred to me that someone would make it from scratch. I mean, obviously it’s possible, because you can homemake anything, but the only salisbury steak I’ve eaten before this came from a box, since I was a kid.

So yeah, I wasn’t expecting super-thick slices with homemade gravy.

And it’s not even that I don’t like salisbury steak from a box. It’s good enough over some rice or potatoes. But I’m going to have to get a recipe for that because it would be great for sandwitches with onion.

117 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

36 °F Cloudy

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OK, very late MicroMonday recommendation, but my friend Monica Plumlipstick has joined Micro.blog and she likes cooking and books and all sorts of fun things so give here a followo if you like meeting new people.

She’s made all the posts I’ve been putting out on Facebook regarding Micro.blog worth it.

Welcome Monica!

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A note by John Carson on #WordPress, #a11y, Gutenberg and the TwentyTwenty theme by John CarsonJohn Carson
Being a screen reader user, I find it very disturbing that more attention has not been given to accessibility #a11y. Just a thought; it would have been much easier and simpler to design and develop for accessibility before starting to code this project. It will be much more difficult to implement accessibility after the fact. Who made the decision to move forward with a project this large without accessibility from the ground up? In my opinion this is the most ridiculously moronic decision I’ve ever encountered!

I met John when I started working for Freedom Scientific.

He had already been with the company a long time, (ever since the days when it was Henter-Joyce and when Jaws 3.0 was new).

He taught me everything I know about screen reader internals, has likely forgotten more about screen readers and assistive technology in general than I’ve ever learned, and did a ton of the scripting work that still makes Jaws for Windows work with websites.

He retired in 2017, and started working with WordPress in 2019. So he can’t be targeted with the “just afraid of change” argument.

I’ve watched him test the TwentyTwenty theme with three different browser/screen reader combos, read through every line of the CSS, and I’ll watch him read through every line of the functions file and other associated templates.

And he was developing with Javascript before there were frameworks.

I’m not saying any of this because we’re friends or otherwise, I’m saying this because he’s earned the right to be listened to.

And yes, his post is pretty damning because this stuff should not still be happening on a project whose leardership continues to claim that WordPress is for everyone despite specifically refusing to put policies in place (accessibility) which are part and parcel of every successful accessibility effort.

Matt, I get it. Gutenberg has been a goal of yours since at least the final WordCamp San Francisco. I get that you and the rest of the Gutenberg team have worked very hard on it, and that you really are trying to move the web forward.

I also get that you’re probably tired of every accessibility advocate, in and outside this community, giving you crap about this stuff. Hearing that you’re not doing a good job, however politely, is not pleasant. It’s not even pleasant when it’s polite, especially in the Gutenberg case, because everybody’s essentially calling your baby ugly.

I can’t speak for anyone else who’s advocated for accessibility in this space, because I’m not them.

Speaking for myself though, I’d genuinely like to quit criticizing you over this, and I’m saying that as someone who has been and will continue to be one of your harshest critics for as long as it takes. No, I’m not forking WordPress and I’m not walking away.

Seriously, quit being so bullish about this. I have no idea why you are as opposed as you are to even the prospect of an enforcible, project-wide accessibility policy, and enforcing same, but setting policy goals regarding accessibility for a project this size, (or really any project), is required for any accessibility changes to be lasting and successful.

An accessibility policy is how you ensure that you don’t keep repeating the same mistakes.

Technical accessibility is the beginning, not the end of accessibility efforts. And if you really want to move the web forward while safeguarding its openness and independence, please do not carry on one of the worst aspects of the free software movement, the one that leaves whether or not people with disabilities are included as part of the “everyone” you champion up to developer and designer and founder choice.

We’re still fighting discrimination in the workplace, and we’re still fighting for equal access when it comes to the technology we use to do our jobs. But the beauty of WordPress and its community is that we can create opportunities for ourselves.“People of WordPress: Amanda Rush” published at WordPress.org

In order for everyone, including people with disabilities, to be able to create opportunities for ourselves, WordPress the project has to make accessibility a priority. The way that happens is through leadership making accessibility a project-wide goal instead of just something individuals work for and fight for.

Last time this became an issue, Web Accessibility Deathmatch happened. If we’re going to keep it positive, and prevent that from happening again, then things have to change and that change has to be led from the top down, since this is a project with a benevolent dictator.

Matt, please rethink your public stance regarding a project-wide accessibility policy.

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Current status: Banging on the Twentytwenty theme with all the screen readers and helping @whiskeydragon1 set up his .org account because he’s also testing. #ScreenReaderTagTeam #AllTheProps #5FTF and we haz some patches coming.

It’s very nice to have someone in real time and not remote or chat-based to bounce ideas off of.

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It’s cold up here, and the cold happened a lot earlier in the year than I’m used to, so I think it’s time to start listening to the Harry Potter film scores while I work.

I could do this in the summer but it’s just not the same.

Luckily there’s already a playlist for this, so I can just hit play and let it go.

I don’t shuffle them, I just let them play all the way through in order.

Best way to listen to film scores.

Other favorites: Star Wars, (originals, not remasters), Labyrinth, (original, not remake), Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, (all of them, in order of Hobbit movies and then Lord of the Rings movies).

I should put together a list of all the film scores I like and stick them on a page.

162 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

41 °F Clear

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http://www.customerservant.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-11-03-15.23.15-1.jpg

Amanda wearing a blue knit cap

I’m spending Contributor day working on some accessibility fixes to the Indieweb Publisher theme, which I will submit as a pull request when done because I need some easy wins if the WordPress accessibility fight is going to continue.

I’m also celebrating Blue Beanie Day early because every day is a good day for web standards.

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#WCUS I’m glad that @RianKinney asked that question regarding accessibility and other policies.

It would be so cool if we could treat #a11y as an “everything-is-awesome” moment and not as a must-do.

Problem with that approach was aptly illustrated by Gutenberg being released in an inaccessible state.

I’d like to say I’m surprised we’re apparently still doing this despite $31,000 worth of audit, but I’m not.

Yes, it would be totally awesome if we didn’t have to say “you must” with regard to accessibility, but unfortunately the makers of the web have consistently demonstrated that that is literally the only way anything gets done.

For the first few years of my career as an accessibility practitioner, I worked on a series of projects whose final reports heavily focused on only the positive, including asking testers with disabilities to talk about what they liked, even on seriously inaccessible sites.

That approach wasn’t just partially ineffective, it was one hundred percent ineffective.

Absolutely none of the sites reported on were fixed, or even improved.

Those sites are still broken.

That’s what happens when you spend your time objecting to accessibility must-dos because they’re must-dos instead of realizing that, yes Matt, there really are things that developers and designers have consistently demonstrated they will not do unless you basically force them to do those things.

All of this also goes for privacy and codes of conduct.

Why do we have to keep saying this?

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#WCUS #sOTW @photomatt didn’t mention this, but as of WordPress 5.2 the widgets screen got a metric ton of #a11y improvements, which means I get to update the WordPress with a Screen Reader widgets tutorial and you get to use the same widgets screen as everyone else, including when plugin developers explicitly disable widgeet accessibility mode.

Huge hugs and shoutout to everyone who worked on that.

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In short, WordPress.com would need to support at least two of the Indieweb building blocks: Webmention and full Microformats 2. See all the building blocks at the first link.

In order for WordPress.com to be a turnkey solution, it’ll need to support these things out of the box, and make it as simple as checking some boxes, or better yet, turn them all on for everybody by stealth.

part of this involves themes, and for the time being users either have to install a plugin like MF2 from the WordPress repository which will try to programmatically add Microformats 2 to a theme, or choose a theme that has full Microformats 2 support already baked in, or manually add them to a theme themselves.

I’m not saying WordPress.com couldn’t do this, (I’d love it if they did, and if they became a turnkey solution for people who want to join the Indieweb), but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

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#WCUS Question: Do you find it easier to read websites/pages that are multicolumn or single-column?

It doesn’t matter to me as a screen reader user, because everything is always a single column, but I’m thinking that if a page is one column, never-ending scrolling can become an issue.

On the other hand, there could be a reason that multiple columns could also be an issue for people who use their vision to read.

Thoughts?

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Everybody’s new #WCUS selfies and headshots were making me jealous and agrevating the fomo, so I decided to bite the bullet and put some work into customerservant.com

I’m just focusing on a few simple things today because, well, I need some easy wins.

Right now it’s just a picture and some text on the website, cleaning up things that aren’t being used, and then later on after the State of the Word, some things I need to have my host handle.

I’ll do some more complicated work tomorrow during the contributor day.

But, starting is much better than planning and not doing, so I’m taking the easy wins for now.

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OK, this book and Hummus. First, if your hummus tastes like baby shit, then it’s really bad hummus. Second, if your tahini isn’t spicy, it’s not tahini. You mix the tahini with the hummus and then you dip your meat or pita bread or veggies (cucumbers or tomatoes or artichokes work best but zuccini is workable) in the mix. People who eat hummus eat meat all the time, you dip lamb in hummus if you don’t like mint jelly. This author usually does good research and it could be that this character is meant to be an ignoramus, but yeah hummus plus tahini plus meat is absolutely a thing, and you can do it with lamb or steak or chicken or goat. Trying to decide if this will effect the rating I give this book.

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True love is your boyfriend buying a case of a local brew he thinks you’ll like, and recommending you drink some of it and call your best friends after you’ve had a bad day.

I’ll post about the beer later, but mad elf is fucking right. That’s also one of the best craft beers I’ve tasted, and it’s got something like two times the alcohol as store-bought beers, so yeah I ended up definitely drunk last night, and I have zero regrets. Will definitely do again.