[Meta] Improving accessibility of GitLab

Currently GitLab is not as accessible as it should be.

Issues

• Tab order in header/navigation https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/21383
• Make sure all buttons that don't have text have aria-labels https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/23913
• Improve focus state on all tabbable items (related to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/21287)
• Create shortcut from nav to jump directly to content https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/24057
• Link color contrast https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/17492
• Improve content line-length for readability https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/13680
• Make sure all images have alt tags https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/23914
• Improve the Accessibility section of the Frontend Development Docs #23969 (moved)

For 8.14

• Improve content line-length for readability https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/20916
• Link color contrast https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/17492
• Improve focus state on all tabbable items
• Create shortcut from nav to jump directly to content

Useful links

• https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/
• https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-section-508-standards/section-508-standards
• https://pages.18f.gov/accessibility/index.html
• https://medium.com/@addyosmani/accessible-ui-components-for-the-web-39e727101a67#.dkhh8oxxf
• http://terrillthompson.com/blog/229

Helpful tools

• Accessibility Developer Tools chrome extension

Added ~262162 label

Added meta label

Changed title: Making GitLab Completely Accessibility → Improving accessibility of GitLab

One thing GitHub does I think we should add is this:

Essentially, if you load up GitHub.com and press tab before interacting with any other element on the page you'll get a "Skip to content" button which allows you to skip all the navigation bar elements. This is great for use with screen readers.

Several years ago when I was working with Capella University, they had a policy of manually testing out their interfaces using screen readers to ensure everything was accessible. I can't recall which software they used.

Is there any sort of accessibility testing policy in place or standard screen reading software we intend to target?

@mikegreiling I remember @connorshea showing me ChromeLens (for chrome) for some bits and bobs. With only 7 ratings and 3 features its probably not the best tool available but is a start and comes with a little scanner.

In case anyone could use an overview of what accessibility looks like in practice (I did), the accessibility standards (scroll down to subpart B) for software created by federal agencies gives a somewhat specific list of accessibility topics. It has nowhere near the level of technical detail as the w3.org doc mentioned above, but I found it helpful anyway.

mentioned in issue #21383 (moved)

18F has a really good guide on Accessibility best practices, in general their guides are great :)

mentioned in merge request !4576 (closed)

Hi, I created #17484 (moved) with some problems and possible solutions. In addition, someone has requested some kind of testing tool. I know of tenon.io (which maybe doesn't count, since it's apparently not free now) and AXe. Regarding actual screen readers, you could test with Orca on Linux (it comes builtin in some systems, prefferably with Firefox), VoiceOver on Mac (builtin, launch with Command + F5, I cannot recommend a prefferable browser) and on Windows NVDA (freely downloadable, test with Firefox). If you need testing by actual users, I can test with Windows and maybe with Linux too, although I'm not as confident with that system. Oh, and another odd issue: if I press enter on this form field I am redirected to "Merge requests".

Milestone changed to %8.13

@annabeldunstone will you turn this into a huge meta issue. Put together all the things that we would like to do in the future. Then figure out a few that we can tackle in the next release.

Milestone changed to %8.14

Reassigned to @annabeldunstone

Changed title: Improving accessibility of GitLab → [Meta] Improving accessibility of GitLab

Mentioned in issue #23913 (moved)

Mentioned in issue #23914 (moved)

Just wanted to note we were called out explicitly for poor accessibility in: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12819482

Mentioned in issue #23969 (moved)

Mentioned in issue #23915 (closed)

Mentioned in issue #24057 (closed)

Marked the task Link color contrast https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/17492 as completed

Marked the task Improve focus state on all tabbable items (related to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/21287) as completed

Milestone changed to %8.15

changed milestone to %Backlog

removed milestone

Removing the milestone for this meta issue. We should assign the individual issues to milestones as necessary.

mentioned in issue #24521 (closed)

marked the task Create shortcut from nav to jump directly to content https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/24057 as completed

marked the task Improve content line-length for readability https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/13680 as completed

mentioned in issue #26581 (closed)

removed assignee

moved to gitlab#5926

Hey!

GitLab is moving all development for both GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition into a single codebase. The current gitlab-ce repository will become a read-only mirror, without any proprietary code. All development is moved to the current gitlab-ee repository, which we will rename to just gitlab in the coming weeks. As part of this migration, issues will be moved to the current gitlab-ee project.

If you have any questions about all of this, please ask them in our dedicated FAQ issue.

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/13855

You can also find more information here:

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/13304
• https://about.gitlab.com/2019/08/23/a-single-codebase-for-gitlab-community-and-enterprise-edition/

Frequently Asked Questions

For an up to date list of questions and answers, please take a look at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/13855

What will we do with the repository names?

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/ will become https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab, and https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce will become https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss.

Why rename gitlab-ce to gitlab-foss?

Using "gitlab" and "gitlab-ce" would be confusing, so we decided to rename gitlab-ce to gitlab-foss to make the purpose of this FOSS repository more clear

I created a merge requests for CE, and this got closed. What do I need to do?

You will need to create a merge request at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/. This link will eventually redirect to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.

How does the licensing work in this new setup?

Everything in the ee/ directory is proprietary. Everything else is free and open source software. If your merge request does not change anything in the ee/ directory, the process of contributing changes is the same as when using the gitlab-ce repository.

Will you accept merge requests on the gitlab-ce/gitlab-foss project after it has been renamed?

No. Merge requests submitted to this project will be closed automatically.

Will I still be able to view old issues and merge requests in gitlab-ce/gitlab-foss?

Yes.

How will this affect users of GitLab CE using Omnibus?

No changes will be necessary, as the packages built remain the same.

How will this affect users of GitLab CE that build from source?

Once the project has been renamed, you will need to change your Git remotes to use this new URL. GitLab will take care of redirecting Git operations so there is no hard deadline, but we recommend doing this as soon as the projects have been renamed.

Where can I see a timeline of the remaining steps?

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/13304

Will community contributions submitted to the new "gitlab" repository be available in the new gitlab-foss repository?

Yes, these changes will be synced to gitlab-foss automatically, several times per day.

locked this issue

mentioned in issue gitlab#6821