Fix: Accessibility issue with links listing blocks. #(64051)

[im3dabasia]

What?

Fixes #64051.

Why?

This PR addresses accessibility by ensuring screen readers recognize these blocks as navigational elements, as per issue #64051.

How?

Added <nav> wrappers around the lists in core/page-list and core/tag-cloud blocks. For core/categories, the <nav> is conditionally added when displayed as a list (not as a dropdown), improving accessibility.

Screenshots or screencast

Before	After

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Co-authored-by: carolinan <poena@git.wordpress.org>
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[carolinan]

Hi @im3dabasia I do not believe that this is the correct solution for this problem. I also believe that the problem and use case needs to be described in more detail before a solution can be proposed. I recommend allowing some more time to discuss the issue first.

The <nav> element is intended to be used for navigations, and all lists of links are not necessarily navigations.

Also when there is more than one nav on a page, visitors need to be able to distinguish one nav from the other.
Consider a scenario where the user adds both a tag cloud and categories block in the same post content or template.
The navigations need to have labels describing their purpose.

[carolinan]

This works well in my test, but the nav needs a unique label. It also needs to take into the account that more than one of copy of the tag cloud block can be used on the same page.

[im3dabasia]

Hey @carolinan ,

I have addressed the changes you suggested earlier. Could you please guide me on the changes I need to make based on this comment? I am unsure.

[im3dabasia]

Thank you for the feedback, @carolinan! I'll hold off on any additional changes until there's further discussion on the issue's scope and proposed solution.

[carolinan]

Thank you for the feedback, @carolinan! I'll hold off on any additional changes until there's further discussion on the issue's scope and proposed solution.

My concern is the page list block, if that can be separated I think work on the other two blocks can continue.

[im3dabasia]

Thank you for the feedback, @carolinan! I'll hold off on any additional changes until there's further discussion on the issue's scope and proposed solution.

My concern is the page list block, if that can be separated I think work on the other two blocks can continue.

Thank you for the reply @carolinan.

I will start working on the other 2 blocks but I need some guidance. In the category list block. The suggestion was to change the constant tagName to 'nav' instead of 'ul', Here I had a doubt since the function renderCategoryList() returns a array of <li>( renderCategoryList calls renderCategoryListItem() internally). If I change the TagName to 'nav' then the generated markup would be

<nav>
<li> </li>
<li> </li>
<li> </li>
</nav>

This would result in wrong markup. I am confused here on how to approach this. Any guidance on this would be much appreciated

[carolinan]

@im3dabasia I think you can change the <nav> element that you added around renderCategoryList() to a <ul>, and then change <ul> in the TagName constant to a nav?

[carolinan]

I found that the tag cloud has a format parameter where developers can choose between an unordered list and a flat list of items. But both formats can be inside a <nav> without any validation problems. https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_tag_cloud/

There aren't many examples of adding aria labels that are editable by the user. The navigation block uses one, and there is a suggestion to add one to the group block.

1. ariaLabel is a block support, it needs to be set to true in block.json.
2. After updating the block support, the documentation also needs to be updated. npm run docs:build.
3. The option needs to be a text input field in the Advanced section of the InspectorControls.
4. The option needs a suitable default value for when the user does not customize the label.
5. The option needs a suitable label. The label for the option in the navigation block is "Menu name" , so perhaps "Tag Cloud name"?

The categories are different because it already has a label text that is used when the dropdown option is selected.
This label text could be re-used as the aria label on the nav.

[im3dabasia]

Hey @carolinan

I am new to contributing and just want to verify if I need to do the following:

a) Enable ariaLabel support in block.json.
b) Add a text input field for the aria-label in the Advanced section of InspectorControls, ensuring it has appropriate default values and labels.
c) Update the documentation after the changes by running npm run docs:build.

Please let me know if I’m on the right track or if there’s anything I’m missing.

[carolinan]

Yes.
But also be prepared that there may be more discussions and reviews since this is not a common pattern in the existing blocks.

[im3dabasia]

Hi @carolinan,

I have implemented the requested changes and added support for the aria-label, allowing the user to customize it. By default, the name is set to "Tag Cloud", but the user has the option to modify it in the Advanced section of the Inspector Controls.

Attaching a video reference for the same:

Screen.Recording.2024-12-06.at.4.26.43.PM.mov

Please take a look at the changes, and I would appreciate any feedback you may have.

Thank you!