Enhancing the User Experience: Insights on Inclusiveness in WordPress Development
In a recent talk at a WordPress event, author Kirsty Burgoyne invited dialogue about enhancing the platform's community, emphasising the importance of inclusivity that extends beyond buzzwords and policies. The focus lies on fostering a sense of belonging through daily practices and micro-decisions.
One of the key elements to achieving this goal is consistent meaningful engagement. Encouraging authentic leaders to regularly interact in community spaces helps foster a shared sense of ownership and active participation. This approach contrasts with sporadic or top-down communication, as interactions that are two-way, respectful, and recognising diverse contributions are more conducive to inclusivity.
Another crucial factor is intentional clarity of purpose. Clearly communicating the community's mission helps attract and retain members who align with values of inclusion and respect. This shared vision guides micro-decisions about content and member behaviour, ensuring that inclusivity remains central, not an afterthought.
Active, empathetic moderation also plays a significant role. Beyond having written policies, community moderators should actively model inclusive behaviour by gently guiding conversations, discouraging exclusion or harmful remarks, and amplifying underrepresented voices on a day-to-day basis. This creates a psychological safety that allows diverse members to feel welcome.
Accessibility in practice is another essential aspect. On WordPress sites, daily inclusive practices include ensuring website elements (forms, menus, buttons) are keyboard-navigable, screen-reader friendly, and clearly labelled for assistive technology users. These small design and implementation choices remove barriers for users with disabilities and show genuine commitment to inclusion.
Micro-decisions in communication are equally important. Using clear, jargon-free language, avoiding assumptions about users or members, and being mindful of diverse time zones, backgrounds, and abilities in scheduling or content creation are everyday choices that make communities more accessible and welcoming.
Providing tools to empower users is another way to demonstrate care for diverse experiences without requiring users to request accommodations. Implementing accessibility plugins, such as UserWay, that allow visitors to customise website display according to their needs (text size, contrast, screen reader options) is an example of this approach.
Building real trust through consistency is also vital. Showing through repeated actions that the community cares about inclusion—in accessibility, respectful engagement, and open dialogue—builds lasting trust. This trust encourages more diverse participation and helps the community thrive organically.
In summary, WordPress communities move from abstract inclusivity policies to lived experience by embedding inclusive intent into every interaction, design decision, and leadership action daily. This requires ongoing attention to how small choices shape members' feelings of welcome, safety, and belonging within the community.
The author believes that inclusivity is shown in the micro-decisions, such as the language on a form or the pronouns in a dropdown, and in the way we listen without rushing to fix. The author has had mixed experiences in the WordPress community, feeling warmly held at times and having to shrink parts of themselves to fit in at others. The author emphasises that being included isn't the same as being seen, and that trying matters in the pursuit of inclusivity.
The author also believes in a web where more people are allowed to ask better questions. Inclusivity in WordPress is found in backstage decisions, editorial guidelines, and plugin UX that cater to diverse users. The author believes in building tools that feel open and welcoming, not restrictive. The author suggests thinking of inclusivity as emotional accessibility, where one's full self is welcomed, anticipated, and woven into everything done in WordPress.
The speaker emphasised that inclusivity is a practice, a pulse, and a way of paying attention. The speaker also emphasises the importance of soft systems and quiet power in building inclusivity. The author is not fully out everywhere and uses the pronouns they/them, but finds that not everyone in the community is consistent in using the correct pronouns. The power lies in gentle defaults, such as a form greeting users with their chosen name and documentation acknowledging different needs.
The talk focused on the importance of building spaces where people can bring their full selves. The author does not claim to have all the answers, but values open dialogue in the pursuit of a more inclusive WordPress community. Kirsty Burgoyne gave a talk titled "Over the Rainbow: Talking about Inclusivity for the LGBTQIA+ Community in WordPress."
The speaker questioned whether the WordPress community is as inclusive as it could be, emphasising the need for inclusivity to be more than just a policy or a rainbow logo. The author of the article identifies as someone who has often navigated the edges of the conversation about inclusivity, being queer, neurodivergent, and sometimes feeling like a footnote in bigger conversations. Kirsty expressed the desire for a WordPress community where everyone feels valued and welcome, regardless of their background.
Finally, the author does not propose a grand call-to-action, but instead asks how we can keep making room for softness, slowness, and stories that don't fit neatly into slides or sprints. The author invites ongoing dialogue about building a better WordPress, focusing on the details that may seem unnoticed, and encourages everyone to play their part in creating a more inclusive community.
- To promote inclusivity in WordPress communities, it's essential to foster a lifestyle that values daily practices and micro-decisions, such as using clear language, respecting diverse contributions, and actively encouraging empathetic moderation.
- In line with the author's belief, inclusivity can also be demonstrated through intentional design decisions, like making websites accessible for users with disabilities or implementing plugins that cater to diverse needs.
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- To create a truly inclusive WordPress community, it's important to approach inclusivity not just as a policy or logo, but rather as an ongoing practice, a pulse, and a way of paying attention to the small choices that shape members' feelings of welcome, safety, and belonging within the community.
