More semantic markup for the post formats metabox

[tsiger]

I think there is room for improvement in the markup used to populate the post formats list in the metabox which currently looks like:

Instead of using a div as a container and br tags to keep things in place as a list I replaced the div with ul and put every post format item within a li and now looks like:

I think it's semantically better now (it's a list of items after all). Checked the appearance in all major browsers (RTL too) and looks the same.

Also it is easier now for someone to target with CSS only a specific post format radio button and possible apply some extra styles to its container (li).

[helen]

Would like to hear from a11y folks if this is helpful, hurtful, or doesn't matter for screen readers and anything else that might be impacted by the markup change.

[joedolson]

I'm not sure it makes a huge difference. It means that screen reader users will probably get notified twice about the number of items in the list - with radio button groups, screen readers generally indicate how many items there are in the radio button group; they also announce how many items are in a list.

I'd like a second opinion on this - I'm going both ways on it: it is a more semantic choice to have this in a list, but it also means that essentially redundant information is being announced for screen reader users. From a usability perspective, I think it makes the experience worse.

[rianrietveld]

Why not use as container a fieldset, remove the <br> and let the css decide the layout (inline-block/block). Adding an extra layer of HTML seems not necessary to me, you can style it any way you want, and don't need a <ul> for that.

[afercia]

Replying to rianrietveld:

Why not use as container a fieldset, remove the <br>

+1 for a fieldset, with a nice, screen-reader-text'ed legend too :). Screen readers will read out the legend as "{legend text} grouping", or similar.

[helen]

@rianrietveld @afercia Do you feel that we need to make changes to this specific metabox, as in would you consider the fieldset suggestion to be necessary?

[afercia]

@helen, fieldset + legend would be a nice addition. Without them users land on these radio buttons and hear just "video", "audio", etc. with no clue what that actually means. With no initial clue, at least :) With a fieldset+legend they would hear "{legend text} grouping". Press This already uses:

<fieldset><legend class="screen-reader-text"><?php _e( 'Post formats' ); ?></legend>
...

[joedolson]

Use fieldset/legend.

[afercia]

Rebuilt the patch from the root, also removed the last useless <br />. It's a small change and at the same time gives us better semantics, improved accessibility and consistency with Press This. I'm all for it, would propose for commit consideration.

[obenland]

In 32720:

More semantic markup for the post formats metabox.

Screen readers will now introduce the group of radio buttons.
Also brings the meta box to parity with Press This.

Props joedolson, afercia.
Fixes #26160.