I did this last year, so why not turn it into a tradition? One of my goals for 2023 is to do more writing, so this is as good a place as any to get started. I organized things topically for 2021, so I’ll stick with that.

WordPress Contributions

I made only 32 commits to WordPress core in 2022, but that included fixing some important accessibility issues, so I feel reasonably accomplished with that. I continue to focus primarily on media and the general admin, but spent more time looking at the block editor and offering occasional feedback in that area. In September, I began receiving some sponsorship from GoDaddy as a contributor to WordPress, which is allowing me to gradually ramp up my contributions to WordPress core.

WordPress Accessibility Day 2022

Amber Hinds and I jointly restarted WP Accessibility Day, with the 2022 event occurring in early November. Putting on a 24-hour event with over 40 speakers around the world is no small task, but we’re committed to moving forward and putting it on again in 2023. If you’re interested in helping with organizing or volunteering in 2023, let us know at our general site contact form!

Speaking

I did relatively little speaking in 2022, again, which is something I’m really perfectly happy about. I only gave two talks in 2022: one about contributing to the WordPress Accessibility community for the WP Accessibility meetup, and a talk about the six most pervasive accessibility errors for WordCamp US in San Diego.

Plugins

My Calendar

I shipped 24 releases of My Calendar in 2022, and am about to ship the next major release. One big change I’m making in My Calendar is that I’m completely revamping the templating and styling system for the plug-in. The next major release, currently available as a release candidate, is the final release solely with the current model of templating.

This change is necessary in order to move the plugin forward. One decision I made early on – providing a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) editor that modified files shipped with the plug-in – has been a barrier for the plug-in for years, because I can’t reliably know what the CSS somebody uses for the plug-in is, even if they have never customized it. It makes it extremely difficult to update those styles.

My Tickets

I shipped 12 releases of My Tickets in 2022. My Tickets is also due for some more significant updates, but thankfully doesn’t have the architectural problems in My Calendar.

WP to Twitter

I’ve only released 5 updates to WP to Twitter in 2022. And, in case you haven’t been paying attention, that may not change soon. I’ve added a banner dis-recommending purchasing the Pro add-on, and am currently very hesitant about continuing this project, due to the changes going on at Twitter. Even if I disregard the recklessness of Elon Musk’s handling of Twitter in terms of accessibility, user safety, and adherence to international law, the lack of good information and constant changes make it very difficult to maintain this at the moment.

If anybody wants to purchase WP to Twitter and WP Tweets Pro and take them over, let me know.

WP Accessibility

I’ve made 10 releases of WP Accessibility, including two major releases – 1.8.0 and 1.9.0. These were mostly focused on modernizing some of the accessibility solutions in the plug-in, improving the code base, and improving support in the block editor for tools like marking images without alt attributes.

Premium Plugins

I announced at the end of 2022 that I was ending sale of lifetime licenses. These are unsupportable in the long-term – the short-term cash influx of a lifetime license doesn’t support continued development over the real lifespan of a plug-in unless it’s ludicrously expensive. Which is an option – if you want a lifetime license for one of my premium plug-ins after January 15th, offer me a ridiculous amount of money, and we can talk. 😉

I also added an affiliate program to my premium plugin store in 2022, though I have not yet advertised it.

The next big thing for my premium add-ons is a major update to My Calendar Pro, expected to go out not long after the next major release of My Calendar.

Goals for 2023

  • Increase recurring revenue for premium plugins.
  • Give site owners active feedback about what WP Accessibility is doing on their site.
  • Increase the frequency of major releases for My Calendar from once a year to twice a year.
  • Prepare a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) for WordPress Core
  • Do a better job of hiring people to do things that I’m not very good at.
  • Take a vacation.