I agree that a 508-compat manager needs to be a core extension and
not part of the 097 core. A lot of work would be required to make a fully accessible manager.
And to be honest, I’m going to have to see a lot more commits to the 097 branch before I personally take any of these requests seriously. Just to be honest.
So I guess that accessiblity is not the only factor. There are various considerations and I want to make sure that we are looking at all aspects of the UI that ships with 097 to ensure the greatest uptake and least resistance from those who wish to deploy it. It won’t be necessary to ship all forms with the release bundle but be at least able to deliver a simple solution for common user scenarios that deviate from the JS enabled/Latest Browser scenario.
Have you read "Good to Great"? It talks about companies that were simply "good" that suddenly moved to "great" status - highly successful and way ahead in their product genre. The companies that didn’t tried to do too much and please too many people. The companies that thrived and eventually became "great" with huge gains and long-term stability and benefits were the ones that concentrated on what they did best, and didn’t expand for a while until they had become the best in their target spectrum.
I think with all the new changes and talk coming with 097, it’s going to be very easy to be tempted to want to do more and make the version the best for everyone. I think this is the number one way to kill the release. We need to concentrate on what we do best - core extensibility, a powerful and dynamic management interface, unparalleled flexibility, and incredibly fast load times - rather than worry about all the peripherals. We’ll get to those later.
The last thing I want anyone here on the team devoting their time to is a 508compat manager template when the default 097 manager still needs tons of work. It’s a good idea that should go into the Core Extensions branch Jira tracker, and should be left there and not waste our time here until we’re done with the basics. Again, I’m not shooting down the idea, but emphasizing that we need to prioritize here, and focus on finishing out part A before we move on to part W or part V.