WordPress with JAWS for Windows
Class Six
By
CathyAnne Murtha
www.blind.training
cathy@blindtraining.com

© Copyright 2025 CathyAnne Murtha. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Access Technology Institute, LLC
PO Box 90812
Tucson, AZ 85752
cathy@blind.training
www.blind.training
Introduction 
WordPress has users. Users have website access levels. From read-only to full administrator privileges.
 
Edit, manage, and  delete Users in the “All Users” Dashboard page.
 
Users and website visitors can leave comments. Manage Comments in the WordPress Dashboard. The “Comments” page will be familiar.


Contents
Introduction	1
User Roles	3
Add a User	3
Manage Users	4
Edit Users	5
View User Activity	7
Delete Users	7
Delete Multiple Users	8
Change Multiple Users Roles	8
Comments	9
Manage Comments	9
Comments Table	10
Comment Links	10
Spam Vs. Trash	12
Conclusion	12




User Roles
Users register on your website or are added by an administrator. Each user is assigned a role that determines their access level. Administrators have complete control. You assign roles based on a user’s responsibilities. You can change roles at any time.
 
Each role grants specific permissions.
 
WordPress default user roles are:
 
* Administrator: Full access to all settings, content, themes, plugins, and users
* Editor: Manage and publish any post or page, moderate comments, and upload media
* Author: Create, edit, publish, and delete their own posts. Upload media
* Contributor: Write and edit their own posts. Cannot publish or upload media
* Subscriber: Read-only access. Submit comments but cannot modify content
Add a User
Add a user from the Dashboard “All Users” page.
 
* Focus on the WordPress Dashboard
* Open the JAWS for Windows Links List
* Activate “All Users”
* Activate the Main Content skip link
* Activate “Add New”
 
The Add New User page opens.
 
Configure the following:
 
* Username: Enter a unique username used for login and author attribution
* Usernames can include letters, numbers, and underscores
* Usernames cannot be changed after account creation
* Email: Input the user’s email address
* This email address can be used to log in
 
The next three fields are optional:
 
* First Name
* Last Name
* Website
 
Password and Role options are at the bottom of the page.
 
There are three ways to assign a user password:
 
* Let the user create a password from an email link sent after account creation
* Activate “Generate Password” to create a system-generated password in the edit box
* Type a password manually and send it to the user separately
* Send User Notification: Check this box to notify the user by email
o The email includes a link to create a password.
* Role: Select one or more user roles
 
Activate “Add New User” to create the user account.
 
If “Send User Notification” is checked, WordPress sends an email to the user.
Manage Users
Add and manage users from the “All Users” Dashboard page.
 
* Open the Dashboard
* Open the JAWS Links List
* Activate “All Users”
* Activate the Main Content skip link
 
On the “All Users” page:
 
* Add users
* Remove users
* Edit users
* Change user roles
 
Manage users with the following controls:
 
* Add New: Activate this button to add a new user
* Bulk Actions: Apply a bulk action to selected users
o Users are listed in a table
o Each user has a checkbox
o Check individual users or select all
* The Bulk Actions combo box includes “Delete”
o Plugins can add more options to the combo box
* Apply: Activate this button to apply the selected bulk action
* Change Role To: Assign a new role to selected users
o Select one of the default WordPress roles
* Subscriber
* Contributor
* Author
* Editor
* Administrator
 
Activate “Change” to apply the new role.
 
A Users table is at the bottom of the Content Area.
 
Navigate the table using JAWS table navigation or layered table commands.
 
Check some users or use the “Select All” checkbox.
Edit Users
Edit user information and roles with an “Edit” link on the “All Users” webpage “Users” table. 
 
To edit users:
 
* Select a user.
* Activate the “Edit” link.
 
The “User Edit” page opens.
 
Configure the following:
 
* Disable the visual editor when writing - This is a checkbox
o Posts and Pages have two editor options
* Visual - Input text in blocks
* WordPress converts the data to HTML
* Users don’t need HTML knowledge to insert post or page data
* Text - Input HTML code into the post or page edit field.
* Spaces and formatting are only recognized if proper HTML coding is used
* If this checkbox is checked, the visual editor is disabled
* Leave this checkbox unchecked unless the user requests this feature
* Admin color scheme - This is a set of radio buttons
o Select a color scheme used when editing users
o Sighted users can select a color for each role that indicates user permissions
o The WordPress dashboard colors change to reflect your choice.
* Show Toolbar when viewing site – This is a checkbox
o The Dashboard toolbar spans the top of the display
o Some sighted users prefer to view the site without the toolbar
o To disable the toolbar, toggle this checkbox off.
o I recommend leaving this enabled.
* Username - This is a read-only edit box.
o Some users will forget their username
o The user name may be copied.
* First name
* Last name
* Nickname - Nicknames may be used instead of the login name on the website.
* Display name publicly as - Choose the name by which the user is publicly known on your website.
* Email Address - Password reset links and other website content are sent to this email.
 
The next three controls are completed by the user:
* Website
* Biographical info
* Profile Picture
 
The remaining controls finish user edit:
* Generate Password - Generate Password - Generate a new User password. It's shown in the related edit box; or, type a password into the edit box.
* Sessions - If a user left an account logged into the website on a mobile device or public computer, activate this button to log out of all sessions.
* Update Profile - Activate this button to save the settings.
 
Return to the “All Users” page to continue managing users.
View User Activity
Some user roles include writing and editing permissions. You can review a user’s published content from the “Users” page.
 
* Open the “Users” page
* Select a user in the Users table
* Activate the “View” link
 
A new web page opens.
 
The page lists all posts and pages created by the selected user.
Delete Users
Delete users from the “All Users” page using the Username “Delete” link.
 
* Open the “All Users” page
* Use JAWS table navigation to select a Username
* Activate “Delete”
* A confirmation dialog opens
 
Confirm deletion. The user is immediately deleted.
Delete Multiple Users
Delete multiple users from the “All Users” page. Each user in the Users table has a checkbox. A “Select All” checkbox selects all users, including your administrative account.
 
To view users of a specific role, activate a role link at the top of the page. The Users table is filtered to show only users assigned to that role.
 
To manage spam accounts, filter by “Subscriber.” This role often includes bulk registrations and is easier to review and remove.
 
Select users by checking the box next to each Username.
 
To delete selected users:
 
* Open the “All Users” page
* Focus on “Bulk Actions,” and select “Delete”
* Activate “Apply”
 
A confirmation dialog opens. Confirm deletion. WordPress deletes the selected users immediately.
Change Multiple Users Roles
Change multiple user roles using the “Change role to” combo box. Each user in the Users table has a checkbox. A “Select All” checkbox selects all users on the page, including your administrative account.
 
To change users assigned to a specific role, activate a role link at the top of the page. WordPress filters the table to display only users with that role.
 
Check the box next to each Username to select users.
 
To update user roles:
 
* Focus on the “Change role to” combo box and select a role
* The default roles are:
o Subscriber
o Contributor
o Author
o Editor
o Administrator
o Activate “Change”
 
User roles are updated immediately.
Comments
Comments let visitors respond to the content on your pages and posts.
 
Control comment settings in the All Pages or All Posts table using the “Quick Edit” link for each page or post.
 
By default, WordPress disables comments on pages and enables them on posts.
 
Use the WordPress Dashboard to view, approve, edit, or delete comments.
Manage Comments
Manage comments on the “Comments” page in the WordPress Dashboard.
 
* To open the Comments page
* Open the JAWS Links List
* Activate “Comments”
* Activate the “Main Content” skip link
 
Filter options are located above the Comments table. Navigate the filter list using JAWS list navigation or Navigation Quick Keys.
 
Select a filter to control which comments are displayed:
 
* All: View all comments
* Mine: View comments assigned to the current user
* Pending: View comments awaiting review
* Approved: View approved comments
* Spam: View flagged comments
* Trash: View deleted comments
 
Manage multiple comments with the bulk action controls:
 
* Each comment has a checkbox
* Check individual comments or use “Select All”
* Focus on “Bulk Actions”
o Select an action
* Unapprove
* Approve
* Mark as Spam
* Move to Trash
 
Activate “Apply” to confirm the action
 
Filter comments by type using the next set of controls:
 
* Focus on the “Filter by comment type” combo box
* Select a filter
o All Comment Types
o Pings
 
Activate “Filter” to apply it.
 
Use table navigation to verify that the comment status has been updated.
Comments Table
Comments are in a table at the bottom of the Comments page. Navigate the table with JAWS table commands.
 
The table includes the following columns:
 
* Author: The comment author
* This table header includes a checkbox
o This checkbox selects all comments for a bulk action
* Comment text: The text included in the comment
* In response to: The post or page to which the author responded
* Submitted on: The date the comment was created
Comment Links
Use table navigation to focus on a comment name. Four action links are beneath each comment:
 
* Approve: Marks the comment as live and visible on the post or page
* Reply: Opens a reply editor with two components
* Reply edit box: Type a response to the comment
* Toolbar: Located above the edit box, this toolbar includes HTML tag buttons
* You can input HTML manually or activate buttons for
o Bold
o Italic
o Link
o Block
o Delete
o Insert Image
o Bulleted List
o Numbered List
o Code
o Close Tags
 
HTML stand for Hypertext Markup Language. It is beyond this trading course scope.
 
Two buttons are beneath the reply edit box:
 
* Cancel: Discards the reply and closes the editor
* Approve and Reply: Approves the comment if not already approved and posts the reply
 
The remaining controls are:
 
* Quick Edit: Opens the comment’s Quick Edit panel for the selected comment
* Toolbar: Same HTML toolbar as in the reply editor
* Name: Edit the commenter’s name
* Email: Edit the commenter’s email address
* URL: Edit the commenter’s website address
* Update Comment: Saves changes and closes Quick Edit
* Cancel: Discards changes and exits Quick Edit
* Spam: Moves the comment to the Spam folder
* Trash: Moves the comment to the Trash folder.
Spam Vs. Trash
In vanilla WordPress, Spam and Trash move comments into separate folders.
 
Trash comments are automatically deleted after 60 days. Change this duration in WordPress settings.
 
Spam comments remain in the Spam folder until you manually delete them.
 
Plugins can analyze spam comments to identify and block spammers.
 
Plugins can also automatically remove spam comments.
Conclusion
Add, edit, and manage some Users. When users log in, their User page opens.
 
Use caution when enabling Comments. Robots crawl the web and spam unprotected web content.
