Scary Worlds

Search Block Saga

First chapter: [The Obstacle in WordPress Search]{https://noblogo.org/scaryworlds/the-obstacle-in-wordpress-search} To summarize it: I am trying to have my personal #WordPress web site with two different search engines, one for the Italian and one for the English section.

Code? No longer a taboo

Needless to say, all free plugins concerning search missed some functionality or, in the worst case, they were inaccessible to blind users. Or even both! The last hope was on SearchWP, but it was and is so damn expensive! Not wanting to pay for a plugin, I googled some words: – WordPress search by post type – how to customize search box in WordPress – filter results search by post type ...

So there are two articles: one from Kinsta about “WordPress 6.1, the other about post types and search, coming from a certain Mark Wilkinson blog. But, guess what? Tried to build a small plugin and JavaScript files with provided codes, and in the end? Nothing worked! Thankfully I've not decided for editing my function.php file! The results do not filter content type I instruct the code about, they continue returning the main posts, without considering desired ones. Worst issue is that I can not even contact this code's author as he has transferred his contact information to the web agency he founded, and that company asks for big projects, not sure they are going to reply to an amateur code newbie.

If you have to pay...

So, in the end I resigned: if we have to pay, give it a try. At the most we ask for refund. Plugin installed, and guess what? #accessibility isn't there! How could it be, a plugin which costs 199 dollars per year in its lowest subscription, does not pay attention to accessibility? This is the least frustration though, the biggest one came as soon as I received one e-mail from the customer care asking me how is it going with search wp. I have replied to it in the kindest way possible, warning them about accessibility and then I provided some questions for them to solve a couple doubts I have. And, here is the answer: “Could you please share a screenshot?” So what? I tell you that I am blind and you ask me for a screenshot? I am giving them last chance, until this week-end 8/9 June 2024. Then if I get no convincing reply, I'm going to ask for refund. Money doesn't stink, but probably someone thinks that blind people's money is less valuable.

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