WordPress 5.6 – An Overview of an All-Women ????????‍???? Release Squad Historical Release

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WordPress 5.6 "Simone" brings you countless ways to set your ideas free and bring them to life. With a brand-new default theme as your canvas, it supports an ever-growing collection of blocks as your brushes. Paint with words. Pictures. Sound. Or rich embedded media.

Welcome to WordPress 5.6

Did you see a pop up for an update on WordPress? Oh, Yes! WordPress 5.6 is out! This marks a truly historic large release for the WordPress community! As mentioned back when I wrote about Mompreneurs in WordPress, WordPress 5.6 has a complete female-led release squad!

WordPress 5.6 brings you the best features and enhancements to help end 2020 on a positive note! An all-women and non-binary release squad lead the development of new features and resolved defects that benefit users and developers alike. ????????‍????????????‍????????‍????????????‍????????????‍????????????‍???? It is super exciting and memorable for all Women in WordPress!! WordPress 5.6 released December 8th, 2020 as the last big release of 2020. In this year of super turmoil the WordPress community is managing to make major strides as well.

WordPress 5.6 “Simone” brings you countless ways to set your ideas free and bring them to life. With a brand-new default theme as your canvas, it supports an ever-growing collection of blocks as your brushes. Paint with words. Pictures. Sound. Or rich embedded media.

Greater layout flexibility

Bring your stories to life with more tools that let you edit your layout with or without code. Single column blocks, designs using mixed widths and columns, full-width headers, and videos in your cover block—make small changes or big statements with equal ease!

More block patterns

In select themes, preconfigured block patterns make setting up standard pages on your site a breeze. Find the power of patterns to streamline your workflow, or share some of that power with your clients and save yourself a few clicks.

Upload video captions directly in the block editor

To help you add subtitles or captions to your videos, you can now upload them within your post or page. This makes it easier than ever to make your videos accessible for anyone who needs or prefers to use subtitles.

Twenty Twenty-One Theme is here!

Twenty Twenty-One is a blank canvas for your ideas, and the block editor is the best brush. It is built for the block editor and packed with brand-new block patterns you can only get in the default themes. Try different layouts in a matter of seconds, and let the theme’s eye-catching, yet timeless design make your work shine.

What’s more, this default theme puts accessibility at the heart of your website. It conforms to the WordPress accessibility-ready guidelines and addresses several more specialized standards from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AAA. It will help you meet the highest level of international accessibility standards when you create accessible content and choose plugins which are accessible too!

A rainbow of soft pastels

Perfect for a new year, Twenty Twenty-One gives you a range of pre-selected color palettes in pastel, all of which meet AAA standards for contrast. You can also choose your own background color for the theme, and the theme chooses accessibility-conscious text colors for you — automatically!

Need more flexibility than that? You can also choose your own color palette from the color picker.

The Squad ????????‍????????????‍????????‍????????????‍????????????‍????????????‍????

The names on this list is just simply amazing!! One of my dreams to be on this list of contributors to core! Did you know that WordPress releases reflect the hard work of 600+ generous volunteer contributors. The WordPress 5.6 release comes to you from an all-women release squad:

Release Lead: Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune). Cohort: Chloé Bringmann (@cbringmann) and Angela Jin (@angelasjin).
Release Coordinator: Dee Teal (@thewebprincess). Cohort: Thelma Mutete (@thelmachido) and Laura Nelson (@laurora).
Triage Lead: Tonya Mork (@hellofromtonya).
Core Tech Lead: Helen Hou-Sandì (@helen). Cohort: Amy Kamala (@amykamala) and Ebonie Butler (@metalandcoffee).
Editor Tech Lead: Isabel Brison (@isabel_brison). Cohort: Chandrika Guntur (@cguntur), Anchen le Roux (@anchenlr), and Rebecca Hum (@rebasaurus).
Design Leads: Ellen Bauer (@elmastudio) and Tammie Lister (@karmatosed). Cohort: Anyssa Ferreira (@anyssa), Estela Rueda (@estelaris), Tracy Apps (@tray), and Sophia DeRosia (@eringoblog).
Design Tech Lead: Shital Marakana (@shital-patel).
Accessibility Lead: Sarah Ricker (@sarahricker). Cohort: Hauwa Abashiya (@azhiyadev).
Marketing & Communications Leads: Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and Yvette Sonneveld (@yvettesonneveld). Cohort: Nalini Thakor (@nalininonstopnewsuk), Meher Bala (@meher), Olga Gleckler (@ogleckler), Larissa Murrillo (@lmurillom), Michelle Frechette (@michelleames), Breann McDede (@bmcdede), and Afshana Diya (@afshanadiya).
Documentation Lead: Shawntelle Coker (@sncoker). Cohort: Daisy Olsen (@DaisyO), Meher Bala (@meher), Winstina Hughes (@planningwrite).
Documentation Review Lead: Michele Butcher-Jones (@m_butcher). Cohort: Nidhi Jain (@jainnidhi), Laura Byrne Cristiano (@newyorkerlaura).
Default Theme Design Lead: Mel Choyce-Dwan (@melchoyce). Cohort: Ellen Bauer (@elmastudio).
Default Theme Development Lead: Carolina Nymark (@poena). Cohort: Kelly Choyce-Dwan (@ryelle) and Jessica Lyschik (@luminuu).
Default Theme Wrangler: Jessica Lyschik (@luminuu).
Test Lead: Monika Rao (@monikarao). Cohort: Allie Nimmons (@alliennimmons).
Support Lead: Bet Hannon (@bethannon1).

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Cousett

Known as THE Techie Mamma, I am a boy(x2) mom, and love technology. As a former Educational Technology academic turned Mompreneur, and super passionate educator, I am on a mission to empower Mompreneurs to build, and grow their business to live the Mompreneur Life they want.