What each role can do across the platform · Last updated: 2026-05-22
For MED-EL team review · Prepared by Coopers Digital · March 2026
Sourced from the current codebase (backend + frontend), extracted by Lucas Maieski (Coopers Digital). Translated to plain language for product review. Rows marked ⚠ indicate permissions that appear inconsistent or require confirmation. Updated 2026-03-12 with confirmed connection visibility matrix, messaging behavior, and CSV export fix. Updated 2026-05-13: applied MED-EL review (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02 PDF annotations). Updated 2026-05-20: applied Anna Breitfuss reply to Q-01–Q-06 (RBAC clarifications). Updated 2026-05-21: applied Anna Breitfuss post-meeting confirmations (AW 09:49 + WG 14:07). Q-02 nuance: My Groups fully interactive for Candidates; Discover Groups view-only with contextual note + Join disabled. Q-06 expanded: AM can update role permissions within own area (Member→Mentor upgrade) + export own-area users. Mentor connection model confirmed (Option A + 14-day AM safety-net). Moderator assignment confirmed: (a) Group Admin + Super Admin, (b) wp-admin + Community Settings frontend. Anomaly #1 resolved: Recipients post STANDARD only — AM reposts as FAQ on Recipient's behalf.
Roles in this document
Candidate / Caregiver
member
Self-registered user — newly diagnosed, candidate for implant, or caregiver
Recipient
medel_user
Confirmed cochlear implant recipient
Mentor
mentor
Trained volunteer mentor
Area Manager
area_manager
Regional manager — oversees users and groups within an area
Super Admin
super_admin
Highest-privilege community governance role
Not included:administrator is a technical account used internally by Coopers Digital. It is not a MED-EL business role.
MED-EL (area manager) — UI label (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21): In the Hearpeers Community Connections UI, the Area Manager role is displayed to users as "MED-EL (area manager)" — not simply "Area Manager". This is the connectable role Candidates see and are automatically connected to. A broader topic of differentiating MED-EL staff in general from area managers managing specific countries/areas is under discussion (separate MED-EL documentation attached to Anna's 2026-05-21 email).
1 Connections
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Browse community members
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Send a connection request
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Accept a connection request
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Decline a connection request
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Cancel a sent request
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
View own connections list
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Connection requests auto-accepted (when sent to this role)
—
—
—
✔
✔
Auto-connected to new registrants on signup
—
—
—
✔
—
Decision confirmed (hybrid — Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21): Mentors are not auto-connected to new Recipients. Connection initiation moves to a request-with-message model (Option A — LinkedIn-style). A Candidate or Recipient seeking a Mentor sends a connection request with a required message (500-character limit, with placeholder copy). The Mentor reviews the message and accepts or declines — declines use a polite template; a response is required so users always receive closure. Mentors retain passive awareness of new Recipients in their area via the "New in your area" discovery surface (Notification Strategy v3 §5.3) — bell-only, once per session, only if new since last session. Auto-connection for Area Managers is preserved (Candidates and Recipients remain auto-connected to their area's Manager at registration). This resolves Julia Meier's 2026-05-07 direction (remove forced friendship) and Anna Breitfuss's 2026-05-18 pushback (Option A preferred over Option B) into a single coherent model.
14-day AM safety-net (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21 addition): If a Mentor has neither accepted nor declined a connection request after approximately 14 days, the Area Manager responsible for that area shall be notified via Digest channel. This ensures Candidates are not left without support if a particular Mentor is inactive. Implementation: track request creation timestamp; daily/weekly cron checks for pending requests ≥ 14 days; fires once only (flag notification_am_safety_net_fired on the request record).
Who can see and connect with whom — confirmed from capabilities (can_see_connection_* / add_friend_*). Visibility and connection permission are symmetrical: if a role can see a target role's profile in the connections area, it can also send a connection request to that role.
This role…
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Candidate
—
—
✔
—
—
Recipient
—
✔
✔
—
—
Mentor
✔
✔
✔
—
—
Area Manager
✔
✔
✔
✔
—
Super Admin
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Pattern: Each role can see all roles below it in the hierarchy, plus its own. Area Manager cannot see Super Admin; Candidate can only see Mentors.
2 Groups
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
View Groups page (browse)
View-only ⓘ
✔
✔
✔
✔
Join a group
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Auto-assigned to area candidate group at registration
✔
—
—
—
—
Access private or hidden groups (as a member)
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Create a group
—
—
—
✔
✔
View pending join requests
—
—
—
✔
✔
Approve or decline join requests
—
—
—
✔
✔
Edit group settings
—
—
—
✔
✔
Be promoted to group admin
—
—
—
✔
✔
Moderate posts/comments within a specific group (assigned moderator)
—
—
Conditional ⓘ
✔
✔
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-01): Mentor group management capabilities are removed entirely. Only Group Admins (Area Manager + Super Admin) manage groups. A Mentor may still act as a moderator within a specific group if assigned that role — see the Moderator sub-role note below.
Moderator sub-role (confirmed — Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20/21): A Mentor (or other non-admin role) may be assigned as Group Moderator of a specific group. When assigned, they can edit/delete posts and comments within that group only. This is distinct from the formal Group Administrator role. Code confirmation (Lucas's audit, 2026-05-20): Group Moderator is an existing BuddyPress role. Code references: bp-groups-member.php::get_group_moderator_ids(), the is_mod member flag, the "promoted to moderator" notification, and MoreOptions.vue checks moderator status before allowing post delete/edit.
Assignment and UI confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21): (a) Who assigns: both Group Admin (Area Manager) and Super Admin can assign the Moderator sub-role. (b) UI exposure: both wp-admin and Community Settings frontend. Lucas investigation needed: The BuddyPress backend role-change UI (Member / Moderator / Administrator within a group) is confirmed to exist, but is not yet fully functional per Anna's testing. Lucas to investigate and confirm exactly what it controls before the feature is relied upon.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-02; nuance added 2026-05-21): The Groups page has two distinct sections with different Candidate behaviour:
My Groups section: Candidates can fully interact with their assigned area candidate group — view, engage, and post as normal. No restrictions apply here.
Discover new groups section: View-only. The UI must surface a contextual note: "You are currently registered as a candidate in the Hearpeers Community, which is why your view may differ from that of other users. If you have a MED-EL hearing implant, you may also see additional groups based on your interests and location." The Join action is disabled in this section.
Candidates cannot join groups via the Discover directory — they only belong to the area candidate group they are auto-assigned to at registration.
⚠️ Bug (still open, pending Lucas): The current system allows Candidates to browse and join global groups. Code fix per Q-02: keep the Groups page visible but disable the "Join" action for Candidates and add the contextual note above.
3 Posts & Feed
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Read posts in the feed
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Create a regular post
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Create an FAQ post
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Create an institutional post
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Ask a question to mentors
✔
—
—
—
—
See and respond to mentor questions
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Edit own post
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Edit any user's post (moderation)
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Delete own post
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Delete any user's post (moderation)
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Pin a post in a group
—
—
—
✔
✔
Save a post
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Like a post
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Translate a post
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Upload media (image / video) with a post
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Resolved — not a bug (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21, extends Q-07): Recipients are not the intended audience for question posts or FAQ posts. The intended behaviour: Recipients create standard posts only. Recipients can see standard, FAQ, and institutional posts in the feed. If a Recipient's standard post raises a question worth capturing as FAQ, the Area Manager can repost it as an FAQ post on the Recipient's behalf. The current code (where create_question_post is Candidate-only) is correct. No code change required. See Anomaly #1 for the updated resolution.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-03): Question post visibility is group-specific, not area-broadcast. A question post lives inside the group where it is created (the Candidate's area candidate group); Mentors in that group see it. Question posts are NOT broadcast to all Mentors community-wide.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02 + 2026-05-20 nuance): Moderation actions (edit/delete any user's post) are restricted to group admins (Area Manager + Super Admin) by default. Exception (May 20 clarification): a Mentor (or other non-admin) assigned as moderator of a specific group can moderate posts within that group. The Mentor column is "—" in the table because the default Mentor role has no moderation rights.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-04, supersedes April 2 framing): Candidates do see posts in their feed — specifically standard posts, FAQ posts, and institutional posts from the area candidate group they are auto-assigned to at registration. The previous note ("Candidate cannot see default feed posts") was misleading: Candidates can read posts in the feed, but only those scoped to their area candidate group.
⚠️ Bug (still open, pending Lucas): Candidates currently see no posts because area assignment is not correctly surfacing the area candidate group's posts in the feed. Code fix: ensure area assignment on registration triggers auto-add to the area candidate group AND that group's standard/FAQ/institutional posts appear in the Candidate feed.
4 Comments
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Write a comment
—
✔
✔
✔
✔
Edit own comment
⚠
✔
✔
✔
✔
Delete own comment
⚠
✔
✔
✔
✔
Edit or delete any user's comment (moderation)
—
—
✔
✔
✔
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-05): Leave the current setup as is. Candidates retain the edit/delete capabilities for their own comments even though comment creation is not available to them. These capabilities are currently unreachable in practice (no Candidate comments exist to edit/delete) but are kept in case Candidate commenting is enabled in a future iteration.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02 + 2026-05-20 nuance): Comment moderation (edit/delete any user's comment) is restricted to group admins (Area Manager + Super Admin) by default. Exception (May 20 clarification): a Mentor (or other non-admin) assigned as moderator of a specific group can moderate comments within that group. The Mentor column is "—" because the default Mentor role has no moderation rights.
Note (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02): Threaded comment replies ("reply to a comment") are not currently available in the platform. This is a future feature.
5 Chat & Messaging
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Send a direct message
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Receive a direct message
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Configure a welcome message (auto-sent on area connection)
—
—
—
✔
✔
Configure an automatic response message
—
—
—
✔
✔
Confirmed (Lucas Maieski, 2026-03-12): There are no role-based restrictions on messaging. Any authenticated user can send and receive messages — the only requirement is that the two users have an existing connection. A Candidate can message a Mentor only after a connection has been established.
6 Profile
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
View any member's profile
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Edit own profile
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
Upload a profile photo
⚠
✔
✔
✔
✔
Manage notification preferences
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
⚠️ Candidate profile photo — status partial (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 + Lucas Maieski, 2026-05-18): Candidates should be able to upload a profile photo. Anna reports seeing "a few Members in the Hearpeers Community with a profile picture" — i.e. the block is not universal, suggesting either the bug is intermittent or some role/capability path is already wired correctly. Lucas confirmed no explicit code fix has been applied. Action: Lucas to verify the current state of the upload_files capability on the member role, identify the discrepancy that allows some members to have photos, and either grant upload_files to member or close the anomaly if already resolved.
7 Administration
What the user can do
Candidate
Recipient
Mentor
Area Mgr
Super Admin
Access community settings panel
—
—
—
✔
✔
Access WordPress backend
—
—
—
✔
✔
View admin dashboard
—
—
—
—
✔
Manage community options
—
—
—
✔
✔
Send invitations to join the community
—
—
—
✔
✔
Import translations (XLIFF / CSV)
—
—
—
—
✔
Export member list as CSV
—
—
—
✔
✔
Manage content pages (About, Contact, Terms)
—
—
—
—
✔
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02 + 2026-05-20 — works correctly in current build): Community invitations are sent by email only and only Area Managers and Super Admins can send them. Anna confirmed in her May 20 reply: "Community invitations at the moment can only be sent by area managers or admins, as they are the only roles that have access to the section in 'Community settings'. Only there invitations can be sent." The capability check is effectively enforced in the current build via the Community Settings UI access gate. Lucas to verify nothing in a non-UI code path allows other roles to invite.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02): Import translations is a Super Admin function only, not Area Manager.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-04-02): Managing content pages (static pages, help content) is Super Admin only.
Confirmed (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-20 — Q-06; expanded 2026-05-21): Area Managers can manage Groups and Members within their own area only. Group management includes create/edit/delete groups in their area. Member management includes adding, removing, and promoting users within their area. Community invitations remain Area Manager + Super Admin.
Q-06 expansion confirmed (Anna, 2026-05-21):
(a) Role permission updates within own area: Area Managers can upgrade a medel_user (Recipient) to Mentor where appropriate.
(b) Export own-area users from backend: Area Managers can export the users of their own area from the WordPress backend users panel.
Global-group exception (Anna, 2026-05-22): Although AM group/member management is scoped to their own area by default, Area Managers must also be able to create global (cross-area) groups — e.g. interest-based groups such as "Skiing with CI" initiated by a Mentor or highly active community member, open to participants from any location.
Still open — "Manage community options" scope: The Q-06 expansion helps narrow the investigation (area-level vs. platform-wide), but the specific definition of "Manage community options" as a named capability in Community Settings UI remains to be proposed and confirmed in a follow-up.
Fixed (Lucas Maieski, 2026-03-12): CSV export is now restricted to roles with the export capability — Area Manager and Super Admin only.
Confirmed (Lucas Maieski, 2026-05-18 — T-01): The two rows refer to two distinct interfaces:
"Access community settings panel" → community.hearpeers.com/en/community/settings — a community-frontend admin panel where Area Managers create and edit groups and see the full list of users in their area.
"Access WordPress backend" → wp-admin — the full WordPress admin (Posts, Media, Groups, Users, Emails, Appearance, Auth0 User Activation, Community Options, Community Translations, GraphQL, CPT UI, Languages, Contact Forms, etc.).
Both rows are retained because they grant access to different surfaces with different action sets.
⚠ Summary of anomalies · Last updated: 2026-05-22
Code-fix status note (Lucas Maieski, 2026-05-18 — T-02 reply): No code fixes from this anomaly list have been applied yet. The five items previously listed as "Code fix pending" are all still open in the build. The status column below now reflects this directly.
#
Section
Issue
Status
1
Posts
Recipient question-post capability — previously framed as a bug (Recipient cannot ask questions to mentors)
Resolved — not a bug (Anna Breitfuss, 2026-05-21). Recipients post standard only. AM reposts Recipient questions as FAQ on their behalf. Current code is correct. Documentation only.
2
Posts
Candidate feed shows no posts
Confirmed bug — fix scope updated by Q-04 (Anna, 2026-05-20)
3
Groups
Candidate can browse and join global groups
Confirmed bug — fix scope updated by Q-02 (Anna, 2026-05-20)
4
Comments
Candidate can edit/delete own comments but cannot create them
Resolved by Q-05 (Anna, 2026-05-20) — leave as is
5
Profile
Candidate cannot upload a profile photo
Partial — some Members already show profile pictures (Anna, 2026-05-20)
6
Administration
All roles could send community invitations — no capability check
Resolved in practice (Anna, 2026-05-20) — invitations gated by UI
7
Administration
Import translations was listed as Area Manager capability
Corrected (Anna, 2026-04-02) — Super Admin only
8
Posts & Comments
Mentor listed as having moderation rights (edit/delete others' posts/comments)
Corrected + refined (Anna, 2026-05-20) — Moderator sub-role exception
9
Posts
Mentor listed as able to create institutional posts
Corrected (Anna, 2026-04-02) — Area Manager and Super Admin only
10
Chat
Mentor cannot configure auto-response message
Confirmed bug (Anna, 2026-04-02) — Code fix pending Lucas