Category: WordPress

Accessibility in WordPress specifically: themes, plugins, page builders and the block editor.

WordPress core itself is rarely the problem. It has improved a great deal over the years, and a plain block theme can pass WCAG 2.2 AA quite comfortably. What breaks a site is almost always what sits on top of core. A commercial theme where heading levels were chosen for size rather than structure, so an H2 became an H4 because the designer wanted smaller text. A page builder that renders a div styled to look like a button, which the keyboard can never reach and a screen reader never announces. A slider that starts on its own with no way to pause it. A contact form using placeholders in place of labels, so the question disappears the moment somebody starts typing. A WooCommerce checkout where the total changes silently, and a blind customer cannot confirm what they are about to pay.

The posts here come out of fixing those problems on client sites, and out of building my own accessible themes and plugins. The Ariade block theme and the Ananyoo plugin family, including the accessible carousel and the rest of the plugins, all began as answers to failures found during real audits.

If you want to know where your own site stands, the WordPress accessibility audit page explains what the testing involves and what it costs.