WordPress Accessibility

Be sure to familiarize yourself with these WordPress accessibility resources.

Accessibility Considerations

  • Choose an Accessible Theme - when considering WordPress themes, choose themes that are tagged as accessible ready.
  • Perform Accessibility Checks on Themes Before Implementation - before selecting a theme not tagged as accessible ready, do some accessibility checks on theme demo sites or actual live sites using the theme with tools like the WAVE and Siteimprove browser extensions.
  • Code to WordPress Standards - When developing new themes or website using WordPress, be sure to follow WordPress accessibility coding standards.
  • Check Plugin Accessibility Before Implementation - some WordPress plugins can introduce new accessibility issues not present in a theme, so all plugins should be tested for accessibility compliance before implementation.
  • Make sure all documents are accessible - Before you post any documents to a WordPress site (PDF, Office files, etc.) be sure to check them for accessibility compliance by using built-in accessibility checkers and remediation tools. Learn more about document accessibility.
  • All Images have Alternate Text Descriptions - All images posted to a website must have alternate text that is meaningful and descriptive. Be sure to check that all images have proper alt text and instruct site users how to stay in compliance after site launch.

WP Accessibility Plugin

The WP Accessibility plugin addresses many common accessibility issues found in WordPress themes that are not tagged as accessible ready. Learn more about the WP Accessibility plugin.

Common Issues Fixed by WP Accessibility Plugin

  • Add Skip Links -"Skip to Main Content"
  • Add page language and text direction attributes to your HTML
  • Add outline to the keyboard focus state for focusable elements
  • Add long description to images using WordPress's "Description" field
  • Add post titles to standard "read more" links
  • Add labels to standard WordPress form fields if missing, among other features.

Please note: the WP Accessibility plugin can also add redundant information to a WordPress theme, so you should look for this when testing the plugin.