Here are 10 accessibility boosters you can put in place on your WP site starting today to better meet the needs of users of all abilities, particularly those who need assistive technologies due to visual, auditory, and cognitive challenges.

1. Start With the Right Foundation: An Accessibility-Ready WordPress Theme

Using the filter in the WordPress Theme Directory, choose a theme that is tagged “accessibility-ready”, such as Neve, Blocksy, or Responsive. While this won’t guarantee full compliance with current WCAG standards, it’s a solid place to start because it ensures your theme will follow the basic tenets of accessibility like incorporating strong color contrast, proper heading structures, and assistive technology support.

2. Extend Your Reach With Accessibility Plugins

There are a variety of WP plugins like Accessibility Checker, WP Accessibility, and Ally (formerly One Click Accessibility) that can expand your efforts by scanning content and auditing your site to identify common accessibility red flags, as well as adding features like skip links, alt attribute enforcement for images and media, font size and contrast toggles, and keyboard navigation aids.

3. Mind Your Heading Hierarchy

Apply headings and subheadings in a logical consecutive order throughout your content — from the largest <h1> as the page heading through the smallest <h6> nested topic — so screen readers can easily understand your page structure and hierarchy.

4. When It Comes to Images, It’s Alt Text, All the Time

Images should never be the sole method you use to convey visual information. Add meaningful alt text to every image via the WordPress media library. And if an image is simply decorative, don’t forget to use null or empty alt text (alt=“”).

5. Create Multimedia for the Masses

Integrate accessible video players like YouTube’s embedded player, and be sure to provide captions for all videos and written transcripts for all audio files.

6. Key in on Keyboard Use

Ensure that all of your site’s menus, forms, and interactive elements can be used without a mouse using only a user’s keyboard Tab/Enter commands.

7. Commit to Contrast and Clarity

Make sure all site content has sufficient contrast against its background following the rule of 4.5:1 minimum for the body copy of your messaging.

Also, ensure that important information on your site is not communicated solely through color (e.g., error messages that highlight bits of copy in red), which are likely to be missed by users who are visually impaired. Instead, use a combination of text, patterns, and/or symbols so everyone can understand what you’re trying to convey.

Need help? Use a free online tool like WebAIM Contrast Checker to make sure you’re hitting the mark.

8. Label Like You Mean It

Craft webform instructions and error messages in a way that is clear and accessible to screen readers. Use <label> tags to name your form fields, making sure each label’s for attribute matches the id of the input it belongs to.

9. Leverage ARIA Landmarks and Roles (If Needed)

While many WP themes now automatically mark important regions of your web pages to improve navigation for screen readers, you can use the following ARIA roles when native HTML doesn’t get the job done:

• role=“navigation”
• role=“main”
• role=“complementary”

10. Test, Test, and Retest

Make testing the WCAG health of your WordPress site a routine item on your maintenance “to do” list  — especially after making significant content additions and design changes. You may find it helpful to use evaluation and remediation tools like WAVE and axe DevTools, as well as popular screen readers like NVDA (for Windows) and VoiceOver (for Mac).

Need help making accessibility advances in WordPress? Reach out today.

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