I searched for accessible WordPress themes for an upcoming project, but the Google results were disappointing. Instead of relevant options, I found blog articles from snake oil accessibility overlay providers and other obscure, outdated lists.
It turns out WordPress has its own method for tagging “accessible” themes. In the official WordPress theme repository, you can specify the features you want in a theme, including the “Accessibility Ready” tag. If you're just looking for themes that are considered accessible, you can stop here and check out the “Accessibility Ready” themes tagged as “Accessibility Ready” in the theme repository. But if you're curious to learn what “Accessibility Ready” really means, keep reading.
Unfortunately, the theme repository doesn't provide a direct link to the relevant guidelines. After some digging, I found there are three types of requirements:
As of this writing, every theme is required to include skip links, basic keyboard navigation, and underlined links.
“Accessibility Ready” themes must have further keyboard controls. Dropdowns have to be keyboard accessible, focus visible and no divs as buttons. Furthermore form inputs and buttons need accessible names and labels, there must be a good headline structure and they suggest the use of landmark roles. They also want you to avoid repetitive link texts, make sure you have good alt texts if necessary, no auto start for media and they explicitly forbid the usage of any positive tab index attributes, accesskeys and target="_blank" without a warning.
The recommended section only features that text should be zoomable and the removal of title attributes.
While most “Accessibility Ready” requirements seem reasonable, I'm curious about how these tests are conducted and just how strict the standards are. After running quick accessibility tests on “Accessibility Ready” themes, I found they performed better than the average website. However, I still encountered issues with keyboard focus visibility — one of the requirements for all themes.
It is good to see, that WordPress has accessibility requirements for all themes. While the standards could be stricter, it’s a solid foundation. These themes don’t eliminate the need for your own accessibility tests, but starting with one of them will likely result in fewer issues.
…and I am an Specialist for Web Accessibility and UX-Engineer with over 20 years of experience, by day and a podcaster by night.
I help organizations build accessible websites by offering talks about accessibility, workshops & trainings, accessibility reviews and developing strategies for developers and management.
If that sounds like you could use my help, let’s talk! 💬