Accessibility-ready WordPress themes are just part the puzzle

WordPress has become one of the most common platforms for websites and accessibility-ready WordPress themes are a positive new trend in that growing market.  Almost 25% of websites are now powered by the popular CMS (Content Management System). With it’s increasing popularity has come a focus on the accessibility of those sites and that’s great news.

Thankfully, for the past few years, a team of dedicated volunteers has been driving the improvement of both the administrative back-end of the platform along with the themes that are available for site owners.  In fact, there are now almost 100 accessibility-ready WordPress themes available to choose from.

A word of caution about using accessibility-ready WordPress themes

As much as those themes can help site owners and their web developers produce an accessible website, a theme is only the beginning. Many of those themes can be customized to suit an organizations branding and colour scheme.

Things like colour matter when it comes to web accessibility.  If an accessibility ready theme is customized with poorly chosen colours, contrast for those with certain visual impairments can become an issue.

What about the plugins?

Just about every WordPress website out there relies on at least 1 plugin to enhance the functionality. If you or your developer have taken the time to select and properly customize an accessibility-ready WordPress theme you really don’t want those plugins to make things worse again.

While there are some great plugins available that produce accessible code (check out Joe Dolson’s plugins for some great options), most don’t.  And, if you or your developer don’t take the time to fine-tune those plugins to improve their accessibility, your site is likely to make life difficult for some of your site visitors.

Solution?

If an accessible WordPress website is important for your business (and why wouldn’t it be?), be sure to carefully select the plugins that you use for your site. And remember, there are developers available who are more than happy to help you take a cool plugin and make it accessible for your site.