WordPress and Accessibility: The Most Used CMS Facing the RGAA Challenge
WordPress powers over 40% of websites worldwide. The good news: WordPress has an accessibility policy and the CMS core is relatively accessible. The bad news: themes, plugins, and user-created content rarely are.
Choosing an Accessible Theme
The official WordPress directory offers the "accessibility-ready" tag for reviewed themes. Criteria include complete keyboard navigation, skip links, sufficient contrast, labeled forms, and correct ARIA landmarks. The Twenty Twenty-Four default theme provides a good foundation. Premium themes like Divi and Avada are generally NOT accessible.
Gutenberg and Accessibility
Gutenberg generates semantic HTML, offers native alt text fields, and includes contrast checking. However, the editor itself can be difficult for disabled contributors, and third-party blocks may not respect accessibility.
Recommended Accessibility Plugins
WP Accessibility (automatic fixes), Sa11y (real-time checker), Contact Form 7 (accessible forms). Avoid overlay plugins (AccessiBe, UserWay) that do NOT actually make sites accessible.
Content Optimization for RGAA
Systematically fill alt text fields, maintain proper heading hierarchy (single h1, logical h2-h3), use descriptive link text, and prefer accessible form plugins. Train contributors in accessible content creation.
WordPress can be an excellent choice for an accessible site, provided you choose the right theme, the right plugins, and train contributors in accessible content creation.