Making sure your WordPress site is accessible is important for so many critical reasons, but it can be intimidating to sort through the details to determine which standards to try to meet — Section 508? WCAG 2.0 level AA? — and figure out if you’re meeting them. What’s important to keep in mind, though, is that ANY accessibility efforts are better than none. Being mindful of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, this session will cover “getting going,” outlining some of the most important low-hanging fruit you should be sure to address, and highlighting easy and free automated testing tools you can take advantage of. Even some simple actions and tests can make a huge difference for your users! Accessibility perfection may be a journey of a thousand miles, but attend this and we’ll get you on the road and help you take the first few big steps.

1. Accessibility:
Beginning the
Journey
CHRIS HARMONEY & BEN BYRNE
CORNERSHOP CREATIVE
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#NTCWPDAY

2. What do we mean?
DEGREE TO WHICH A PRODUCT,
DEVICE, SERVICE, OR
ENVIRONMENT IS AVAILABLE TO
AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.
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3. accessibility
3
a11y

4. A11y issues are
common
AND NOT NECESSARILY
PERMANENT
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5. Visual Impairment
• Blindness
• Poor vision
• Color blindness
• Screen glare
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6. Motor Impairment
• Tremors, slowness, lost control
• Parkinsons
• Muscular dystrophy
• Cerebral palsy
• Stroke
• Drinking
• Exhaustion
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7. Auditory Impairment
• Deafness
• Hearing loss
• Hyperacusis
• Sleeping baby
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8. Cognitive Impairment
• Developmental disability
• Dyslexia
• ADHD
• Boredom
• Distraction
• Death by PowerPoint
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9. Humanity
Audience
Search Engines
Funding
WHY CARE?
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10. Accessibility
Standards
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11. 11
W3C WCAG 2.0

12. The Basics
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13. Text-Only
• Use ALT, TITLE attributes
• Keyboard navigability
• Mindful of TABINDEX
• Skip-to-content link
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14. Document Structure
• Use semantic HTML5:
• <nav>, <aside>, <main>, etc
• Be mindful of H1-H6
• Extend with ARIA roles
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15. Color & Type
• Contrast ratios
• Font sizes
• Use more than color to denote differences,
emphasis, and content meaning.
• Use CSS for ALLCAPS
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16. Content
• Use descriptive titles, headers, and link text to
provide added context.
• Do not reference things by position
(e.g. “see sidebar at left”)
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17. Media
• No autoplay. Ever.
• Captions on video, audio, and other non-text
content
• No images of text
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18. Code
• Indicate language
• Don’t have major errors
• Gracefully handle zooming
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19. WordPress
WORDPRESS.ORG/ABOUT/ACCESSIBILITY/
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20. 20

21. 21

22. Specific Plugins
UF HEALTH REQUIRE IMAGE ALT TAGS
WP ACCESSIBILITY
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23. Tools
TEST DEMO THEMES, PLUGINS,
AND YOURSELF!
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24. WAVE
FROM WEBAIM.ORG
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25. 25

26. Spectrum
CHROME EXTENSION
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27. 27

28. Keep In Mind…
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29. It’s not binary
IT’S A SPECTRUM
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30. Compliance is not
everything
THE UX IS WHAT MATTERS
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31. Every Step is Good
AS LONG AS IT’S FORWARD
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32. THANK YOU
32
Ben Byrne
@drywall
ben@cshp.co
Chris Harmoney
@cornershop
chris@cshp.co