Accessibility Ready is a term coined by the WordPress accessibility team, used to identify WordPress themes that follow a set of accessibility requirements.
When you are planning your website, in no doubt, one of the goals is to reach as many people as possible. By selecting an accessibility-ready WordPress theme, you assure that your website can also be used by people who use assistive technology to browse the web. For example screen-reader users.
Gone are the days when an accessible website meant an unattractive, simple website with blue and red links. Today�s accessible websites can be just as beautiful, engaging, interactive and most of all, easier to use.
Why you should select accessibility-ready WordPress themes?
There are many benefits from selecting an accessible WordPress theme that you may not think of at first. You get all of these features for free when you select an accessible WordPress theme:
- Â Semantic code structure.
- Clear heading structure that does not skip heading levels.
Usability
- Skip to content links that let users skip past the menu directly to the content they want to read.
- Â Navigation menus that not only works with the keyboard only but are easy to use on both desktop, handheld devices, and mobile phones.
- Forms that are clearly labeled and easy to complete.
Readability
- Visible links. Links are easy to discern from the rest of the text, which makes your content easier to read.
- Color contrast. Having a high enough color contrast not only makes your content easy to read, but it also lets you highlight different parts of your website with accent colors. This benefits all users who do not have perfect 20-20 vision.
- A readable font size on both desktop and handheld devices, that can be adjusted using zoom without breaking your website’s layout.
- Alternative texts for your important images.
Interactive Elements
- Sliders and animations are perfectly timed for optimal usability and can also be stopped.
- Audio and video controls that let the visitor decide when to play the content.
Keep your content accessible
It is important to remember that a theme alone can not make your website fully accessible, your content always matter. Your theme is the base that you build from.How to find an accessible WordPress theme?
When searching for an accessible WordPress theme in the official directory you can use the feature filter. The WordPress.org Theme Review Team carefully tests all themes that use the tag accessibility-ready.When you are looking for a premium theme that is accessible, it is important to know that marketplaces such as Themeforest do not test for accessibility. Here you may need to rely on the theme authors information, and your own ability to test the accessibility.
We have curated a list of themes for you to help you on your way:
Zakra
When it comes to creating a beautiful and accessible WordPress site, Zakra Gutenberg is one of the best options out there. It has an extremely simple design that was created to be extremely easy to