Quick Wins for Accessible WordPress Themes

davidakennedy.com/2013/quick-wins-for-accessible-wordpress-themes

David A. Kennedy

Interactive Designer | Rock Creek Strategic Marketing

What is Web Accessibility?

Definitions vary

The practice of making websites and applications
usable by people of all abilities.

1. Start with Accessibility in Mind

Accessibility spans all the disciplines:

• Project management
• User Experience
• Design
• Development
• Testing

2. Find a Good Base

You don't have do do it all:

• Starter theme: Underscores
• zen theme: Twenty Thirteen
• Child theme: Accessible Twenty Eleven
• Custom theme: Blaskan
• Custom theme: Accessible Zen

3. Color Matters

High contrast helps everyone

• Text and images of text have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
• Large text (over 18 point or 14 point bold) has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1

Choose wisely:

• Color Palette Accessibility Checker
• 0 to 255

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

Because it can make a big difference

• Be mindful of your reading order
• Skip nav links = awesome
• Keep the underline on links and define focus styles
• Relative units on fonts = also awesome
• Keep titles with "Read more..." links

5. Wait a Minute!

You didn't really talk too much about WordPress themes?

That's because accessibility is about people, not technology.