How To Make Wordpress Websites Accessible For Users

By Author: Ryan Shaw
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WordPress is a content management and blogging platform that offers thousands of free, open-source online templates through its WordPress.org product site. It's also available as a hosted solution through WordPress.com, which offers multiple tiers of service for users at all levels of technical ability (self-service, assisted, and fully managed service). With such a diverse customer base and a broad range of features, WordPress is an excellent choice for businesses looking to create professional websites that are user-friendly and accessible.


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WordPress provides webmasters with complete control over the look and feel of their websites, ...
... making it easy to create visually stunning, intuitively navigable sites. However, for WordPress users with disabilities or impairments, the visual interface is only part of the equation.
The point behind creating an accessible website is to increase the potential audience for your website by making it available and encouraging use by everyone. But there are many different types of disabilities and impairments, each with its own special considerations.


Fortunately, WordPress provides a flexible framework that makes it possible to adapt your website to meet the needs of nearly everyone. With a few straightforward additions, you can make your content available to users who rely on screen readers or text-to-speech software, keyboard shortcuts for speedier navigation, and alternative color schemes for users with visual impairments.


In this article, we'll cover some of the basics of making WordPress websites accessible to a wider audience.


Web Accessibility Fundamentals


The basic principle behind web accessibility is to create and maintain a website in such a way that it can be accessed and used by everyone, including people with a wide range of disabilities and impairments. This means that the website needs to be compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers, which translate text into speech or braille for users who are visually impaired. It also means that the content must use appropriate code and file formats for transferring information—for example, using standard HTML files rather than Flash-based alternatives. Finally, it means that the overall design of the site should be intuitive and easy to navigate, without confusing distractions or "chrome" (elements of the user interface that aren't critical to content).


These requirements are not optional or secondary. They're core components of web accessibility for everyone, even if your users don't have disabilities or impairments.
The first step is to familiarize yourself with the basics of web accessibility. There are many great articles on the subject, but two of our favorites are WebAIM's Introduction to web accessibility and Web Accessibility for Everyone from W3C. Take some time to read through these guides so that you have a basic understanding of how your site can be used by everyone. In its view, all woocommerce developers should be employed by a woocommerce development services firm.


It's also important to recognize that different users have different needs, and these needs vary depending on the sort of content you're publishing as well as what specific features or functionalities you design into the website. For example, a blog about sports might have completely different accessibility requirements from an e-commerce website selling high-end watches. The same is true if you build a site that supports user comments or forums—you'll need to make different considerations from a site that's intended purely as an information resource.


In general, the additional requirements for making WordPress sites accessible are minimal compared to other web development projects. If you can create a visually attractive, functional website that meets general web accessibility guidelines, you're well on your way to creating websites that anyone can use. You may hire a laravel development company to create your website.


Accessibility and WordPress: The Basics


WordPress already has many of the components needed to create accessible websites. For example, it's based on semantic HTML5 code with proper heading structures and descriptive tags such as <h1> and <p>, which are used to define content. WordPress also has a straightforward structure that includes only the most important page elements, such as header, footer, and sidebar.


While some of WordPress' features initially look like they might complicate accessibility—such as its themes and plugins system—the reality is quite the opposite. WordPress themes and plugins make it easy to customize the default HTML structures and components to suit any site, making them more accessible.
The basic approach is to create an accessible foundation for your website by selecting a theme that's responsive (i.e., has mobile-friendly page templates) and easily customizable. 


Now you know the basics of web accessibility. Begin by familiarizing yourself with some general guidelines, then look for WordPress themes and plugins that make it easy to stay in compliance—in most cases, free options are available. Once you have an accessible theme in place, you can create a site that everyone can use.