Troy Chaplin

mikecorkum

<a href="https://blockaccessibilitychecks.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Block Accessibility Checks</a> is a comprehensive WordPress plugin that proactively prevents accessibility issues in your content before they reach your audience. Designed for the Gutenberg block editor, it provides real-time validation with a three-tier system that ensures your blocks, post meta fields, and overall document structure meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) requirements.
Unlike reactive accessibility tools that scan published content, this plugin catches problems during the editing process—giving immediate visual feedback and preventing publication of content with critical accessibility errors. Content creators get clear guidance on what needs fixing, while developers can extend the system with custom checks for blocks, meta fields, and editor-level validation.
Whether you’re a content creator ensuring your posts are accessible, a developer building accessible blocks, or an organization maintaining compliance standards, Block Accessibility Checks provides the tools you need to create inclusive content effortlessly.
Features for Content Creators & Editors:
<ul>
<li>Real-time Visual Feedback – See accessibility issues instantly with color-coded borders (red for errors, yellow for warnings) around problematic blocks and detailed error messages in the block inspector panel</li>
<li>Smart Publishing Control – Critical accessibility errors prevent publishing until resolved, while warnings allow publication with user awareness</li>
<li>Comprehensive Block Coverage – Built-in validation for images, buttons, tables, headings, and galleries with clear guidance on how to fix issues</li>
<li>Document-Wide Validation – Advanced heading hierarchy checking prevents skipped heading levels and ensures proper content structure across your entire post</li>
<li>Title Validation – Ensures posts and pages have a title set for accessibility and SEO, validates in real-time as you type</li>
<li>Intelligent URL Validation – Real TLD validation using the Public Suffix List ensures only legitimate domains are accepted in button links</li>
<li>Configurable Settings – Control which checks are errors (prevent publishing), warnings (allow with notice), or disabled through an intuitive admin interface</li>
<li>Grouped Error Display – All accessibility issues shown at once in organized groups, eliminating the “fix one, see another” frustration</li>
<li>Works Everywhere – Validation runs in both the post editor and site editor (templates/template parts) with separate configurable settings</li>
</ul>
Features for Developers & Plugin Authors:
<ul>
<li>Three-Tier Validation API – Register custom checks for block attributes, post meta fields, and editor-level validation using comprehensive hooks and filters</li>
<li>JavaScript-Only Validation – All validation logic runs in JavaScript for real-time editor feedback without server round-trips</li>
<li>Automatic Settings Integration – External plugins automatically get their own settings pages under the Block Checks menu</li>
<li>External Plugin Support – Works seamlessly with custom blocks from third-party plugins and themes</li>
<li>Extensive Hook System – 20+ action and filter hooks for complete customization of registration, validation, and display behavior</li>
<li>Well-Documented API – Complete developer documentation with quick start guides and working code examples</li>
</ul>
How It Works:
The plugin provides immediate feedback as you edit content through a sophisticated three-tier validation system:
<ol>
<li>Block Validation – Validates individual block attributes in real-time as you type and edit</li>
<li>Meta Field Validation – Checks required post meta fields with automatic post locking when validation fails</li>
<li>Editor-Level Validation – Validates document-wide concerns like heading hierarchy that span across multiple blocks</li>
</ol>
When accessibility issues are detected, they are highlighted with visual indicators (red for errors, yellow for warnings) and detailed messages explain how to fix the problems. Critical errors prevent publishing until resolved, while warnings allow publication with user acknowledgment.
Built-in Accessibility Checks:
<ul>
<li>Button Blocks – Ensures buttons have descriptive text content and validates link destinations using real TLD validation (Public Suffix List)</li>
<li>Image Blocks – Requires alt text (unless marked decorative), validates alt text length (warns if exceeding 125 characters), prevents caption duplication, and detects non-descriptive patterns like “image of” or “photo123”</li>
<li>Table Blocks – Requires proper headers or captions for screen reader navigation</li>
<li>Heading Blocks – Validates proper heading hierarchy across entire document (prevents skipped levels), ensures appropriate first heading level (H2 recommended, H1 allowed with warnings), and provides configurable heading level restrictions (H1, H5, H6 can be disabled)</li>
<li>Gallery Blocks – Applies comprehensive image accessibility checks to all gallery items (alt text, length, patterns, caption duplication)</li>
<li>Post & Page Title Validation – Ensures posts and pages have a title set for accessibility and SEO, validates in real-time as users type, prevents publishing content without a title, configurable independently for posts and pages</li>
<li>Post Meta Fields – Validate required custom fields with real-time validation, automatic post locking for errors, and seamless integration with block validation system</li>
</ul>
Perfect For:
<ul>
<li>Government websites requiring WCAG compliance</li>
<li>Educational institutions with accessibility mandates</li>
<li>Businesses committed to inclusive web content</li>
<li>Developers building accessible WordPress themes and plugins</li>
<li>Content teams who want accessibility guidance built into their workflow</li>
</ul>
Developer Resources:
Extend the plugin with <a href="https://github.com/troychaplin/block-accessibility-checks/blob/main/docs/" rel="nofollow ugc">custom accessibility checks</a> using the comprehensive validation API. See the complete <a href="https://github.com/troychaplin/block-accessibility-checks/blob/main/docs/" rel="nofollow ugc">developer documentation</a> for quick start guides, API reference, code examples, and a <a href="https://github.com/troychaplin/block-check-integration-example" rel="nofollow ugc">working example plugin</a>.
<h3>Getting Involved</h3>
If you would like to get involved and contribute to the development of this plugin or view it’s source code you can find more information in the <a href="https://github.com/troychaplin/block-accessibility-checks" rel="nofollow ugc">plugins GitHub repo</a>.

Block Accessibility Checks

Prevent WCAG accessibility errors in your content with real-time validation for blocks, meta fields, and document structure.

Joe Dolson

Access Monitor runs accessibility tests of your WordPress site. It runs an automated scan of your site using the Tenon.io web accessibility service.
Access Monitor requires an API key for Tenon.io. <a href="https://tenon.io/pricing.php" rel="nofollow ugc">Get your API key now!</a> (Affiliate link)
<h4>Monitor Site Accessibility</h4>
No matter how hard you work to make your web site accessible, if you’re adding new content regularly, the accessibility of your site changes equally often. If you change your theme, you may have a whole new set of issues.
Access Monitor does two great things to help you test your site for accessibility.
First, it gives you the freedom of automation – schedule a weekly or monthly report, and get notified each time a report is run. Test a specific set of pages, and return a list of definite accessibility issues.
Second, it only reports accessibility issues that are machine-testable. It’s won’t raise red flags because it couldn’t tell whether an issue is a problem.
Access Monitor uses <a href="http://tenon.io" rel="nofollow ugc">Tenon.io</a>, an automated accessibility testing service developed by web accessibility guru <a href="http://karlgroves.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Karl Groves</a>. Tenon does what an automated tool should do – it delivers a report telling you what the issue is, where it was found, why it’s an issue, and who is affected by it.
A perfect score in Access Monitor doesn’t mean that your web site is accessible – there’s no way around manual testing. But Access Monitor makes sure that if an issue can be found using automation, you’ll know about it.
<h4>Learn about Tenon and Automated Accessibility</h4>
Go to <a href="http://tenon.io" rel="nofollow ugc">Tenon.io to run a test of your site</a> or <a href="http://tenon.io/documentation/" rel="nofollow ugc">read the Tenon.io documentation</a>. Check out Karl Groves’ article series <a href="http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/02/13/everything-you-know-about-accessibility-testing-is-wrong-part-1/" rel="nofollow ugc">Everything You Know About Accessibility Testing is Wrong</a>. Then <a href="https://tenon.io/pricing.php" rel="nofollow ugc">get yourself an API key</a> (affiliate link).
Keep up with <a href="https://github.com/joedolson/access-monitor" rel="nofollow ugc">Access Monitor development on GitHub</a>.
<h4>Test your WordPress Site</h4>
Run a one-time test or schedule a test to be run on a weekly or monthly basis. All tests run through this system are saved for later review and comparison so you can track the performance of a page or a test over time.
<ul>
<li>Duplicate issues are filtered out. If an accessibility issue appears on multiple pages, it will be shown the first time it’s identified.</li>
<li>Re-run any test from the Accessibility Reports screen at any time. Re-running a test will create a new test on the same pages using the same parameters.</li>
<li>Apply rules that will test posts before you publish them and reject publication if they don’t meet your criteria</li>
</ul>
<h4>Test the WordPress Admin</h4>
You can test the page you’re viewing using a link in the admin bar labeled ‘A11y Check’.
<ul>
<li>On the front-end, only Pages and individual posts or custom post type pages can be tested. Archive pages are not currently passed to Tenon.</li>
</ul>
Help <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/access-monitor/" rel="nofollow ugc">translate Access Monitor</a>!

Access Monitor

Test your WordPress site for accessibility compliance. Run on-demand tests or schedule a weekly accessibility check.

Block Accessibility Checks vs Access Monitor