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 that ensures your images, buttons, tables, headings, galleries, and post meta fields 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 any block type or post meta field.
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.
Key Features:
<ul>
<li>Real-time Visual Feedback – See accessibility issues instantly with color-coded borders around problematic blocks and detailed error messages in the block inspector panel</li>
<li>Smart Publishing Control – Prevents publication of content with critical accessibility errors while allowing warnings with user awareness</li>
<li>Comprehensive Block Coverage – Built-in checks for images, buttons, tables, headings, and galleries with multiple validation rules per block type</li>
<li>Post Meta Validation – Validate required post meta fields with real-time feedback, automatic post locking for errors, and seamless integration with block validation</li>
<li>Advanced Heading Validation – Document-wide hierarchy checking prevents skipped heading levels and ensures proper content structure</li>
<li>Intelligent URL Validation – Real TLD validation using the Public Suffix List ensures only legitimate domains are accepted</li>
<li>Configurable Settings – Granular control over each check’s severity (error/warning/disabled) with an intuitive admin interface for both block and meta validation</li>
<li>Issue Categorization – Clear distinction between accessibility issues and validation errors for better understanding</li>
<li>Developer-Friendly API – Comprehensive hooks and filters system for registering custom accessibility checks for blocks and post meta fields</li>
<li>External Plugin Support – Works seamlessly with custom blocks from third-party plugins and themes, with automatic settings page integration</li>
</ul>
How It Works:
The plugin provides immediate feedback as you edit content. When accessibility issues are detected in blocks or required meta fields, they are highlighted with visual indicators 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 valid link destinations with real URL validation</li>
<li>Image Blocks – Requires alt text (unless marked decorative), validates length, prevents caption duplication, and detects non-descriptive patterns</li>
<li>Table Blocks – Requires proper headers or captions for screen reader navigation</li>
<li>Heading Blocks – Validates proper heading hierarchy (no skipped levels), ensures appropriate first heading level, and configurable heading level restrictions</li>
<li>Gallery Blocks – Applies comprehensive image accessibility checks to all gallery items</li>
<li>Post Meta Fields – Validate required custom fields with server-side and client-side validation, automatic post locking, and visual feedback in the editor</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 API:
Extend the plugin with <a href="https://github.com/troychaplin/block-accessibility-checks/blob/main/docs/" rel="nofollow ugc">custom accessibility checks</a> for any block type or post meta field. The robust API includes registration functions, validation hooks, and automatic JavaScript integration. Perfect for plugin developers who want to add accessibility validation to their custom blocks and ensure required meta fields are properly validated.
<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

Configure a series of block checks to prevent WCAG accessibility errors in content.

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