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.

Amber Hinds

Steve Jones

Road Warrior Creative

Equalize Digital

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 3.2 (Predictable) specifies that web pages should appear and operate in predictable ways. It is a common practice to set links that go to off-site locations to open in a new window or tab when clicked. Opening new windows or tabs automatically when a link is activated can be disorienting for people who have difficulty perceiving visual content, and for some people with cognitive disabilities, if they are not warned in advance.
This plugin helps websites become more accessible and better meet WCAG guidelines for predicability by providing advanced warning if a link is going to open a new window or tab before the user clicks or activates it. Providing a warning allows the user to decide it they want to leave the current window, and the warning will help them find their way back, if they do decide they would like to go to the new window. It will help them understand that the “back” button will not work and that they have to return to the last window they had open, in order to find their previous location.
There are no settings in this plugin. Simply activate it and it will automatically find all links that open in a new window and add the following three fixes to each link: 
1. A new window icon after the link text to denote that the link opens in a new window for sighted people. 
2. A tooltip, visible on hover, that says “opens a new window.” 
3. “Opens a new window” screen reader text that will be read out to blind or visually impaired people using screen readers immediately following the link anchor text.
Please note: new window warnings will be added to links and links that have been styled to look like buttons, including social media sharing and link icons. Depending upon what third party plugins are adding links to your site that open in new windows, some CSS styling may be required.
In addition to adding warnings for your users, this plugin integrates with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessibility-checker/" rel="ugc">Accessibility Checker plugin</a>; when Accessibility New Window Warnings is activated, it will automatically clear all “<a href="https://equalizedigital.com/accessibility-checker/link-opens-new-window-or-tab/" rel="nofollow ugc">Link Opens New Window or Tab</a>” warnings in Accessibility Checker scans of your website. Installing and activating this plugin is a great way to quickly remediate and remove a lot of open issues across you entire website.
The Accessibility New Window Warnings plugin is inspired by <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G201.html" rel="nofollow ugc">Techniques for WCAG 2.0 G201: Giving users advanced warning when opening a new window</a>.
<h3>Localization</h3>
The Accessibility New Window Warnings plugin is ready for localization. We have added a Spanish translation and are open to more translations!
If you would like to contribute a translation to this plugin, please <a href="https://equalizedigital.com/contact/" rel="nofollow ugc">contact us</a> or <a href="https://github.com/equalizedigital/accessibility-new-window-warnings" rel="nofollow ugc">fork the repository on GitHub</a>.

Accessibility New Window Warnings

Install, activate, DONE! I love how simply this plugin fixes a real problem! This goes right into my starter site and on every website I build from here on out!

Simple solution for an important problem


I installed this on my blog as I wanted to ensure there was a visible indication when links opened external pages to better comply with accessibility guidelines without having to go through hundreds of old posts. Did the job and correctly and easily and automaticaly added the desired indicators, markup and icons.


Does the job intended

Make links that open in a new window compliant with WCAG guidelines for accessibility by adding a warning for users.

Block Accessibility Checks vs Accessibility New Window Warnings