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.

Rachel Cherry

wA11y is a WordPress plugin that provides a toolbox of resources to help you improve the accessibility of your WordPress website.
If you would like to contribute to the plugin, or report issues, please go through <a href="https://github.com/bamadesigner/wa11y" rel="nofollow ugc">the wA11y Github repo</a>.
<h4>What Does “wA11y” Mean?</h4>
“A11y” is the commonly used abbreviation for accessibility, since there are eleven letters between the “a” and the “y”.
“w” + “A11y” is my abbreviation for “web accessibility”. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23wa11y" rel="nofollow ugc">#wa11y</a>
<h3>What Is Web Accessibility?</h3>
Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites by people with disabilities.
Data shows 1 in 5 people have a disability. If your site is inaccessible, you could be excluding 20% of your potential users, customers, students, and more.
The foundation for good accessibility is great markup which also means that good accessibility can improve your SEO.
<h3>Accessibility Resources and Tools</h3>
The WPCampus community has a <a href="https://wpcampus.org/resources/accessibility/" rel="nofollow ugc">great list of accessibility resources and tools</a> available on their website.
This resource is open-source and WPCampus would love for you to contribute. <a href="https://github.com/wpcampus/wpcampus-resources" rel="nofollow ugc">Visit the WPCampus Resources repo</a> to learn how to contribute.
WA11Y PRO TIP: Take advantage of in-browser testing tools, like <a href="http://wave.webaim.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WAVE</a> and <a href="http://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/" rel="nofollow ugc">HTML_CodeSniffer</a>, to evaluate WordPress theme demos before you purchase.
<h3>Tools Included In wA11y</h3>
The mission for the wA11y plugin is to provide a plethora of tools to help you evaluate and improve the accessibility of your website.
If you would like to see any new tools added to the plugin, please <a href="https://github.com/bamadesigner/wa11y" rel="nofollow ugc">create an issue in the wA11y Github repo</a> and label it an “enhancement”.
<h3>Tota11y</h3>
<a href="http://khan.github.io/tota11y/" rel="nofollow ugc">tota11y</a> is an accessibility visualization toolkit provided by your friends at Khan Academy. It is a single JavaScript file that inserts a small button in the bottom corner of your document and helps visualize how your site performs with assistive technologies.
<h3>WAVE</h3>
<a href="http://wave.webaim.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WAVE</a> is a free evaluation tool provided by <a href="http://webaim.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)</a>. It can be used to evaluate a live website for a wide range of accessibility issues.
<h3>Filters</h3>
Filters provide a way for you to modify a piece of data inside the wA11y plugin. <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/hooks/filters/" rel="nofollow ugc">Learn more about filters</a>.
Here is a list of the filters available for this plugin:
<ul>
<li>‘wa11y_settings’
<ul>
<li>Allows you to change the plugin settings</li>
<li>Passes 1 argument: the default settings</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>‘wa11y_wave_url’
<ul>
<li>Allows you to change the URL passed to WAVE</li>
<li>Passes 2 arguments: the default URL and the post object (if defined)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>‘wa11y_load_tota11y’
<ul>
<li>Allows you to pass a boolean to define whether or not the tota11y tool should be loaded</li>
<li>Passes 2 arguments: the default setting and the plugin’s settings</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>‘wa11y_load_wave’
<ul>
<li>Allows you to pass a boolean to define whether or not the WAVE tool should be loaded</li>
<li>Passes 2 arguments: the default setting and the plugin’s settings</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

wA11y – The Web Accessibility Toolbox

A Plugin Of Great Industry!
This plugin teaches you how you can make better sites/plugins/themes/WordPresses
Turn this on when your working on developing WordPress sites, plugins or themes or WordPress itself. #realtalk we've all written plenty of code that is not as accessible as it should be. Let's not make these problems worse by ensuring that everything we do write, moving forward is going to be accessible. 
5 Stars



Everyone should use this when developing websites with WordPress!

This plugin goes on all of my development sites. It makes checking the site for accessibility so much easier than using external resources. Love it.

Thank you, Rachel!!!

What a time saver!

As a developer, having this resource to be able to test my plugin directly within the WordPress dashboard and front end is HUGE. 

Accessibility matters. Since it does, having this tool in your toolbelt as a developer or even someone vetting plugins for users is phenomenal. 

With this plugin, you no longer have an excuse for putting out inaccessible websites.


What a time-saver!

wA11y provides a toolbox of resources to help you improve the accessibility of your WordPress website.

Block Accessibility Checks vs wA11y – The Web Accessibility Toolbox