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.

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