What Do You Need in an Accessible WordPress Theme?

Published on by David A. Kennedy

I’ve wanted to create a WordPress theme for a long time. I just didn’t see how the one I created could be different from the hundreds already available.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized an accessible WordPress theme could help a my theme stand out. Sylvia Egger has done great work with Accessible Twenty Ten Five and SeaBeast was well known years ago. But why not add another to the mix?

Yesterday, I tweeted that I was working on this and asked the accessibility community what they wanted to see. I was happy to get a few retweets and responses.

What would you want to see? Let me know in the comments.

Here’s what I’m aiming for at this early stage:

  • HTML5/CSS3 with a mix of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation.
  • Responsive design
  • Visible skip links
  • Good color contrast (meeting WCAG AA)
  • High contrast style switcher
  • Will meet current WordPress coding standards
  • Will be open source and free

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