Accessible websites can be used by people of all abilities on all devices, including assistive technology. Increasingly, website accessibility is required by laws around the world, and WordPress plugin and theme developers are in the unique position of impacting the accessibility of thousands – or even millions – of websites worldwide, depending upon their install counts.
Simply by improving the accessibility of their products, plugin and theme developers can dramatically improve the accessibility of every site that uses their themes or plugins. Likewise, if a plugin has many problems it can be a barrier to many websites achieving accessibility compliance.
This session will cover accessibility best practices for theme and plugin developers, including considerations for ensuring accessibility on settings and report screens in the wp-admin. Plugin and theme developers will learn accessibility basics and how to test their code for accessibility problems. There will also be a discussion on how to prioritize issues and how to roll out accessibility fixes if backward compatibility is a concern.