VR Viewer

Accessibility

The goal of website accessibility is to ensure that your website can be navigated easily by as many users as possible. For those in education, this may include laws and/or guidelines that require usability for users who rely on assistive technology. Link

WordPress makes an effort to “follow web design standards and best practices” in regard to accessibility. They also provide a tag for “Accessibility Ready Themes” in their theme repository. It should be noted that even these themes should still be personally vetted for accessibility.

Plugins

We offer two plugins that can assist with making your website more accessible. These plugins can not correct every problem but can correct some common accessibility issues.

Accessibility Plugin
The first, simply titled “Accessibility“, helps remedy many common accessibility problems in many WordPress themes. As noted in the documentation for this plugin, beginning with a theme that is already quite accessible will greatly help your efforts.

Divi Accessibility
The second is related specifically to the Divi theme by Elegant Themes. Divi has become one of the most used themes in the WordPress ecosystem. Many of our users choose to use Divi as their theme. As such, we have built a plugin to extend the accessibility of Divi. This plugin fixes quite a few accessibility issues with the Divi theme. Again, it can not correct every problem automatically, but it is a good starting point.

Tools

Using an accessibility plugin is a great place to start, but there will inevitably still be accessibility issues with any website. For this reason, it is a great idea to use accessibility tools to find errors you can fix manually.

WAVE Web Accessibility Tool
WAVE is a free tool created by WebAIM to test the accessibility of websites. It provides a scan of any URL you enter to test for common accessibility issues. WAVE also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox for easier testing. Using the WAVE tool is a great way to identify accessibility concerns that you may have overlooked.

Notes

Mac/Safari Accessibility Differences
Apple has made the design choice to use the Tab key to switch between objects rather than links. This is a different approach than the one typically taken by most browsers and should be accounted for as you test the keyboard accessibility of your website. To test the same user experience you would expect in other browsers you can change this setting in Safari under Preferences>Advanced.

Block: Button

Button blocks are not semantically buttons, but links inside a styled div. 

If you do not add a link, a link tag without an anchor will be used.

Check to make sure that the text wraps correctly when the button has more than one line of text, and when it is extra long.

Buttons have three styles: 

If the theme has a custom color palette, test that background color and text color settings work correctly. 

Now lets test how buttons display together with large texts.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec mollis. Quisque convallis libero in sapien pharetra tincidunt. Aliquam elit ante, malesuada id, tempor eu, gravida id, odio.

Maecenas suscipit, risus et eleifend imperdiet, nisi orci ullamcorper massa, et adipiscing orci velit quis magna. Praesent sit amet ligula id orci venenatis auctor. Phasellus porttitor, metus non tincidunt dapibus, orci pede pretium neque, sit amet adipiscing ipsum lectus et libero. Aenean bibendum. Curabitur mattis quam id urna.

Vivamus dui. Donec nonummy lacinia lorem. Cras risus arcu, sodales ac, ultrices ac, mollis quis, justo. Sed a libero. Quisque risus erat, posuere at, tristique non, lacinia quis, eros.

Block: Image

Welcome to image alignment! If you recognize this post, it is because these are blocks that have been converted from the classic Markup: Image Alignment post. The best way to demonstrate the ebb and flow of the various image positioning options is to nestle them snuggly among an ocean of words. Grab a paddle and let’s get started. Be sure to try it in RTL mode. Left should stay left and right should stay right for both reading directions.

On the topic of alignment, it should be noted that users can choose from the options of None, Left, Right, and Center. If the theme has added support for align wide, images can also be wide and full width. Be sure to test this page in RTL mode.

In addition, they also get the options of the image dimensions 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% or a set width and height.

Image Alignment 580x300

The image above happens to be centered.

Image Alignment 150x150

The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

And just when you thought we were done, we’re going to do them all over again with captions!

Image Alignment 580x300
Look at 580×300 getting some caption love.

The image above happens to be centered. The caption also has a link in it, just to see if it does anything funky.

Image Alignment 150x150
Itty-bitty caption.

The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400
Massive image comment for your eyeballs.

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200
Feels good to be right all the time.

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

Imagine that we would find a use for the extra wide image! This image has the wide width alignment:

Image Alignment 1200x4002

Can we go bigger? This image has the full width alignment:

Image Alignment 1200x4002

And that’s a wrap, yo! You survived the tumultuous waters of alignment. Image alignment achievement unlocked! One last thing: The last item in this post’s content is a thumbnail floated right. Make sure any elements after the content are clearing properly.

Block: Cover

This is a left aligned cover block with a background image.

The cover block lets you add text on top of images or videos.

This blocktype has several alignment options, and you can also align or center the text inside the block.

The background image can be fixed and you can change its opacity and add an overlay color.

Make sure that the text wraps correctly over the image, and that text markup and alignments are working.

The next image should have a pink overlay color, the text should be bold and aligned to the left:

A center aligned cover image block, with a left aligned text.

This is a full width cover block with a fixed background image with a 20% opacity.

Make sure that all the text is readable.

Our last cover image block has a wide width.

This is a wide cover block with a video background.

Compare the video and image blocks.
This block is centered.

The block below has no alignment, and the text is a link. Overlay colors must also work with video backgrounds.

Block: Columns

This page tests how the theme displays the columns block. The first block tests a two column block with paragraphs.

This is the second column. It should align next to the first column. Reduce the browser window width to test the responsiveness.

This is the second column block. It has 3 columns.

Paragraph 2 is in the middle.

Paragraph 3 is in the last column.

The third column block has 4 columns. Make sure that all the text is visible and that it is not cut off.

Now the columns are getting narrower.

The margins between the columns should be wide enough,

so that the content of the columns does not run into or overlap each other.

Column one.

Column two.

Column three.

Column four.

Column five.

To change the number of columns, select the column block to open the settings panel. You can show up to 6 columns. If the theme has support for wide align, you can also set the alignments to wide and full width.

Below is a column block with six columns, and no alignment:

Column one.

Column two.

Column three.

Column four.

Column five.

Column six.

Next is a 3 column block, with a wide alignment:

Column one.

Column two.

Column three.

And here is a two column block with full width, and a longer text. Make sure that the text wraps correctly.

This is column one. Sometimes, you may want to use columns to display a larger text, so, lets add some more words.   Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec mollis. Quisque convallis libero in sapien pharetra tincidunt. Aliquam elit ante, malesuada id, tempor eu, gravida id, odio. Maecenas suscipit, risus et eleifend imperdiet, nisi orci ullamcorper massa, et adipiscing orci velit quis magna. Praesent sit amet ligula id orci venenatis auctor. Phasellus porttitor, metus non tincidunt dapibus, orci pede pretium neque, sit amet adipiscing ipsum lectus et libero. Aenean bibendum. Curabitur mattis quam id urna. Vivamus dui. Donec nonummy lacinia lorem. Cras risus arcu, sodales ac, ultrices ac, mollis quis, justo. Sed a libero. Quisque risus erat, posuere at, tristique non, lacinia quis, eros.

Column two. Cras volutpat, lacus quis semper pharetra, nisi enim dignissim est, et sollicitudin quam ipsum vel mi. Sed commodo urna ac urna. Nullam eu tortor. Curabitur sodales scelerisque magna. Donec ultricies tristique pede. Nullam libero. Nam sollicitudin felis vel metus. Nullam posuere molestie metus. Nullam molestie, nunc id suscipit rhoncus, felis mi vulputate lacus, a ultrices tortor dolor eget augue. Aenean ultricies felis ut turpis. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Suspendisse placerat tellus ac nulla. Proin adipiscing sem ac risus. Maecenas nisi. Cras semper.

We can also add blocks inside columns:

  1. This is a numbered list,
  2. inside a 3 column block
  3. with a wide alignment.

The middle column has a paragraph with an image block below.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec mollis. Quisque convallis libero in sapien pharetra tincidunt. Aliquam elit ante, malesuada id, tempor eu, gravida id, odio. Maecenas suscipit, risus et eleifend imperdiet, nisi orci ullamcorper massa, et adipiscing orci velit quis magna.

-This third column has a quote

Theme Reviewer

But wait there is more!  We also have a block called Media & Text, which is a two column block that helps you display media and text content next to each other, without having to first setup a column block:

dsc20050813_115856_52

Media & Text

A paragraph block sits ready to be used, below your headline.

Block: Gallery

Gallery blocks have two settings: the number of columns, and whether or not images should be cropped. The default number of columns is three, and the maximum number of columns is eight.

Below is a three column gallery at full width, with cropped images.

Some more text for taking up space.

A two column gallery, aligned to the left.

In the editor, the image captions can be edited directly by clicking on the text.

If the number of images cannot be divided into the number of columns you have selected, the default is to have the last image(s) automatically stretch to the width of your gallery.

A four column gallery with a wide width:

A five column gallery with normal images:

This is the same gallery, but with cropped images.

Six columns: does it work at all window sizes?

Seven columns: how does this look on a narrow window?

Eight columns:

Block: Quote

The quote block has two styles, regular:

Gutenberg is more than an editor.

The Gutenberg Team

and large:


Yes, it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams, the most abundant and most marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men! Through it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men.


Johannes Gutenberg

The quote blocks themselves has no alignments but the text can be aligned, bold, italic, and linked:

Right

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In addition to the quote block, we also have the pull quote, with a regular and a solid color style.

You can change the color of the border and the text with the regular style:

In addition to the quote block, we also have the pull quote

Theme Reviewer

Or change the background color and text color with the solid color style:

a solid color style

Theme Reviewer

Block category: Common

The Common category includes the following blocks: Paragraph, image, headings, list, gallery, quote, audio, cover, video.

The paragraph block is the default block type.  It should not have any alignment of any kind. It should just flow like you would normally expect. Nothing fancy. Just straight up text, free flowing, with love.

This paragraph is left aligned.

This italic paragraph is right aligned.

Neither of these paragraphs care about politics, but this one is bold, medium sized and has a drop cap.

This paragraph is centered.

This paragraph prefers Jazz over Justin Timberlake. It also uses the small font size.

This paragraph has something important to say:  It has a large font size, which defaults to 36px.

The huge text size defaults to 46px, but the size can be customized.

This paragraph is colorful, with a red background and white text. Colored blocks should have a high enough contrast, so that the text is readable.

Below this block, you will see a single image.

Image Alignment 150x150

H1 Heading

H2 Heading

H3 Heading

H4 Heading

H5 Heading
H6 Heading

Ordered list

  1. The software should be licensed under the GNU Public License.
  2. The software should be freely available to anyone to use for any purpose, and without permission.
  3. The software should be open to modifications.
    1. Any modifications should be freely distributable at no cost and without permission from its creators.
  4. The software should provide a framework for translation to make it globally accessible to speakers of all languages.
  5. The software should provide a framework for extensions so modifications and enhancements can be made without modifying core code

Unordered list

  • One
  • Two
  • Three
    • Four
  • Five

Quote

Cite

Cover block with background image

The file block has a setting that lets us show or hide a download button with editable text:

Video blocks have settings for showing and hiding the playback controls. Use autoplay and playback controls responsibly.

This is a video block caption.

The video block below is muted and has a poster image that displays before the video starts:

Just another University College London site