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Getting started with A11yMate. The plugin is not released yet, so these pages describe how it is designed to work.

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.5 or newer
  • PHP 7.4 or newer
  • A modern desktop browser for the admin, because the rendered pass runs in the browser

Install

A11yMate is coming soon to the WordPress.org plugin directory. When it is available you will be able to install it from Plugins, Add New by searching for A11yMate, or upload the zip with Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin. Then activate it. A new A11yMate menu appears in the admin.

Run your first scan

  1. Open A11yMate, Site Scan.
  2. Check the scope: which post types to include, the maximum number of pages and any URLs to exclude. The Free plan scans up to 25 pages.
  3. Choose Start scan. Keep the tab open: the rendered pass runs in your browser, in a hidden frame at 1280px and 375px wide. You can pause, resume or cancel, and if you close the tab the scan can be resumed.

Scheduled scans (Pro) and WP-CLI scans run the server pass only. The results tell you which rendered-pass rules were not checked.

Read the results

Issues are grouped by template. The same problem on the same element across many pages (a header, a footer or a sidebar) appears once, as "on 48 pages". Each issue has a severity, the WCAG criterion, why it matters and how to fix it. An issue is one of three things:

  • Open. It is there now.
  • Fixed. It disappeared on a later scan.
  • Ignored. You marked it, with a reason: false positive, will not fix or handled elsewhere.

The site score runs from 0 to 100 and is weighted by how serious each issue is and how many pages it affects. You can see it per page, per category and over time. Browse every check in the rules reference.

Fix things

Some fixes you can switch on yourself under A11yMate, Safe Fixes. All are off by default, and each explains what it changes:

  • Add a skip link
  • Restore pinch-zoom
  • Show a visible focus ring
  • Add "(opens in a new tab)" to links that open one
  • Add iframe titles
  • Respect reduced motion
  • Underline links in content
  • Add a missing lang attribute
  • Remove positive tabindex values

For the rest, A11yMate gives you the exact change to make. Alt text is fixed in the Alt Text Manager. Colour and type fixes come from Colour Studio and Typography Studio (Pro), where applying a change to your theme is opt-in and comes with an undo.

Use the editor assistant

Open any post in the block editor and look for the A11yMate panel in the sidebar. It checks as you write and shows a score for the post. Select an issue to jump to the block. It never blocks publishing, unless you turn on Require a check before publishing in Settings.

WP-CLI

wp a11ymate scan
wp a11ymate issues --format=table
wp a11ymate issues --format=csv
wp a11ymate issues --format=json
wp a11ymate score

REST API

The REST API lives under /wp-json/a11ymate/v1. Every route is checked against the capability you choose in Settings.

Hooks

Three hooks are available to developers:

  • a11ymate_rules: a filter for registering your own rules, or changing existing ones.
  • a11ymate_scan_urls: a filter for changing which URLs are scanned.
  • a11ymate_scan_complete: an action that runs when a scan finishes.

Need more? Get in touch.