Description
DigitalPlugs ADA Compliance scans your posts and pages for real, code-level accessibility defects — missing alt text, broken heading structure, unlabeled form fields, low-contrast text and more — and shows you exactly what to fix and why, right inside the post editor. Several of the most common issues can be fixed with one click, and 12 optional site-wide fixes correct common problems across your whole site, including your theme — all free, with no account or license required.
Unlike accessibility overlay widgets, this plugin does not claim to make your site instantly “compliant.” It finds real WCAG 2.x and Section 508 failures in your actual markup so you, or your developer, can fix them.
Useful links
- Upgrade to Pro — full-site scanning, bulk auto-fix, scheduled reports and more
- Documentation — the full user guide for every feature in this readme
- Get an Accessibility Consult, or Hire Us — want a human to look at your site, or remediation work done for you?
Scanning
- Unlimited posts and pages, on unlimited sites — no artificial cap of any kind on the free tier
- Real-time scanning on every publish or update (can be turned off in Settings)
- On-demand “Start Scan” of your whole site, processed in safe background batches so it never times out
- 57 individual accessibility checks (37 warnings, 20 best-practice alerts), covering:
- Images: missing, empty and invalid alt text; redundant alt/title; aria-hidden conflicts; image maps; self-linked images; invalid longdesc references
- Links: empty links, ambiguous link text, adjacent duplicate links, redundant link text, unannounced new-window links, bare URLs as link text, unlinked email addresses, broken same-page anchors, links dressed up as buttons
- Headings: missing, empty, skipped levels, missing or duplicate H1
- Forms: missing, empty or duplicate labels, mismatched label targets, ungrouped related fields
- Buttons: empty buttons with no accessible name
- Tables: missing or empty headers, invalid scope, layout tables, orphaned header references
- ARIA: invalid element references, empty labels, missing page language
- Media: autoplaying audio/video with no controls, embeds with no fallback text, audio/video with no nearby transcript mention
- Content hygiene: duplicate or blank titles, redundant title attributes, unreadable viewport-unit font sizing, fake paragraph spacing, malformed lists, duplicated table captions, deprecated blink/marquee elements
- Color & zoom: inline text/background combinations below the 4.5:1 minimum, absolute font sizing, viewport tags that block pinch-zoom
- Keyboard access: click-only handlers, disrupted tab order, meta-refresh redirects, JavaScript-only navigation menus
- WCAG 2.2: minimum target size (2.5.8), focus not obscured (2.4.11)
Fix issues without leaving wp-admin
Seven of the checks above include a real, working one-click Fix — free, unlimited, with no license required:
- Empty headings removed
- Missing form labels added (using the field’s own placeholder or name, never invented text)
- Redundant title attributes removed
- Positive tabindex clamped back to zero
- Site language set automatically from your site’s own locale
- A visually-hidden “(opens in a new window)” notice added to unannounced new-window links
- rel=”noopener” added to new-window links, closing a real security gap too
Every fix is verified immediately after applying it — the plugin rechecks that exact spot against the same rule that flagged it, and reopens the issue for manual review rather than marking it fixed if it’s still failing.
Site-wide accessibility fixes
The Accessibility Fixes screen has 12 free fixes that correct common problems on every page as it loads, including markup from your theme and other plugins. Each one is off until you turn it on:
- Add page language & text direction — every page declares its language and text direction, so screen readers pronounce it correctly
- Add a “Skip to main content” link — keyboard users can jump past the menu (not added if your theme already has a working one)
- Allow pinch-to-zoom on mobile — removes viewport settings that stop visitors zooming in
- Always-visible keyboard focus — a clear outline around whatever a keyboard user is on, in a color you choose
- Restore natural keyboard order — removes forced tab positions so Tab follows reading order
- Underline links in content — links in your text stand out without relying on color; menus and buttons keep their style
- Announce links that open a new tab — screen readers hear “opens in a new window”
- Keep every link in the same tab — stops links opening new windows on their own
- Label search boxes — search fields and icon-only search buttons get a name
- Label comment form fields — Name, Email, Website and Comment are always announced
- Block empty searches — a clear, announced “Please enter a search term” instead of a page listing every post
- Remove redundant tooltip text — tooltips that only repeat alt text, link text or a label are removed; tooltips that add information are kept
These fixes never change your saved content and never run inside page builder editors, so you can switch any of them off again at any time. The Dashboard keeps listing the original issues — use its one-click Fix to correct your content permanently.
Where you see it
- A dashboard with an issue summary, a compliance score that rises as you fix issues, and a per-check breakdown
- A filterable, sortable issues list — filter by status, error type or post type, search by title or post ID, and Fix, Ignore, Recheck or View the offending markup for any issue
- A Block Editor sidebar panel showing the open issues for the post you’re editing, with a one-click Recheck that rescans without a full save
- A matching notice for the Classic Editor
- An Accessibility Fixes screen where you switch each site-wide fix on or off
- A Guidelines Reference page explaining every check in plain English, with its WCAG citation
- A Site Health status card summarizing your site’s open issues
- A Help page with documentation, an accessibility consult link, and — once you’re ready — the upgrade path to Pro
Configuration
- Choose which post types are scanned
- Turn real-time scanning on or off
- Switch each site-wide fix on or off, and set the focus outline color and the skip link’s target
- Choose whether plugin data is removed on uninstall
Built to the standard it enforces
The plugin’s own admin screens and Block Editor panel are audited against the same WCAG 2.2 AA and Section 508 rules the scanner checks your content for: full keyboard operability, visible focus states, correctly associated form labels, non-skipping heading structure, and severity information that is never color-only.
Free vs. Pro
Everything in this readme so far — all 57 checks, all 7 one-click fixes, all 12 site-wide fixes, unlimited posts on unlimited sites — is completely free, forever, with no license required. Pro is genuinely separate functionality on top of it, mainly around scanning content the free plugin doesn’t reach at all, and automating what you’d otherwise do by hand:
- [Pro] 8 additional accessibility checks (65 total)
- [Pro] Choose your compliance standard: WCAG 2.2 Level AA, Section 508, or the EU’s European Accessibility Act — rules that don’t apply under your chosen standard are skipped and hidden from the reference list
- [Pro] Full-site scanning: widgets, menus, theme templates, taxonomy terms, shortcode output, your theme’s own CSS, WooCommerce products, EDD downloads, and any custom post type
- [Pro] “Fix All Safe Issues” bulk auto-fix in one batch, with a full undo log
- [Pro] 4 more site-wide fixes: file type & size on download links, missing page titles, labels for every unlabeled form field (including other plugins’ forms), and restricting PDF uploads
- [Pro] Live, on-canvas issue markers right inside the Elementor editor
- [Pro] A front-end accessibility checker with on-page markers and a screen-reader simulator
- [Pro] A visitor-facing accessibility toolbar (text size, contrast, underlining, focus visibility)
- [Pro] Scheduled scans with email digests
- [Pro] VPAT / ACR report generation and Excel export
- [Pro] WooCommerce product image alt-text audit across your whole catalog
- [Pro] Multisite network-wide compliance rollup
- [Pro] REST API, WP-CLI, and webhooks
- [Pro] White-label branding for agencies
- [Pro] Priority support
Every Pro tier unlocks that exact same list — Professional, Small Business and Agency differ only in how many sites one license covers, so pick based on how many sites you manage. See current pricing and get DigitalPlugs ADA Compliance Pro
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the
digitalplugs-ada-compliancefolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install it through the Plugins screen in wp-admin. - Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” screen in WordPress.
- Visit ADA Compliance in your wp-admin menu to run your first scan.
FAQ
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Does this plugin make my site legally compliant?
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No plugin can guarantee legal compliance on its own. This plugin finds real accessibility defects in your content and helps you fix them, which is the most effective way to reduce risk — but compliance depends on your entire site, not just the content this plugin scans.
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How is this different from an accessibility overlay widget?
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This plugin scans and helps you fix your underlying HTML — it edits the real markup your content is made of. Its optional site-wide fixes are small, specific corrections you switch on one at a time (a skip link, a visible focus outline, labels on unlabeled fields), each explained on the Accessibility Fixes screen. It does not inject a widget that claims to fix accessibility for visitors automatically, and it never claims instant compliance. Overlay-only solutions have faced FTC enforcement action for exactly that kind of claim, and are frequently rejected by courts as evidence of compliance.
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What exactly do I get for free, versus what requires Pro?
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Every check, every one-click fix and every site-wide fix that ships in the free plugin’s own code is fully unlocked for free, for unlimited posts on unlimited sites — nothing in the free plugin is a locked trial. Pro is genuinely separate, additional functionality: scanning content types the free plugin doesn’t scan at all (widgets, menus, theme files, WooCommerce, and more), bulk automation, scheduled reporting, and agency features like white-labeling and multisite. See the Free vs. Pro list above for the full breakdown.
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Is the plugin’s own admin interface accessible?
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Yes. DigitalPlugs ADA Compliance is built and audited against the same WCAG 2.2 and Section 508 rules it checks your content for — every admin screen and the Block Editor sidebar panel are checked for full keyboard operability, a logical tab order, visible focus styles, correctly associated form labels, a non-skipping heading structure, and severity information that is never conveyed by color alone. The “View Code” preview window traps keyboard focus while open and returns focus to the link that opened it when closed. If you find an accessibility issue in the plugin’s own interface, please report it on the support forum — we treat that as a bug.
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Will this slow down my site?
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No. Scanning happens in wp-admin only — on save, or during a background “Start Scan” batch — never on the front end a visitor sees. Site-wide fixes you turn on add one small script and stylesheet that ship with the plugin, with no external requests; while every fix is off, nothing loads on the front end at all.
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Will the site-wide fixes change my content or break my page builder?
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No. They never edit your saved posts or pages, and they don’t run inside page builder editors such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi or Bricks, so nothing they add can be saved into your content by accident. Every fix is off until you turn it on, and switching it off removes its effect immediately. After turning a fix on, check a few pages of your site.
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Contributors & Developers
“DigitalPlugs ADA Compliance” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “DigitalPlugs ADA Compliance” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1
- New: Accessibility Fixes screen with 12 free site-wide fixes — page language & text direction, skip link, pinch-to-zoom, visible keyboard focus, natural keyboard order, underlined content links, new-tab announcements, keeping links in the same tab, labels for search boxes and comment fields, blocking empty searches, and removing redundant tooltips. Each is off until you turn it on.
- Improved: the compliance score now averages each scanned page’s own pass rate, so it rises as you fix issues instead of staying at 0% until a page is completely clean.
- Improved: the translation template now includes every current string.
1.0.0
- Initial public release.
- 57 accessibility checks across images, links, headings, forms, buttons, tables, ARIA, media, content hygiene, color & zoom, and keyboard access.
- Real, working one-click fixes for 7 checks, free and unlimited, each verified immediately after applying.
- Real-time and on-demand scanning of posts and pages, with configurable scope and a choice of compliance standard (WCAG 2.2 AA, Section 508, or EAA).
- Dashboard, filterable issues list, Guidelines Reference page, Help page and Site Health integration.
- Block Editor sidebar panel and Classic Editor notice.