Matt Mullenweg Calls WordPress's Theme Accessibility Overhaul 'Permanently Delayed'

If your theme carries the “accessibility-ready” tag in the WordPress.org theme directory, you’re caught in the middle of a dispute over whether you still need to act before a September 30 deadline.

What happened

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has moved to shut down a WordPress Accessibility Team effort to enforce updated theme accessibility standards. Posting to the Make WordPress Accessibility blog on August 1, Mullenweg wrote that the initiative is “permanently delayed” and said the Accessibility Team has “overstepped its authority, usefulness, and charter.” He added that, going forward, any other team or committer can override the Accessibility Team’s suggestions or requests.

The comments came in response to a post from core committer Joe Dolson, who had extended the deadline for theme authors to comply with overhauled accessibility-ready guidelines from June 30 to September 30, giving the team more time to work through the 108 themes carrying the tag. Those guidelines, published in May, were the first full update to accessibility-ready theme requirements since 2012. Dolson and Equalize Digital CEO Amber Hinds spent two years rewriting the requirements to align with WCAG 2.2, the current web accessibility standard.

Dolson pushed back on Mullenweg within the same thread, writing that the accessibility-ready tag “has always been a fully voluntary program, in which theme authors agree to abide by a specific set of guidelines in order to participate,” and said the team would continue with the plan as stated. Hinds later asked Mullenweg directly whether he meant any theme should be able to carry the accessibility-ready tag without review, since the tag and its review process have existed since 2011. As of this writing, Mullenweg has not answered her question.

Why it matters if you run a WordPress site

If you’re using a theme tagged accessibility-ready, the team’s plan calls for delisting non-compliant themes starting October 1 unless the theme author submits a re-review request. Dolson says that plan still stands. Mullenweg says the initiative is over. Neither has publicly reconciled the two positions, so theme authors don’t currently have a single, authoritative answer on whether re-review is still required.

What to do

If you maintain or rely on a theme with the accessibility-ready tag, don’t assume the September 30 deadline has been cancelled. Check the Make WordPress Accessibility blog for updates before that date, and submit a review request if your theme hasn’t gone through one under the new WCAG 2.2-aligned guidelines. If you’re choosing a theme for accessibility reasons, treat the accessibility-ready tag as unreliable until this is resolved, and verify accessibility claims independently rather than relying on the tag alone.

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