When we announced the new accessibility-ready theme guidelines in May, the accessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) time set an ambitious timeline to re-review all themes and require action from theme authors by June 30th of this year.
Well, that date fled by three weeks ago, and the team hasn’t taken action yet to delist any themes.
The team has found that we need more time to be able to reasonably go through all themes and make progress, so we’re extending this deadline until September 30th, 2026.
What does this deadline mean?
As a theme author, we expect you to have contacted the accessibility ready team using our theme accessibility review request form. That review indicates that you have taken steps to improve your theme and move towards the new requirements, and are engaging on the process. As long as you have submitted the form and begun the process of fixing your theme, your theme will not be delisted from the directory.
On October 1st, any theme that has the accessibility-ready tag and has not requested a re-review will be de-listed.
What does “delisting” a theme mean?
Your theme is no longer visible in the theme directory. You are still able to submit updates to your theme, and all existing installations of your theme will still receive updates. But it will not appear in any theme directory searches or tag views.
What if my theme meets the requirements, anyway?
If you believe your theme meets the requirements, then submit the request form! We’re logging all the requests, so we have records of everybody who has made this request.
If I meet the old requirements, will I meet the new requirements?
No.
There are several new requirements that did not apply to the tag previously, so we expect that all authors will need to make theme updates.
Reviewed by @alh0319
#accessibility-ready
