Transcript
[00:00:19] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.
Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, why accessibility in WordPress themes is easier than you think.
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So on the podcast today we have Jessica Lyschik. Jessica is a longtime member of the WordPress community who’s been working in the ecosystem since 2015. She’s spent years learning and advocating for web accessibility, both as a developer and as an active community participant, joining agencies, working on theme reviews, and helping improve standards.
Many theme creators assume that making themes accessible is an intimidating task, but Jessica’s here to show you that achieving an accessibility ready WordPress theme is more straightforward than you might imagine.
Her WordCamp Europe 2026 presentation, accessibility in themes, easier than you think, aimed to demystify the requirements for accessible themes. Explaining what the WordPress guidelines mean in practise, where the low hanging fruit is, and how both block and classic themes can reach accessibility ready status with manageable efforts.
We talk about the personal and moral journey that brings developers to accessibility. The technical hurdles and documentation challenges, and the ways in which things like AI agents are putting accessibility in the spotlight for