We're pleased to announce that from version Uncode 2.9.3, we've updated our theme to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. These guidelines ensure digital content is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.

The WCAG 2.2 standards will become legally mandatory for many organizations beginning June 28, 2025. Non-compliance can result in significant consequences, including legal liability and financial penalties.

Recognizing the importance of these standards, our team has worked diligently to implement WCAG requirements across the Uncode WordPress Theme well ahead of the deadline. This proactive approach ensures that your websites and applications built with Uncode will have a strong foundation for accessibility compliance.

Global accessibility standards

Uncode's accessibility improvements align with multiple international standards and regulations. By building on Uncode, you're taking a significant step toward meeting these varied regulatory requirements:

• WCAG: The internationally recognized standard for web accessibility
• ADA: U.S. legislation prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities
• EAA: EU directive ensuring accessibility of products and services
• Section 508: U.S. federal requirement for accessibility of information technology
• AODA: Canadian legislation for accessibility standards

Who must comply?

Under the upcoming WCAG 2.2 requirements, compliance will be mandatory for a wide range of organizations, particularly those in regulated sectors. Government and public sector websites, educational institutions, healthcare providers, and financial services must all adhere to these standards. Similarly, large corporations, multinational companies, e-commerce platforms, transportation services, tourism providers, and essential service companies will need to ensure their digital presence meets accessibility requirements.

Non-compliance can lead to serious consequences across multiple fronts. Financial penalties can be substantial—reaching up to €20,000 per instance in some EU jurisdictions—while US organizations face potential ADA lawsuits with settlements typically ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. As digital accessibility increasingly becomes recognized as a civil right, enforcement is becoming stricter and penalties more severe across jurisdictions worldwide.

Framework and accessibility option

This update significantly enhances Uncode's accessibility foundation with numerous technical improvements implemented by default across all theme elements. We've integrated proper ARIA attributes, semantic HTML5 roles (menu, menuitem, presentation, button), and other accessibility enhancements throughout all Uncode modules and components. These built-in improvements ensure that every website created with Uncode starts with a solid accessibility foundation.

Beyond these default enhancements, we've also added a dedicated option in Theme Options → Extra → Accessibility that provides additional compliance features for sites requiring the highest level of accessibility standards. screenshot

When enabled, this feature:

• Adds a "Skip to Main Content" link that appears only when users press the Tab key, allowing keyboard users to bypass navigation and access the main content directly
• Implements additional JavaScript that improves accessibility for Contact Form 7 when labels are missing, and enhances Akismet with minor fixes to validate extra form elements
• Applies visible outlines to form fields and buttons when navigating with the Tab key, making it clear which element currently has focus
• Adds a "media_link" parameter to Media thumbnails to differentiate it from the link on the Title, preventing duplicate links that accessibility testing tools often flag

We recommend enabling this option for all sites where accessibility compliance is important. These enhancements won't affect the visual appearance of your site for mouse users but will significantly improve the experience for keyboard users and those using assistive technologies.

Testing and validation

During our development process, we conducted comprehensive accessibility testing using three different industry-standard tools:

• AccessiBe AccessScan (https://accessibe.com/accessscan)
• Accessibility Checker (https://www.accessibilitychecker.org/)
• WAVE by WebAIM (https://wave.webaim.org/)

For our validation process, we specifically created a demonstration page that carefully implements all accessibility best practices. We meticulously addressed every aspect of accessibility compliance, including proper color contrast ratios, descriptive alt tags for images, semantic markup, and keyboard navigation.

It's important to note that while this test page fully passes accessibility evaluations, other pages in our demo collection may not currently meet all standards. This isn't due to technical limitations of the theme, but rather because we haven't yet updated all 300+ demo pages with the necessary content-level accessibility improvements. This distinction highlights the dual nature of accessibility compliance as explained in the "Shared Responsibility for Compliance" section below.

• Classic Business (Uncode Accessibility test page)

Our optimized test page successfully passed all evaluations across the testing tools. This demonstrates that Uncode provides a robust technical foundation for creating fully accessible websites when combined with thoughtful content creation.

Shared responsibility for compliance

While Uncode provides the technical framework for accessibility, achieving full compliance is a shared responsibility. As a website creator, your content creation and design choices play a crucial role in meeting accessibility standards. Key areas requiring your attention include:

• Image alt tags: Providing descriptive alternative text for all images
• Color contrast: Ensuring sufficient contrast between text and background colors
• Meaningful link text: Using descriptive link text instead of generic phrases like "click here"
• Proper heading structure: Organizing content with logical heading levels (H1, H2, etc.)
• Keyboard navigation: Testing that all interactive elements are accessible via keyboard
• Form labels: Including clear labels for all form fields

Uncode provides the tools and structure to support these best practices, but implementation requires thoughtful content creation on your part.

Practical insights

During the development of our WCAG-compliant test page, we gathered several practical insights that might help you in your design process:

• Color contrast: Use tools like the Carnegie Museums Web Accessibility Color Tool to verify that your color combinations meet contrast requirements
• Text over images: While placing text over images is acceptable, ensure you apply a gradient that adequately covers the text area to maintain readability
• Colored backgrounds: On colored backgrounds, acceptable contrast is related to font size. Larger text can have slightly lower contrast while remaining compliant
• Text animation effects: Some text animation effects may be flagged as accessibility errors in certain contexts. Use them sparingly and thoughtfully
• Letter spacing: Setting letter spacing to -1px is often flagged as an error, even for large text. We recommend keeping it at 0px to ensure maximum readability
• Duplicate links: Having multiple identical links on the same page can create confusion for screen reader users. Ensure each link has a unique purpose or description

Ongoing commitment

Our commitment to accessibility is ongoing and evolving. As web accessibility standards continue to develop, we're dedicated to keeping Uncode at the forefront of inclusive design. We understand that implementing accessibility features can sometimes present unique challenges, especially when balancing design aesthetics with functional requirements. If you encounter any core accessibility issues while using Uncode, we encourage you to open a ticket. Our development team will investigate and address these concerns promptly.