2026 Session Archive

Generative AI technology is evolving rapidly with enormous potential for people with disabilities. Join Ed Summers, a blind developer and Head of Accessibility at GitHub, for an exploration of positive impacts that are emerging within the disability community.

Most of us believe we are building accessible websites. We follow the guidelines, run the audits, and check the boxes. But meeting WCAG standards doesn't guarantee that all users feel welcome and wanted. It's a vast continuum between a compliant site, a site that works for everyone, and a site that feels intentionally designed for…

Do people really know what it means to live with epilepsy? Or do they think it’s just about seizures and loss of consciousness? Virginia Ciambriello has been asking herself this question since 2008, when she was diagnosed with epilepsy. What does it really mean to be on the web with this condition? It’s not just…

"Fix your website's accessibility with just one click!" It’s a tempting promise made by dozens of WordPress plugins and overlay tools. But in the real world, can automated scripts truly understand user intent, screen reader nuances, or complex keyboard navigation? In this session, we will move past the marketing hype and look at the hard…

AI-powered accessibility tools are rapidly being integrated into the WordPress ecosystem, from auto-generated alt text in media libraries to automated scanning tools and “one-click” accessibility plugins. These tools are often positioned as scalable solutions to long-standing accessibility challenges. This talk challenges that narrative. Drawing from real-world experience working across large, complex WordPress environments, Kevin Andrews…

Most accessibility training asks developers to think differently. This talk starts where they already are: their CI/CD pipeline. It shows how to add automated WCAG checks to a WordPress plugin workflow using tools many teams already know, including GitHub Actions, Docker, Playwright, and axe-core. Using a real plugin example, it walks through how to catch…

For digital creators, photographers, and organizational teams, managing image description metadata at scale has historically been a significant workflow challenge. For existing galleries and archives, addressing thousands of images missing alt text often feels insurmountable. For new content, writing descriptions from scratch for every single upload can be daunting, especially when alt text was already…

WooCommerce gives merchants tremendous flexibility, but that flexibility can make onboarding complex. A merchant may discover an extension in the Woo Marketplace, install it, connect a third-party account, configure business-specific settings, map products, validate checkout behavior, and find help across multiple Support paths. Each step is part of the user experience, and each step can…

"If you need an accommodation or would like to share feedback about accessibility, please contact us at accessibility@domain.com" Then what? Most accessibility policy pages are treated as a formality. A checkbox. A template pulled from a plugin or copied from another site. But for people with disabilities, this page is often the most important entry…

Accessibility issues rarely start as big, obvious problems. They slip in quietly. A heading skipped here. A vague link there. Instructions that make sense visually but fall apart for someone using assistive tech. None of these feel urgent in the moment, but over time they add up. In my work building certification exams and training…

Accessibility is too often framed as a legal requirement, a remediation project, or a box to check. Mark Wallach argues that this framing is too small. In this case study-informed session, Mark makes the case that accessibility in WordPress should be viewed as a strategic investment that reduces friction, broadens reach, strengthens trust, and improves…

AI is showing up all over the WordPress ecosystem: in writing tools, design workflows, code generation, plugin and theme development, accessibility scans, reporting engines, and emerging integrations such as MCP-based WordPress connectors. These tools can save time, reduce friction, and help accessibility professionals and WordPress practitioners move from blank page to basic prototype more quickly.…

Modern development teams have more accessibility tools than ever before. Automated audits run in CI/CD pipelines, browser extensions can detect common issues in seconds, and accessibility guidance is widely available. Yet accessibility bugs continue to reach production every day. Why? In this session, Osdeibi Acurero explores why accessibility issues persist even within mature development workflows.…

PDFs are widely used to share reports, forms, policies, guides, and other important information, yet they are so often overlooked in accessibility efforts. While many organisations may invest significant time in making their websites accessible, inaccessible PDFs can still create barriers for people who rely on assistive technologies. This session will explore the fundamentals of…

Accessibility is often treated as a set of guidelines or checks at the end of a project. But without clear, testable requirements, teams are left guessing what “accessible” actually means in practice. This session introduces accessibility acceptance criteria as a practical way to turn guidance into something teams can design, build, and test against with…

Even if a WordPress site is accessible at launch, it isn't guaranteed to stay that way. Websites are always evolving. There is new and changing content, new features and plugin upgrades. All of these affect accessibility, and this is often the time when accessibility starts to degrade. Accessibility doesn't usually fail because we don't care.…

Imagine opening a website and being overwhelmed by the amount of information, the vibrant colors, the moving elements, or the endless text. For many neurodivergent people, this is the typical experience on the internet. In this talk, we'll explore how to design and develop with different ways of processing the world in mind: autism, ADHD,…

Personas have been a staple of UX practice for decades, but when it comes to disability and accessibility, they attract a very specific kind of scepticism. Can a profile really capture the complexity of lived experience? Do they risk flattening disability into something neat and manageable? Or, used thoughtfully, can they play a genuinely useful…

Makarand Mane has spent years building WordPress websites — converting designs into functional, good-looking sites — without ever stopping to think about accessibility. In this honest, first-person session, he shares the moment he realised the sites he was proud of were failing a significant portion of users. He walks through the most common accessibility mistakes…

Your business may be ignoring 1.3 billion potential customers (16% of the world's population) simply because they cannot access your digital products. Priscilla Afia Opoku, an Accessibility Advocate, User Experience Researcher and Designer, breaks down the real impact of inaccessible digital products on businesses and the return on investment that comes with getting it right.…

Accessibility is often associated with technical requirements such as alt text, color contrast, and keyboard navigation. While these are essential, research into how people with different disabilities consume and interact with content reveals a much broader picture. Drawing from research conducted during the Outreachy internship with the Wikimedia Foundation, where the speaker explored tailored reading…

This training explores keyboard operability and common challenges faced by keyboard, adaptive switch, and joystick users. Some common challenges include: Problems which stem from non-intuitive UI design Difficulty in navigation due to poor design & implementation of User Interface controls and solutions Ideal implementation to promote logical and unhindered navigation Ideal focus management practices when…

Users zoom websites every day, but determining whether a zoom-related issue is actually an accessibility failure is not always as straightforward as it seems. During audits and remediation projects, teams regularly encounter content that wraps awkwardly, layouts that shift, buttons that move, and interfaces that simply look bad when zoomed. The question is: when does…

WCAG criteria tell you what to fix. They don't tell you what to do when your clients and other developers say no. Real accessibility work happens in the space between best practices and business reality. When you have to balance budget objections, brand guidelines, code conflicts, developers who say "not in WCAG", and customers who…