Accessible WordPress: ADA and WCAG for Puerto Rico businesses
Accessible themes, plugins, and content: ADA requirements for PR business sites.
Puerto Rico businesses with mainland clients face ADA lawsuits over inaccessible WordPress sites — unlabeled forms, insufficient contrast, mouse-only navigation. WCAG 2.1 AA is the standard referenced in continental legal settlements; Smashing Magazine publishes WordPress checklists we adapt for Puerto Rico clinics, hotels, and professional services.
Base theme matters: avoid multipurpose themes with autoplay animations and non-pausable sliders. Child theme with skip link, visible focus styles, correct heading hierarchy. Accessibility overlay plugins (UserWay) do not substitute correct code — OWASP and a11y community agree overlays are patch, not fix.
Editorial content: alt text on product and destination images, transcripts for marketing podcasts, captions on tourism promotional videos. Media library PDFs should be tagged PDF or HTML equivalent — tax forms and contracts are not excuse for scanned PDF illegible to screen readers.
Testing: WAVE and axe on key pages, quarterly keyboard-only navigation, contrast with Stark plugin. Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms configurable accessibly — test with NVDA before paid campaign.
ADA compliance reduces legal risk and expands market — older population in PR and tourists with accessibility needs represent revenue. Invest in accessible theme on redesign, not post-lawsuit settlement. Accessibility is increasingly frequent enterprise RFP requirement in mainland contracts served from PR.
Operations and execution — connecting strategy with what the team ships every week.
