Genesis Accessible 1.3 has been released! You can download the new version from the repository, or update from within your WordPress admin.
What’s Changed?
Version 1.2 was released around the same time as Genesis 2.2. It was significant because Rian incorporated a significant amount of the functionality of this plugin directly into the Genesis Framework itself. From that point on, the settings in this plugin implemented the Framework’s accessibility features, rather than the plugin’s, unless your site had not updated to Genesis 2.2.
At this point, it’s been three years since that release, and most of the newer child themes for Genesis implement the framework accessibility support. Version 1.3 of the plugin adds notices to let you know what accessibility features your child theme already includes:
- 404-page: a more helpful “page not found”
- drop-down-menu: accessible menus
- headings: semantic headings
- rems: support for scalable fonts
- search-form: proper labels for the search form
- skip-links: in page navigation for screen readers and keyboard users
The plugin no longer overrides the support added by the child theme (sometimes features were actually removed if they weren’t checked in the plugin settings), but merges with them.
If you are using an older version of Genesis, the new preferred version is 2.3.1, and you will see a notice advising you of this. Older versions of Genesis are still supported in this version of the plugin, but you really ought to update.
Genesis Accessible also brings on a new contributor/author, Robin Cornett.
Do you still need to use Genesis Accessible?
That’s part of the goal with this plugin release, to make you ask this very question. If your child theme includes accessibility support, a lot of what this plugin includes will be redundant, so the answer may be no. The exception is in the WordPress Accessibility Settings section, which includes two settings not covered by the Framework:
- Remove title attribute from links: removes the redundant title attributes from links and images in the content
- Remove h1 from editor toolbar: removes the “Heading 1” format from the WordPress editor
The updated banner image is thanks to Nick van der Zwan.