Theme check
Is Graphene accessible?
No automated check can say that a theme is accessible. Here is what one found: on October 28, 2026, our check of Graphene 2.9.6 on its WordPress.org preview found 22 accessibility problems in the theme's own parts (its header, menus, footer and layout), 8 of them serious or critical.
We make Fixlight, a free WordPress plugin that fixes some of these problems, so we're not neutral. The measurements below are what our check found; anyone can repeat it with the same method.
What the check found
| Problem | Impact | Times | WCAG | Free Fixlight plugin fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certain ARIA roles must contain particular children | Critical | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Buttons with no text | Critical | 1 | 4.1.2 | Yes |
| Links shown only by colour | Serious | 4 | 1.4.1 | Yes |
| ARIA input fields must have an accessible name | Serious | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Text with too little contrast | Serious | 1 | 1.4.3 | No, needs a person |
| Content outside the page regions | Moderate | 13 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Page has no main content region | Moderate | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
The check also found 54 problems inside the sample posts themselves (form fields without a label, drop-down lists with no label, scrolling areas keyboard users cannot scroll, content outside the page regions). Those come from WordPress.org's sample content, which is the same for every theme, so they're not counted here.
How we checked: One page, the theme's home page on WordPress.org's preview (wp-themes.com), which shows the same sample posts for every theme. It was loaded in a real browser and checked with axe-core's WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules and its best practices. Problems inside the sample posts are not counted against the theme, except colour problems its styling causes. Automated checks find many problems, but not all of them. Your site, with your own content, settings and plugins, will give different results. Graphene may have changed since October 28, 2026.
How to fix them
- Certain ARIA roles must contain particular children.
- Buttons with no text. Fixlight names common icon buttons automatically. For the rest, add an aria-label that says what the button does.
- Links shown only by colour. Turn on "Underline links in text" on the Fixes screen, or underline links in your theme's settings.
- ARIA input fields must have an accessible name.
- Text with too little contrast. Make the text darker or the background lighter until the contrast ratio is at least 4.5:1 (3:1 for large text). Change it in your theme's colour settings so it applies everywhere.
- Content outside the page regions. This usually comes from the theme or a page builder section. Put page content inside the main area, or ask your theme developer to add header, main and footer regions.
- Page has no main content region. Use a page template that wraps the content in a <main> element. Blank page builder templates often leave it out.
What the free Fixlight plugin does here
Of these, the free plugin fixes buttons with no text, links shown only by colour on its own, in the HTML the site sends, with no widget. The rest (certain aria roles must contain particular children, aria input fields must have an accessible name, text with too little contrast, content outside the page regions, page has no main content region) need a change in the theme's settings or code.
About Graphene
- By silverks, 10,000+ active installs on WordPress.org (number 350 by installs when we checked).
- Version checked: 2.9.6. Preview: wp-themes.com/graphene/.
- Theme author? If you've fixed these, write to fixlight@fernwaylabs.com and we'll check again.