Theme check
Is Nirvana accessible?
No automated check can say that a theme is accessible. Here is what one found: on October 26, 2026, our check of Nirvana 1.6.5 on its WordPress.org preview found 47 accessibility problems in the theme's own parts (its header, menus, footer and layout), 40 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text with too little contrast | Serious | 39 | 1.4.3 | No, needs a person |
| Links shown only by colour | Serious | 1 | 1.4.1 | Yes |
| Content outside the page regions | Moderate | 3 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Banner landmark should not be contained in another landmark | Moderate | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| More than one page header | Moderate | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Page regions that cannot be told apart | Moderate | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Zoom is blocked on phones | Moderate | 1 | 1.4.4 | Yes |
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. Nirvana may have changed since October 26, 2026.
How to fix them
- 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.
- Links shown only by colour. Turn on "Underline links in text" on the Fixes screen, or underline links in your theme's settings.
- 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.
- Banner landmark should not be contained in another landmark.
- More than one page header. Keep one site header (<header> at page level). Use a <div> for other header-like areas.
- Page regions that cannot be told apart. When two regions of the same kind exist (two navigation menus, for example), give each a different aria-label.
- Zoom is blocked on phones. Fixlight fixes this automatically by removing user-scalable=no and maximum-scale from the viewport tag.
What the free Fixlight plugin does here
Of these, the free plugin fixes links shown only by colour, zoom is blocked on phones on its own, in the HTML the site sends, with no widget. The rest (text with too little contrast, content outside the page regions, banner landmark should not be contained in another landmark, more than one page header, page regions that cannot be told apart) need a change in the theme's settings or code.
About Nirvana
- By CryoutCreations, 10,000+ active installs on WordPress.org (number 280 by installs when we checked).
- Version checked: 1.6.5. Preview: wp-themes.com/nirvana/.
- Theme author? If you've fixed these, write to fixlight@fernwaylabs.com and we'll check again.