Theme check
Is PaperoNews accessible?
No automated check can say that a theme is accessible. Here is what one found: on October 28, 2026, our check of PaperoNews 1.0.0 on its WordPress.org preview found 29 accessibility problems in the theme's own parts (its header, menus, footer and layout), 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Links with no text | Serious | 8 | 2.4.4 | Yes |
| Text with too little contrast | Serious | 1 | 1.4.3 | No, needs a person |
| Content outside the page regions | Moderate | 7 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Page has no main content region | Moderate | 1 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
| Zoom is blocked on phones | Moderate | 1 | 1.4.4 | Yes |
| Page has no main heading | Moderate | 1 | 1.3.1 | No, needs a person |
| Alt text repeats the text next to it | Minor | 10 | Best practice | No, needs a person |
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. PaperoNews may have changed since October 28, 2026.
How to fix them
- Links with no text. Fixlight names social and common icon links automatically. For the rest, add alt text to the image inside the link or an aria-label to the link.
- 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.
- Zoom is blocked on phones. Fixlight fixes this automatically by removing user-scalable=no and maximum-scale from the viewport tag.
- Page has no main heading. Make sure the page title is a level 1 heading. Most themes do this; page builders sometimes do not.
- Alt text repeats the text next to it. Describe what the image shows instead, or leave the alt text empty if the text next to it already says it all.
What the free Fixlight plugin does here
Of these, the free plugin fixes links with no text, 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, page has no main content region, page has no main heading, alt text repeats the text next to it) need a change in the theme's settings or code.
About PaperoNews
- By alexvtn, 90+ active installs on WordPress.org (number 438 by installs when we checked).
- Version checked: 1.0.0. Preview: wp-themes.com/paperonews/.
- Theme author? If you've fixed these, write to fixlight@fernwaylabs.com and we'll check again.