Joomla Accessibility Checker

Accessibility on Joomla

Joomla organizes a site into articles, categories, menus and modules placed in template positions. The default Cassiopeia template, introduced with Joomla 4, was designed with accessibility in mind, so a Joomla site that still runs it starts from a good base.

Real-world Joomla sites are often older and more customized than that. They may run a commercial template, a page builder and a dozen extensions, and sites upgraded from Joomla 3 may still carry old overrides. The accessibility of the final page depends on all of those layers.

The Joomla Magazine describes how the default Cassiopeia template in Joomla 4 and later was built with accessibility in mind, including landmarks, ARIA attributes and keyboard-friendly menus. Sites that swap in a commercial template or add extensions can lose those gains. (opens in a new tab, source: Joomla Magazine: Joomla 4 Cassiopeia template)

Common Accessibility Issues on Joomla Sites

• Template overrides

  Overrides in the template’s html folder replace core output, and they can quietly drop labels, ARIA attributes and heading levels that Joomla would have produced.

• Module titles and positions

  Modules output their titles as headings, so a module placed in the sidebar can break the heading order, and empty modules leave empty landmarks.

• Articles edited in the editor

  Images inserted in the editor often go in without alt text, and text styled to look like a heading is a bold paragraph to a screen reader.

• Contact and form extensions

  The core contact form and form extensions such as RSForm or ChronoForms can ship fields with placeholders instead of labels and errors that are not announced.

• Page builders, sliders and galleries

  Commercial page builders and slider extensions generate nested markup, auto-advancing slides with no pause control and images without text alternatives.

How AccessBell Scans Your Joomla Site

1. Enter any public page. Paste the address of a page on your Joomla site into the scanner above. There is nothing to install: no plugin, no code snippet and no login.
2. We load it in a real browser. AccessBell opens the page in headless Chrome and runs its scripts, so it tests what your visitors actually see, including content added by your theme, apps or plugins.
3. We run the WCAG rules. The open-source axe-core engine checks the page against the standard you choose, and every result is mapped to the WCAG success criteria it affects.
4. You see what is wrong in seconds. The free scan lists every issue it finds, ranked by severity, with the WCAG criteria each one fails. Start a free trial to get the failing code and the fix for each one. Our methodology explains exactly what runs and what still needs a person.

What You Get From the Free Scan and the Free Trial

Free, with no account

• 63 automated rules for WCAG 2.2 Level AA, or presets for WCAG 2.1 AA, the ADA, Section 508 and EN 301 549
• Every issue found on the page, ranked by severity from critical to minor
• The WCAG success criteria each issue fails, which you can look up in our WCAG library

With a 3-day free trial

• The failing HTML, so you can find the element in your Joomla editor or code
• How to fix each issue, with a corrected example
• Every page scanned, up to 500 per domain, with daily monitoring and an email when something breaks
• A list of checks that need a person to review, so nothing is missed
• A dated record of your scans and fixes

Start 3-day free trial

How to Fix What the Scan Finds

1. Prefer fixing issues in a template override or child template, so a Joomla update does not undo your changes.
2. Make alt text part of your publishing routine: Joomla’s media field lets you add it as you insert each image.
3. Rescan after every Joomla, template and extension update. Major version upgrades are especially likely to change generated markup.
4. Run a free scan above on your homepage and a few key pages, fix issues starting with critical and serious, then rescan to confirm.
5. For ongoing protection, AccessBell Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain every day and alerts you when a theme, app or plugin update introduces a new issue.

Related Guides

• WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content Explained in Plain EnglishWCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content explained simply: how to write alt text for every kind of image, icon, chart and CAPTCHA, with code examples and a test routine.
• WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide Explained in Plain EnglishWCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide explained simply: what moving and auto-updating content needs, the 5-second rule, carousel fixes and how to test your pages.
• Free Tools to Check Website Accessibility: 6 Best Options ComparedCompare the best free tools to check website accessibility: AccessBell, WAVE, axe DevTools, Accessibility Insights, Lighthouse and ANDI, and when to use each.
• WCAG Success Criteria LibraryLook up any success criterion the scan flags, in plain language.
• Joomla ADA Compliance CheckerThe same scan with the ADA preset, plus the ADA risks specific to Joomla sites.
• Free Accessibility Statement GeneratorPublish a statement once your Joomla site's known issues are fixed.

Joomla Accessibility — Frequently Asked Questions