Accessibility Craft

This episode is a recording of an October 2026 WordPress Accessibility Meetup, brought to you by Equalize Digital. In this presentation, Deneb Pulsipher uses a real-world case study—the open-source plugin Polly Alt—to explore how we can ethically leverage generative AI as an accessibility aid by intentionally keeping a human in the loop. WordPress Accessibility Meetups are a 100% free and virtual community resource that takes place via Zoom webinars twice a month. For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/185.

What does it actually take to design a modern, accessible website from the ground up? In this episode of Accessibility Craft, we’re pulling back the curtain on the Equalize Digital website redesign. We talk about how we selected a design partner, why our original design budget nearly doubled, and how accessibility requirements were built into the process before the first Figma designs ever arrived. We also dig into accessibility QA during the design phase, and Steve shares some early thoughts on how the designs will become a modular, performant WordPress build. Before all that, we preview WordPress Accessibility Day 2026 and taste Spindrift Tea in Blood Orange, a still brewed iced tea with real fruit juice that inspires some surprisingly strong opinions. For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/184. Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction(00:02:05) - Today’s Beverage: Spindrift Blood Orange Tea(00:08:31) - WordPress Accessibility Day 2026(00:13:15) - Our Website Redesign Update(00:13:39) - Sponsor: Accessibility Checker(00:14:46) - Choosing a Design Partner With Accessibility in Mind(00:19:38) - The Design Budget: Before and After(00:21:43) - Documenting Accessibility Requirements(00:28:34) - Reviewing Designs for Accessibility(00:35:28) - Accessible Designs Aren’t Boring!

This episode is a recording of a September 2026 WordPress Accessibility Meetup, brought to you by Equalize Digital. In this presentation, Maria Maldonado discussed email accessibility and looked at practical examples, including table-based email layouts, links, headings, images, color contrast, readable content structure, and testing workflows. WordPress Accessibility Meetups are a 100% free and virtual community resource that take place via Zoom webinars twice a month. For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/183.

WordPress Accessibility Day 2026 is coming October 7–8, and this episode takes you behind the scenes of how its speakers, sessions, and keynote came together. Ryan Bracey, Director of Web Development and User Experience at Second Melody and Speaker Team Lead for WordPress Accessibility Day, joins Amber and Chris to talk about the hidden work that goes into reviewing 88 speaker submissions, anonymizing proposals to reduce bias, building a diverse schedule, and balancing technical, business, design, and lived-experience perspectives. Ryan also previews some of the sessions he is most excited about, including this year’s keynote from GitHub Head of Accessibility Ed Summers. And everyone previews what excites them personally, with a wide range of upcoming talks covering AI, accessible development workflows, WooCommerce onboarding, remediation pushback, and accessibility ownership after launch. For the craft portion of Accessibility Craft, the group gets into the fall spirit with a Vienna-style lager from Austin’s Fast Friends Beer Company. The beer earns a rare unanimous two-thumbs-up and sparks a surprisingly nostalgic conversation about Oktoberfest, bonfires, beach cookouts, and questionable college beer choices. For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/182. Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction(00:01:40) - Meet Ryan Bracey(00:04:50) - Craft Beverage Pick(00:08:26) - Fall Vibes and Tasting Notes(00:13:27) - Ratings and Conference Tease(00:14:11) - WordPress Accessibility Day Overview(00:15:10) - Sponsor Break(00:16:24) - Speaker Selection Process(00:19:15) - Anonymized Reviews and Fairness(00:22:03) - Diversity Stats Snapshot(00:23:07) - Diversity by Merit(00:26:05) - Balancing Talk Ratings(00:27:21) - Perfect Score Spotlight(00:31:21) - Keynote: Ed Summers(00:37:21) - Schedule Picks Roundup(00:43:06) - Team Talks Shoutout(00:45:41) - Where to Find Ryan(00:47:51) - Register and Support(00:48:41) - Podcast Wrap and Credits

This episode is a recording of a September 2026 WordPress Accessibility Meetup, brought to you by Equalize Digital. In this presentation, Cam will provide foundational context about WCAG and explain how to slowly and seriously learn WCAG like a professional. WordPress Accessibility Meetups are a 100% free and virtual community resource that take place via Zoom webinars twice a month. For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/181.