Start here if you’ve just installed A11y Suite. Everything below assumes WordPress
6.0+, PHP 7.4+, and 5 minutes of your time.
Quick start (Free tier)
- Install the plugin.
- WordPress admin → Plugins → Add new → search “A11y Suite” → Install → Activate
- Or via WP-CLI:
wp plugin install a11y-suite --activate
- Run the Setup Wizard. A 5-step wizard launches automatically on first activation. It configures the basics (WCAG level, contact email, weekly scan cadence). Takes ~2 minutes.
- Run your first scan. Dashboard → “Scan entire site now”. A built-in browser-side scanner walks every public page. Takes 5-10 minutes for a typical site.
- Review findings. Issues page lists every WCAG violation with severity, rule, and selector. Filter by severity, rule, or page.
- Apply known fixes. Each issue has a “Düzelt” (Apply Fix) button when a curated fix exists in the library. Applies in 1 click. Reverts in 1 click.
- Publish the accessibility statement. A WordPress Page is auto-created at
/accessibility/using the FTC-safe template. Link it in your footer.
Pro upgrade (after you have a license key)
- WordPress admin → A11y Suite → Settings
- Top of page: License section
- Paste your license key → Activate
- Pro pages unlock immediately: AI Deep Audit, VPAT, Workflow, Trends, Compliance Verification, Custom Reports
Pro: AI provider setup
Pro features that use AI (Deep Audit, Fix Proposals, Executive Summary, Chatbot)
require a provider key. You provide your own — we don’t middleware the inference
cost.
Supported providers:
- Anthropic Claude (recommended) — best at long-context reasoning. Get a key at console.anthropic.com.
- OpenAI GPT — solid all-rounder. Get a key at platform.openai.com.
- Google Gemini — has a free tier. Get a key at aistudio.google.com.
Typical monthly AI cost for a 50-page site running Deep Audit weekly: $2–5. All
three providers have free tiers that may cover this entirely.
Settings → AI Integration → paste key → Test connection → Save.
Pro Scanner (weekly headless Chrome scans)
The built-in scanner reads raw HTML. Sites with page builders (Elementor, Avada,
Divi) or JS frameworks (React, Vue, Astro) render final DOM after page load
— a headless browser is needed to catch those issues.
Setup (free, runs on GitHub Actions):
- WordPress admin → A11y Suite → 🌐 Pro Scanner
- Click “Show API key” → copy the key
- Create a GitHub repo for the scanner
- Copy the provided
scan.js+ GitHub Actions workflow into it - Add two secrets:
A11Y_SUITE_PUSH_URLandA11Y_SUITE_PUSH_KEY - Push to GitHub — Actions will run weekly (Mondays 03:00 UTC)
Cost: $0. GitHub Actions free tier covers a weekly run on small/medium sites.
WP-CLI reference
# Trigger a scan run
wp a11y-suite scan
# Generate VPAT report and save HTML
wp a11y-suite report --output=vpat.html
# Take a trend snapshot manually (normally cron-driven)
wp a11y-suite snapshot
# Send a test alert email
wp a11y-suite test-alert
# Re-validate license against marketing site
wp a11y-suite license recheck
Where data lives
wp_a11y_suite_issues— every WCAG violation foundwp_a11y_suite_patches— applied fixes (CSS/JS payloads)wp_a11y_suite_audit_log— every action taken (apply, revert, scan, AI call)wp_a11y_suite_deep_audit— AI Deep Audit reportswp_a11y_suite_trend_snapshots— weekly score historywp_a11y_suite_pdfs— PDF inventory + compliance statuswp_a11y_suite_meta— workflow metadata (assignee, priority, due date, tags)
Backup & export
- Audit log: CSV export from Audit Log page
- Issues: CSV + JSON export from Issues page
- Trend history: included in trend page export
- Settings: JSON export from Settings → bottom (with secrets redacted)
- Everything at once: Legal Defense Package ZIP (Pro)
Troubleshooting
“License could not be activated — invalid key”
Double-check the key has no leading/trailing spaces. Format is A11Y-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX (uppercase, hyphens). If still rejected, check My Account on our site to confirm the license is active and not expired.
“Sites limit exceeded”
Each plan caps activations. Personal = 1 site, Business = 5, Agency = 25. Deactivate on a site you no longer use (Settings → License → Deactivate), or upgrade.
AI features show “API error”
Settings → AI Integration → Test connection. If 401: check your provider key. If 429: provider rate-limited you (try again in a few minutes). If 500+: provider outage (check provider status page).
Scan finds far fewer issues than expected
Built-in scanner reads raw HTML. If your site is JS-heavy (React, Vue, page builders), enable Pro Scanner so headless Chrome can see the rendered DOM.
Applied fix breaks visual layout
Issues page → find the applied issue → Revert. The fix is gone in <1 second. Then report the broken fix at contact so we can refine the library entry.
Need more help?
- Pro license holders: Priority email — typically < 1 business day response.
- Free tier: WordPress.org plugin support forum — community-supported.
- Bug reports: Contact form or via the plugin support forum.