*** Accessibility Checker *** 2026-07-08 - version 1.46.0 * Updated - the aria-hidden rule no longer flags core Cover blocks. * Updated - the Incorrect Heading Order summary no longer claims specific heading levels that may not match the actual issue. * Updated - more strings translated into other languages. * Fix - .ogg audio files are no longer treated as video content by the video checks. * Fix - reading level grades between 0 and 1 are now rounded up to grade 1 instead of being treated as not calculable. * Fix - Accessibility Analysis panel now shows a success icon when no issues are found. * Fix - Reading Level summary card now conveys its status to screen readers. * Fix - corrected the accessible name on the settings page navigation landmark. * Fix - settings page logo now displays correctly on right-to-left site languages. 2026-06-30 - version 1.45.0 * Updated - default dismiss reasons are now reordered so first item is confirmed accessible. * New - added filter edac_dismiss_reasons to allow adding or removing dismiss reasons. * Fix - keep focus well positioned when clearing dismiss notice. 2026-06-23 - version 1.44.1 * Updated - improved the dismiss panel screen reader announcements. 2026-06-22 - version 1.44.0 * New - Added custom axe rule to detect links whose anchor text is a bare URL rather than meaningful text. * Updated - The aria-hidden rule no longer flags separator blocks. * Updated - Empty paragraph warnings no longer flag elements with aria-live attributes or implicit live region roles. * Updated - Block Editor metabox now defaults to visible for new installs. * Fix - REST API URL generation now works correctly on subsites and with custom REST base configurations. * Fix - New window warning now handles links containing both text and images. 2026-05-28 - version 1.43.0 * Updated - improved empty alt warnings for images that are inside buttons with accessible names. * Updated - improved empty button checks for elements hidden from screen readers and keyboard users. * Updated - more strings translated into other languages. * Updated - hardened the dismiss issue REST endpoints against edge cases. 2026-05-20 - version 1.42.1 * Updated - improved permission handling for the ignore feature. 2026-05-18 - version 1.42.0 * Updated - add support for role="none" in several of the link and image alt related rules. * Updated - added support for named anchors as jump links. * New - added system info checker for compatibility checking of plugins and themes. 2026-05-13 - version 1.41.0 * Updated - the possible heading rule now accounts for elements with role="heading" appropriately. * Fix - several language translations are now properly detected by WordPress when using them. * Fix - harden the frontend highlighter scanner against caching when updated. * Fix - email report checks now defer to the pro plugin when installed to avoid conflicts. * Fix - Text size too small check no longer produces false positives on screen-reader-only (visually hidden) elements. 2026-04-21 - version 1.40.0 * New - Screen reader only text format support in the Block Editor and frontend. * New - Email reports opt-in added for site summaries. * New - Frontend highlighter UI update and positioning options added. * Fix - Article landmark labels now correctly display "Landmark: Article". * Changed - Missing Table Header checks now correctly skip tables marked with role="presentation" or role="none". * Changed - Table header detection now better handles colspan, rowspan, and ARIA header relationships. * Changed - Orphaned issue cleanup now runs twice daily for fresher issue data. 2026-03-17 - version 1.39.0 * New - CSS modifier classes to opt out of the New Window Warning icon and tooltip. * New - Setting to hide the legacy metabox in the Block Editor. * New - Fix to allow empty search results to display a meaningful message instead of a 404. * Fix - Orphaned settings labels on the options page. * Fix - Issue modal content clipped when affected code contains long URLs. * Fix - Undefined help_id notice in help link generation. * Updated - Welcome dashboard UI updated to bring it in line with other UI changes. * Updated - Made more strings translatable - particularly those returned by ajax. * Enhanced - Missing transcript detection now searches 2 additional levels up. 2026-03-04 - version 1.38.0 * New - Block Editor Sidebar with accessibility scan data, issues, and quick access panel for faster navigation. * New - Dismissed issues now have assignable reasons for the dismissal. * New - Dismiss reason and severity now visible on issues (in both sidebar and classic metabox). * New - Ability to reopen issues that were dismissed with one click from the sidebar. * Updated - Classic Editor metabox visual design to match sidebar styling. * Updated - Terminology: "Errors" now "Problems". * Updated - Terminology: "Warnings" now "Needs Review". * Updated - Terminology: "Ignore" now "Dissmis". * Updated - Terminology: "Passed Tests" now "Passed Checks". * Updated - in the sidebar contrast errors are now included in the "Problems" sections. * Enhanced - Using both color and shape now indicate state of found issues and readability. * Fix - Make sure that summary needed is flagged for above 9th grade. Some instances it could flag for summary at 9th. * Fix - prevent welcome modal on the first visit from overriding other events on the page load. * Fix - various type safety and existed checks in places to prevent edge case errors. 2026-01-23 - version 1.37.0 * Fix - Duplicate markup on the page can now be properly identified as an issue. * Fix - Restrict global ignore management link and fix button label span closure. * Fix - Update database schema to use selector as unique identifier for issues. * Enhanced - Frontend issue matching with stable selectors and DOM ordering. * Enhanced - Better handling of frontend highlighter positioning. * Improved - More accurate restoration of styles after deactivating them in frontend highlighter. * Improved - When closing frontend highlighter it won't re-render unless needed. 2025-12-15 - version 1.36.0 * Fix - passed tests percentage logic now accounts times no posts are scanned * Fix - don't prevent scan speed saving when pro plugin is enabled. * Add - new trigger for invalid alt text - "an image". * Add - allow role="menuitem" with aria-expanded in link validation checks * New - visit welcome screen on plugin activation. 2025-12-05 - version 1.35.0 * Fix - Ignored issues no longer count in density scores. * Fix - Ignored issues count comparison and message logic in frontend highlighter. * Fix - Allow long translations to wrap in new window warning tooltip. * Fix - Improve sanitization that would prevent checkboxes saving on first attempt in some cases. * Fix - Dashboard widget to conditionally display upcoming meetups and improve meetup data handling. * Fix - Make highlighter controls translatable. * Tweak - Add better help article link for new window warning fix. * Tweak - Use WordPress data functions instead of server time for ignore date formatting. 2025-10-22 - version 1.34.0 * Tweak - Missing transcript can now detect transcripts for videos when they are not just direct siblings. * Tweak - Use post type labels rather than slugs in views where applicable. * Tweak - Prepare for sale event during Black Friday. 2025-09-26 - version 1.33.0 * Add - WP-CLI commands can now be run with short names: `wp edac ` or using long name `wp accessibility-checker `. * Tweak - Made it easier to register custom commands through filter. 2025-09-18 - version 1.32.0 * Fix - Improved highlighter behavior to maintain original size and position of scanned elements. * Fix - Identify out-of-sequence headings. * Fix - Identify missing title attributes. * Fix - Correctly assess alternative text requirements for image map areas. * Tweak - Implemented additional security measures for input validation and data sanitization. 2025-09-04 - version 1.31.1 * Add - Privacy policy link added at newsletter signup. * Tweak - Error messages returned from some ajax actions are more descriptive. 2025-08-29 - version 1.31.0 * Tweak - Don't flag YouTube scripts as video present mistakenly. * Tweak - Underlined text rule now will find more instances of underlined text. * Tweak - Added additional string label check for links that open new windows/tabs. * Tweak - Reordered some settings for better grouping. 2025-08-19 - version 1.30.1 * Tweak - The rescan and clear buttons in the frontend highlighter are now only shown when they can be used. * Tweak - Issue saving and clearing now has more robust capability checking. 2025-08-06 - version 1.30.0 * Add - Ability to clear issues on a post or page from the frontend highlighter. * Add - More accessibility checker details in the site health check. * Fix - Icons stack in frontend highlighter when there multiple issues on the same element. * Tweak - Missing Transcript can better detect transcripts for videos in the content. 2025-07-29 - version 1.29.0 * Add - Rescan button in the frontend highlighter to rescan the current page. * Add - Cleanup routine to clear out orphaned issues from the database. * Add - Filter to allow tweaking the post statuses which get scanned. * Tweak - Updated the aria-hidden check to understand more sibling relationships. * Tweak - Updated the redundant alt check to understand that repeated images with same source and alt is not redundant. * Fix - Remove the password protected notice, and it's related features - scans can throw this error now. 2025-07-22 - version 1.28.0 * Add - Better descriptions and help text for each of the rules. * Add - Improved landmark location feature to show the location of the landmark in the DOM. * Fix - Avoid possible error with removal of an index on an ID column. 2025-07-10 - version 1.27.1 * Fix - Don't alter a UNIQUE index before swapping to PRIMARY key index. 2025-07-10 - version 1.27.0 * Add - Landmark Location feature. * Add - Plugin action links. * Add - Documentation, support, and rate plugin links to plugin row meta. * Add - Admin toolbar with quick links. * Tweak - UNIQUE KEY to PRIMARY KEY for id column, bumped DB version to 1.0.4. * Tweak - link_improper now lets links with role of tab pass. * Fix - Allow frontend highlighter to kickoff scan if there are no issues for the page. * Fix - Average issues per post calculation to handle zero issues. 2025-06-30 - version 1.26.0 * Tweak - Enhanced: Better translation handling across the plugin. 2025-05-28 - version 1.25.0 * Add - Ability to scan the main posts archive (blog page). * Tweak - Improved the Anchor Exists rule to handle more situations. * Fix - Avoid console error for clear button on CPTs that are not scannable. 2025-04-24 - version 1.24.0 * Add - Translations for 33 languages. * Tweak - Handle Elementor buttons better in the new warnings fix. * Fix - Several typo and grammar issues corrected in the plugin. * Fix - Signup modal now works in Firefox under more conditions. * Fix - Make sure that translations in JS files can be detected. 2025-03-27 - version 1.23.1 * Remove - Remove the str_get_html() fallback shim. 2025-03-13 - version 1.23.0 * Add - Jest testing framework for accessibility rules with test case generation. * Tweak - Added fallback for str_get_html() with deprecation notice. * Tweak - Added density calculation capability in JS scanner. * Remove - Legacy PHP scan code. * Remove - PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser. * Dev - Converted multiple rules to JS for improved performance and compatibility. 2025-02-15 - version 1.22.2 * Tweak - Announce Global Accessibility Awareness Day in the admin during that week. 2025-02-06 - version 1.22.1 * Tweak - Make the skip-link fix handle sites with forced smooth scroll. * Tweak - Make the zooming and scaling handle additional ways the tag can block scaling. * Fix - Swap to GraphQL for getting meetup data for display in the admin. 2025-01-30 - version 1.22.0 * Tweak - Improve the new window warning migration to handle more edge cases. * Fix - Avoid checking theme Tags when theme sandbox recovery is in play. * Fix - When parsing block content for scanning avoid stomping on post_content of a global. 2024-12-19 - version 1.21.0 * Tweak - Improve how density statistics are counted. You will see a notice about this change on the welcome page. * Fix - Ensure that the scanned posts counts are accurate to all posts scanned, not just ones that have issues. * Fix - Properly count posts that are scanned but have no issues to remediate. 2024-11-14 - version 1.20.0 * Tweak - Process dynamic blocks and oEmbeds more reliably in scans. * Tweak - Improve detection for missing_transcripts if there are several oEmbed videos from same provider on page. * Fix - Ensure notice dismiss function works correctly on all pages and that review notice buttons are styled. * Fix - Correct some cases where pluralization of phrases could be misapplied. 2024-10-10 - version 1.19.0 * Tweak - Improve the text_size_too_small check in scanner to avoid more false positives. * Fix - Ensure that our notifications can appear on our own admin pages. * Fix - No longer trigger password protected notice on other pages when scanning WooCommerce checkout page. 2024-09-12 - version 1.18.0 * Add - A new fix for adding a new tab/window warning to links with target="_blank". * Tweak - Allow cache bypass from stats requests to force latest numbers. * Tweak - Make a clear-issues endpoint more usable in different situations. * Remove - Removed some code that was trying to force no notifications on the plugin pages. 2024-08-15 - version 1.17.0 * Add - A new fix for adding a new tab/window warning to links with target="_blank". * Add - REST endpoint to retrieve a site scan summary. * Tweak - Ensure frontend highlighter can load even when Cloudflare Rocket Loader is enabled. * Tweak - Only show ignore button when user can ignore issues. * Fix - URLs without issues would always output `0` when viewed on welcome widget. 2024-07-18 - version 1.16.4 * Tweak - Improve the table header detection and validation for row headers. * Tweak - Show notice on fixes settings when they are saved from options page. * Fix - Don't check for possible header if there is no text content. * Fix - Multisite query fix to make sure issues are assigned correct site id. * Fix - Correct where a scan link points. 2024-06-20 - version 1.16.3 * Add - Fix settings to site health info panels. * Fix - Corrected a string that was misplaced in a fix. 2024-05-23 - version 1.16.2 * Tweak - Use better names for fix modal titles. * Tweak - Improve the link_pdf rule to detect more accurately. * Tweak - Improve the link_ms_office_doc rule to detect more accurately. * Fix - Rely on labels for link_ambiguous_text rule first before checking just the text content. * Fix - Remove a duplicatable rule empty_form_label. 2024-04-25 - version 1.16.1 * Fix - Remove redundant empty_form_label rule definition. 2024-03-28 - version 1.16.0 * Add - Introduced a system to handle automated fixes for issues that the scanner would discover. * Add - Fix to remove or update bad tabindex values on elements. * Add - Fix to remove title attributes in favor of preferred accessible names to elements. * Add - Fix to add missing lang and dir attributes to the element. * Add - Fix to add skip links to pages where they are missing. * Add - Fix to add labels to comment and search forms. * Add - Fix to ensure that the meta viewport tag does not prevent user scaling or zooming. * Add - Fix to ensure that focus outlines are present on focusable elements. * Tweak - Improve the tabindex_modified check to handle every element with tabindex. * Tweak - Improve the link_blank rule to check on fully rendered pages. * Tweak - Improve the link_ambiguous_text rule to check on fully rendered pages. * Tweak - Improve the broken_skip_anchor_link rule to check on fully rendered pages. 2024-02-29 - version 1.15.0 * Add - Option to ignore issues by user role. * Tweak - Improved performance for large sites. * Fix - Corrected issue with scan scheduling on multisite. 2024-01-25 - version 1.14.0 * Add - Bulk scan improvements for custom post types. * Tweak - Updated accessibility rules for WCAG 2.2. * Fix - Fixed error with admin notices on plugin activation. 2023-12-21 - version 1.13.0 * Add - New dashboard widget for scan summaries. * Tweak - Enhanced compatibility with WordPress 6.4. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan results not saving on draft posts. 2023-11-16 - version 1.12.0 * Add - Option to export scan results to CSV. * Tweak - Improved error messages for failed scans. * Fix - Fixed issue with scan button not appearing for some users. 2023-10-19 - version 1.11.0 * Add - Support for additional languages in plugin interface. * Tweak - Improved scan speed for large content sites. * Fix - Fixed bug with accessibility statement generation. 2023-09-21 - version 1.10.0 * Add - New rules for ARIA attributes. * Tweak - Updated plugin settings UI for clarity. * Fix - Fixed issue with plugin deactivation not cleaning up options. 2023-08-17 - version 1.9.0 * Add - Option to schedule scans. * Tweak - Improved scan accuracy for custom blocks. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan results display in admin. 2023-07-20 - version 1.8.0 * Add - Integration with third-party accessibility tools. * Tweak - Improved scan result filtering. * Fix - Fixed error with scan summary widget. 2023-06-22 - version 1.7.0 * Add - Option to ignore specific rules per post. * Tweak - Improved compatibility with WooCommerce product pages. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan scheduling on multisite. 2023-05-18 - version 1.6.0 * Add - New onboarding wizard for setup. * Tweak - Improved help documentation links. * Fix - Fixed error with scan results export. 2023-04-20 - version 1.5.0 * Add - Option to enable/disable specific rules. * Tweak - Improved scan result UI. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan results not updating after post save. 2023-03-16 - version 1.4.0 * Add - Support for multisite network settings. * Tweak - Improved scan accuracy for media attachments. * Fix - Fixed error with scan scheduling on network sites. 2023-02-16 - version 1.3.0 * Add - Option to export accessibility statement. * Tweak - Improved scan result sorting. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan results not displaying for some users. 2023-01-19 - version 1.2.0 * Add - New rules for color contrast. * Tweak - Improved scan performance for large sites. * Fix - Fixed error with scan results export. 2022-12-15 - version 1.1.0 * Add - Option to schedule recurring scans. * Tweak - Improved scan result UI for accessibility. * Fix - Fixed bug with scan results not saving on draft posts. 2022-11-17 - version 1.0.0 * Initial release.