As a digital marketing agency (Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd.) we design and develop a lot of websites for clients. Often, these websites need to have a heavy emphasis on accessibility, in addition to SEO, since this particular functionality is incredibly important to the client base that we serve.
For many of the websites that we develop for clients, including those with strong accessibility needs and a limited budget, we often use the WordPress.com platform (Business Hosting Package) coupled with a Premium Theme that has already been deemed “Accessibility Ready” by WordPress. Theme developers must earn this certification from WordPress in order for their themes to carry it.
Once such theme that we recently came across in our ongoing search for the most accessible WordPress theme out there was called “Period” by Ben Sibley of Compete Themes. We had not used his themes before, but we were encouraged to see that WordPress had certified the theme as “Accessibility Ready.” So we decided to give it a try.
And in all sincerity, I’m very happy that we did. Period is an incredibly attractive, amazingly well put together and well thought out theme that is also incredibly accessible out of the box. So why do you feel the ominous “but” approaching? Perhaps it was the title that gave it away.
We liked the Period theme so much in fact that we went ahead and used it for another access-specific client. So we now manage two different installations of this theme.
For the record I will state here that Ben was initially very responsive to our requests for both information and customizations to the theme. He even went ahead and installed a “child theme” in order to make customizations that we requested that could not be made to the Parent theme. Most of this was well outside the scope of the “Premium Support” to which we were entitled as a subscriber to the “Premium” versions of his themes. And we were all sincerely grateful. One of the primary reasons why we decided to use the theme on a second site.
And then, as we got further into customizing the template, we realized that the title attributes for the social media icons that appeared atop every page of the site had strange code-like titles on mouseover that we could not change. For those of you that don’t know, neurodivergent users, among many other types of persons with disabilities, need for these titles to makes sense in order for them to navigate properly. Especially if there is more than one of the same social media icon present. Which there was.
So we reached back out to Ben with this new request on January 12, 2025. But this time? Our request was DENIED. That’s right. We were instead informed that we should “hire a developer to make these changes.” I asked why.
Ben stated, “I don’t offer customization services, so of course, I will continue to not offer customization services upon request. I suggest that you hire a developer to make these customizations …” A statement I imagine he found quite clever.
Now, to be fair, Ben was under no OBLIGATION to implement these updates. He had, apparently, had enough of our requests. But I ask you, was it the right thing to do? Making a decision that you know prevents access for people who need it when you are supposed to be going out of your way to provide an “Accessibility Ready” theme? I just want readers to note the real priority of Compete Themes here, and it is not your accessibility. So please consider this before making a purchase decision if real accessibility is important to you.
Ben was made aware that these sites belonged to accessibility advocates. Ben had the opportunity to be a part of the solution here, but he instead chose to put that responsibility back on his customer. And next time that customer might be you.
Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. Whether you are OBLIGATED to do it or not. Now? We have hired a developer to make these changes to Ben’s Premium Theme on our behalf. Yes. More time. And more cost. And Compete Themes now has a high ranking article questioning its ethical practices. If I were looking for an accessible theme today, I would avoid Compete Themes.
That said, if you know of a WordPress theme developer who provides attractive, “Accessibility Ready” themes for WordPress.com websites, along with the service, care and compassion that goes along with serving the access community, we would love to work with you. Please reach out to me at: ad@mvsltd.com 📧️.
