Coming Soon: New Accessibility Tool!

By GIC Published on November 19th, 2025

Last updated on November 19th, 2025

Some web editors at the agencies and municipalities that work with the GIC may have noticed a change in their WordPress user interface.

They may also have noticed some new icons popping up…

Good news- they are there to help achieve and maintain accessibility compliance!

Three alerting icons from the Editorially software.

This week, the GIC has begun a phased roll-out of the Editoria11y plug-in. This plug-in provides immediate feedback on the accessibility status of your site and offers specific suggestions for how to address challenges. The software was created by Princeton University’s Web Development Services team, which maintains an open-source accessibility library.

Editoria11y is billed as an “editorial accessibility ally”.
The term “a11y” as it’s written symbolizes the eleven letters in between the a and the y in the word “accessibility”.
It also recognizes the effort to be an ally to those with visual, physical, and cognitive differences.

The plug-in has been tested and vetted by the GIC for our agencies’ needs, and we are very excited about its effectiveness in quickly addressing accessibility challenges.

Benefits for Editors

It provides instant, visual feedback in the post and page editors. Authors do not need to remember to press a button or visit a dashboard to check their work.
It checks in context on pages, not just within the post editor, allowing it to test content edited in widgets or theme features.
It focuses exclusively on content issues: assisting authors at improving the things that are their responsibility.

How Editoria11y is Displayed

The plug-in will work automatically once it’s been activated for your site. You’ll be able to see accessibility flags regarding your content and layout in two ways:

On-Screen Display

Tips and alerts appear when relevant, both on pages and inside editing tools. They will display in the form of icons.

Blue Check Mark
Will appear when an error is cleared to confirm the remediation.

A yellow circle with the number 2 and a flag icon.

Yellow Flag
These appear for items that may or may not be accessibility errors but should be reviewed by editors. Editors can clear these flags at their discretion.

The number 2 in a red circle with a flag icon.

Red Flag
These indicate issues that will definitely cause problems for users with assistive technology and will trigger an error in accessibility checkers. Red Flag issues should be addressed as soon as possible.

Each flag icon can be selected, at which point a pop-up window will appear explaining the concern and offering suggestions on how to address it.

Screenshot showing a red flag regarding missing alt text.

The Editoria11y developers have also been good enough to provide us with a live, interactive demo you can play with:

Try out an interactive Editoria11y Plug-In Demo

WordPress Dashboard Display

A new item titled Editoria11y will also appear in the lefthand menu of the WordPress dashboard.

Selecting it will open a menu of different categories to review, and each item will accordion to a list of the specific issues.

WordPress dashboard screenshot showing Editorially tab opened.

If you have questions, here’s more information about Editoria11y and how it works.

For those who manage sites that are working with the GIC, keep your eyes open for the yellow icons appearing on your WordPress user interface– Editoria11y is on the way!

Ask the GIC any Question about Editoria11y

Read more articles about: Accessibility, Announcement, CLF, Content Strategy, Data, Design, Lighthouse, User Research.