The accessible WordPress carousel, in motion.
Accessible WordPress carousel and card scroller blocks, built to WCAG 2.2 AA and now free on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Two blocks, six designed templates in three neutral looks — Editorial, Soft, and Minimal. Try every demo on this page with your keyboard and a screen reader.
Why this accessible WordPress carousel?
An accessible WordPress carousel should work for everyone, not only for people using a mouse. This plugin was built by an accessibility consultant to exactly that standard. Every slide is reachable by keyboard, every control has a clear name that screen readers can announce, and nothing moves on its own unless you allow it. When JavaScript is switched off, the slides simply become a readable, stacked list, so no content is ever lost.
Most slider plugins treat accessibility as an afterthought. Here it is the starting point. The hero carousel never traps your keyboard, the pause control stays visible the whole time autoplay is running, and all motion respects the visitor’s reduced-motion preference. These are the small details that decide whether a carousel quietly passes a real audit with axe, Lighthouse and a screen reader — or fails it.
See the blocks in action
The three heroes below are the real block, shown in its three designed looks. Tab into each one: focus is always visible, the controls are properly labelled, and the second example demonstrates autoplay with an always-present pause button.
Hero — Editorial
Hero — Soft (autoplay + fade)
Hero — Minimal
Two accessible blocks, six designed patterns
The plugin gives you two blocks. The hero carousel is for large, attention-leading slides with a heading, short text and a call to action. The card scroller is a native scroll-snap row of cards that works with touch, trackpad and keyboard alike. Both share the same design controls — colours, typography, borders, spacing and button styles — so you can match your theme without writing a line of CSS.
To help you start quickly, the plugin ships with six ready-made patterns across three looks: Editorial, Soft and Minimal. Insert a pattern, swap in your own images and text, and you have a finished section in about a minute. Prefer to build from scratch? A simple layout picker lets you choose a look or start with a blank block. The card scrollers below show the same three looks.
Cards — Editorial
Cards — Soft
Cards — Minimal
Tested the way real people browse
Each release is checked against WCAG 2.2 AA with the tools we use every day — JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver and TalkBack for screen readers, plus axe, Google Lighthouse and the WebAIM contrast tools. Keyboard-only testing and browser-zoom testing are part of the same routine. You can read more about how we approach inclusive design in our web accessibility case study, and browse more accessible block demos across this showcase site.
Because the accessible WordPress carousel uses plain, hand-written code with no build step and no third-party libraries, it stays light and predictable. There is nothing phoning home, no tracking and no cookies — just clean markup and the small script that runs it. That is what lets the same blocks pass an audit on your site as cleanly as they do here.
Frequently asked questions
Is the plugin really free?
Yes. It is published on the WordPress.org plugin directory under the GPL, with no paid tier required to use any of the blocks shown on this page.
Will it pass an accessibility audit?
It is built to WCAG 2.2 AA and tested with screen readers, keyboard-only navigation and automated tools. As always, test it within your own theme too, since a theme can affect colour contrast and focus styles around any block.
Does it work without JavaScript?
Yes. With JavaScript disabled, each carousel becomes a simple stacked list of slides, so the content stays fully readable and no information is hidden behind a control that cannot run.
Get the accessible WordPress carousel
The plugin is available free on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Install it from your dashboard under Plugins → Add New, search for “Ananyoo Accessible Carousel”, and start building inclusive sliders today. The demos above are the real blocks — try them with your keyboard, then see how the same patterns sit inside your own theme.