Is my Ghost blog covered by the European Accessibility Act?

Purely personal blogs usually are not. Publications that sell services to EU consumers — paid memberships, sponsorships presented as a service, or commerce — generally fall under the EAA from 28 June 2025.

Does Ghost itself have accessibility problems?

The core Ghost frontend renders semantic HTML, but most accessibility issues come from third-party themes and embedded content. Scan your live site to see your own score.

How do I fix contrast issues without editing theme files?

Use Settings → Design to adjust brand colours where the theme supports it, or add an overriding CSS rule in Settings → Code injection.

Can I scan a Ghost site without installing anything?

Yes. Our scanner only needs your public URL — nothing is installed on your Ghost site, and no account is required.

How often should I check my publication?

After every theme change and at least once a quarter. New posts mostly affect alt text and link quality, which automated checks catch well.

Free Ghost Accessibility Check (WCAG/EAA)

Why Ghost accessibility matters in the EU

Ghost is a lean publishing platform used by newsletters, blogs and independent media across Europe. Because themes are Handlebars templates, accessibility depends heavily on which theme you pick — and many popular themes ship with contrast problems, missing alt-text prompts and generic link text. The European Accessibility Act applies to paid memberships and subscriptions sold into the EU, so a Ghost publication monetising EU readers is covered.

What gets checked

16 automated rules covering images, links, forms, headings, language, viewport, contrast, ARIA misuse, and more — mapped to real WCAG success criteria.

Instant results

Paste your URL, get a letter grade with every issue listed by severity. No account, no email, no waiting for an audit report.

Built for the EAA

The rule set targets what EU enforcement and enterprise procurement actually look at: WCAG 2.1 AA basics you can document today.

How to check your Ghost site

Open the free EAA/WCAG scanner.
Paste your Ghost URL — any published page: homepage, a product page, or a category listing.
Read your grade. Each finding shows the exact element and why it matters, so fixes are concrete, not vague advice.
Fix and re-scan. Most image-alt, heading, and form-label issues are fixed right inside Ghost's editor or theme settings. Re-run the scan to confirm.
Copy the shareable link from the result page — useful when a client or colleague needs to see the findings.

Scan Your Ghost Site Now — Free

Common fixes in Ghost

When your scan flags a failing rule, here is where to fix it:

Issue	Where to fix in Ghost
Missing alt text on images	Ghost prompts for alt text when you insert an image in the editor — fill it in there. Theme and logo images are set in Settings → Design, where the logo alt defaults to the publication name; verify it is not empty.
Low contrast text	Contrast lives in your theme. If it is an official Ghost theme, override colours in Settings → Design → Brand, or add custom CSS via Code Injection (Settings → Code injection → Site header).
Missing heading structure	Use the editor's heading cards (H2/H3) rather than bold paragraphs. Post titles become the page H1 automatically — avoid extra H1s inside content.
Missing form labels	The built-in membership/signup forms ship labelled. Custom forms added via Code Injection or embedded services must include explicit elements.
Generic link text ("read more", "click here")	Rewrite links in the post editor so they describe their destination. Theme-level "Read more" excerpts can be changed in the theme template or via translations.
Missing page language	Set Publication language in Settings → Publication info (e.g. "en", "de"). This drives the html lang attribute on every page.
Keyboard traps in embeds	Third-party embeds (video players, podcast widgets) are the usual culprit. Test each embed with Tab/Shift+Tab and prefer providers with accessible players.

Ghost-specific tools & resources

Ghost ships with useful foundations — these approaches take you further:

Lighthouse (built into Chrome)

Run an audit on any Ghost page — covers contrast, alt text and ARIA basics. Free.

WAVE browser extension

Visual overlay of errors directly on your rendered Ghost theme. Free.

Code Injection

Ghost ships a site-wide CSS/JS injection point — the cleanest way to patch small theme accessibility gaps without forking the theme.

Maintaining EAA compliance on Ghost

Accessibility is not a one-time fix — sites change through content edits, theme updates and new pages. Keep compliance sustainable:

Re-scan after every theme change or theme update — updates can silently reintroduce issues.
Make alt text part of your editorial checklist for every image in every post.
Check membership/paywall flows quarterly: buttons, error messages and emails must stay accessible too.

Dig deeper into the compliance work that comes after the scan:

Go deeper

Automated scanning catches roughly a third of accessibility issues — but it catches the ones that are cheapest to fix first. For the complete picture, our e-book covers the full checklist plus a 14-day fix plan.

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