Title: Improving Accessibility
Last modified: April 4, 2026

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# Improving Accessibility

 *  Resolved [vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)
 * (@vadimm5)
 * [2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/)
 * Hello. The lightbox is initially poorly accessible for people with disabilities.
   Once the lightbox is open, everything is fine. They navigate the site using the
   keyboard, specifically the TAB key.
   The image focus feature doesn’t work in the
   plugin. Since the lightbox makes the image an interactive element on the site,
   navigating with the TAB key should focus the image, and then pressing ENTER should
   open the image. Unfortunately, this isn’t implemented in the plugin. The image
   doesn’t take focus.
 * It’s worth considering that if you fix this, a person with disabilities should
   understand that this is an interactive element when they focus on it. You’ll 
   probably need to add something like this: Then the screen reader will be able
   to tell it’s a button, meaning it can be clicked, and the aria-label attribute
   will explain what happens when clicked. It should work something like this: the
   user focuses on the image using the TAB key, the screen reader informs them that
   this is the button that will enlarge the image, then the user presses ENTER, 
   and the image opens in a lightbox.
 * WordPress has a built-in zoom feature for clicking on an image. It’s implemented
   roughly like this. This makes it much easier for people with disabilities to 
   use interactive website elements. Please see what you can do. Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Support [Val Meow](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valwa/)
 * (@valwa)
 * [2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/#post-18872146)
 * Hey [@vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)! 👋
 * I believe you are referring to two different components: the **gallery** and 
   the **lightbox**. Since you mentioned, “Once the lightbox is open, everything
   is fine” and “pressing ENTER should open the image”, I understand that you are
   actually referring to **Meow Gallery**.
 * Please note that an accessibility update was released last month in **Meow Gallery
   version 5.4.5**, which included the necessary improvements such as enhanced keyboard
   navigation, ARIA labels, and better lightbox compatibility. Additionally, accessibility
   fixes for the **Meow Lightbox** were introduced in **version 5.5.1**.
 * If you are using the latest versions of both plugins and are still experiencing
   accessibility issues, please let me know the exact problem. Feel free to share
   a link to the affected page so I can investigate further. Also, ensure that the
   page is not being served from cache with an older version of the plugin scripts,
   as this could prevent the updates from appearing as expected.
 * Hope this helps!
 *  Thread Starter [vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)
 * (@vadimm5)
 * [2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/#post-18872231)
 * No, I mean the Lightbox specifically. When tabbing through interactive elements
   on the site, the images don’t focus and they don’t have an Aria label. This means
   that a person with disabilities won’t be able to recognize that the image is 
   interactive and can be opened in a Lightbox. It should work like this: the user
   tabs to the image, then the screen reader announces that it’s a button (we need
   to make it clear to the user that this is an interactive element and can be clicked;
   you can use the tag for this) and announces the Aria label attribute “Zoom image”(
   this indicates what happens to the image when the user clicks it). Then the user
   presses ENTER, and the image opens in a Lightbox. An example (you can look at
   how it’s done there, and it will become clear) is a standard WordPress image 
   block:
   WordPress has a built-in zoom feature for clicking on an image. It’s implemented
   roughly like this. This makes it much easier for people with disabilities to 
   use interactive website elements. Please see what you can do. Thank you.
 *  Plugin Support [Val Meow](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valwa/)
 * (@valwa)
 * [1 month, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/#post-18892790)
 * Hey [@vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)! 
 * We’ll make the ARIA label clearer before opening the lightbox (from the gallery)
   in a future update.
 * Thanks for your patience and understanding!
 *  Thread Starter [vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)
 * (@vadimm5)
 * [1 month, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/#post-18893075)
 * Thank you)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [vadimm5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vadimm5/)
 * Last activity: [1 month, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/improving-accessibility-3/#post-18893075)
 * Status: resolved