Ghost is a modern publishing platform focused on professional content creation, newsletters, and membership sites. Its streamlined architecture produces cleaner HTML than WordPress and similar platforms, but accessibility still depends on theme quality and content practices. Under the EAA, Ghost sites providing digital content or subscription services to EU consumers must meet EN 301 549 requirements.
Common Ghost accessibility issues
Theme accessibility varies significantly
Ghost themes built with Handlebars templates control all frontend HTML. The default Casper theme has reasonable accessibility, but many marketplace and custom themes have missing landmark roles, poor heading hierarchy, and inaccessible navigation patterns.
Card-based content blocks lack structure
Ghost's editor uses cards for embeds, galleries, bookmarks, and other rich content. These card blocks don't always produce semantic HTML - gallery cards may lack alt text fields, bookmark cards may have insufficient contrast, and embed cards inject third-party content without accessibility controls.
Membership and subscription flows have form gaps
Ghost's membership features (sign-up forms, login, account management) use Portal - a client-side JavaScript overlay. Portal's modal interface can have focus management issues, and its forms may lack proper label associations and error handling.
Image handling relies on author discipline
Ghost's editor supports alt text for images, but it doesn't enforce or prompt for it. Authors can publish posts with dozens of images and no alt text. Featured images (used in post cards across the site) are particularly prone to missing alt text.
Newsletter email output has separate accessibility concerns
Ghost's newsletter feature sends HTML emails that have their own accessibility requirements. Email markup is heavily constrained by email client rendering and often uses table-based layouts that can be problematic for screen readers.
How Lumi works with Ghost
Lumi scans your Ghost publication across all post pages, static pages, tag pages, author pages, and membership flows. Our five engines detect issues in theme template output, editor card content, and Portal membership overlays. Monitor continuously to catch regressions from theme updates and content publishing.
Ghost-specific WCAG gotchas
Portal overlay injects outside theme control
Ghost's Portal (membership UI) is injected as a JavaScript overlay on top of your theme. Its accessibility is independent of your theme's accessibility, and site owners have limited ability to modify its markup.
Ghost's clean output creates false confidence
Ghost produces cleaner HTML than many CMS platforms, which can lead to the assumption that the site is accessible. Clean markup is a good foundation but doesn't guarantee proper ARIA attributes, focus management, or content-level accessibility.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghost more accessible than WordPress?
Ghost's simpler architecture and cleaner HTML output provide a better starting point, but accessibility still depends on the theme and content practices. Ghost has fewer plugins to cause issues, but also fewer accessibility-focused tools and a smaller accessibility community.
Does the EAA apply to Ghost publications?
If your Ghost site offers subscription services, premium content, or e-commerce to EU consumers, the EAA likely applies. Publications with paid memberships or digital content access are providing a digital service within EAA scope.
How do I make Ghost's Casper theme more accessible?
Casper has a reasonable accessibility baseline. Key improvements include ensuring all images have alt text, verifying heading hierarchy across post layouts, testing keyboard navigation through the navigation menu, and checking colour contrast on all text elements against the theme's colour scheme.
Related resources
Last reviewed: April 2026. Content is reviewed quarterly for accuracy.