---
title: Roles & permissions
description: Choose which roles see Lumtera's reports, dismiss errors and use review mode, what every other task needs, and the Lumtera Reporter role for agency hubs.
---

# Roles & permissions

Lumtera works with WordPress's standard roles. It works out of the box, and you can change who can do what under <span class="screen-path">Accessibility → Settings → Permissions</span>.

## Permissions settings

The **Permissions** section lists every role on your site under three headings. Tick the roles that can do each one and click **Save changes**. Changes apply right away, to every user with the role.

**Administrator (always)** is ticked and can't be unticked, so no one can lock the site owner out.

![The Permissions settings, with roles ticked for each permission](/screenshots/permissions.webp)

| Permission | What it allows | Default roles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **See reports and check the site** | Opens the Overview, Content report and Free vs Pro screens and the Dashboard widget, and runs site-wide checks such as **Check all content**. With Lumtera Pro, it also opens Page checks, Documents and Reports, and shows every fix task. | Administrator, Editor |
| **Dismiss errors** | Dismissing and restoring **errors**. Anyone who can edit a post can still dismiss items that only need review, and tips. | Administrator, Editor |
| **Review pages on the site** | Shows the **Accessibility** item in the toolbar on the front end, which opens [review mode](/review-mode). It only appears on posts the person can edit. | Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor |

The defaults are every role that can edit other people's posts (for reports and dismissing errors), and every role that can edit posts (for review mode). Roles added by plugins follow the same rule. For example, WooCommerce's **Shop manager** gets all three.

Every role can always see the checks for a post in the editor when it can edit that post, whatever you choose here.

### How it works

Each permission is a capability that Lumtera gives to the roles you tick:

| Permission | Capability |
| --- | --- |
| **See reports and check the site** | `lumtera_view_reports` |
| **Dismiss errors** | `lumtera_dismiss_errors` |
| **Review pages on the site** | `lumtera_review_mode` |

Because they're ordinary capabilities, role editor plugins show them, and you can give one to a single user without changing their role.

Uninstalling Lumtera removes these capabilities from every role.

### Change settings

**Change settings** isn't a choice here. Settings, including how severe each check is, always need the `manage_options` capability, which administrators have.

## Who can do what

With the default permissions:

| Task | Administrator | Editor | Author | Contributor |
| --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| See the editor sidebar on posts they can edit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dismiss items to review and tips on posts they can edit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dismiss **errors** on posts they can edit | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Open review mode on posts they can edit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Guided manual checks on posts they can edit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Use the alt text manager | ✓ | ✓ | Own uploads | |
| Overview, Content report, Dashboard widget, **Check all content** | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Create the accessibility statement | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Change settings | ✓ | | | |

Rows 3, 4 and 7 follow your **Permissions** settings. The others use fixed WordPress capabilities:

- **Alt text manager:** anyone who can upload files (`upload_files`). Editors and administrators see every image. Authors see only the images they uploaded. See [Alt text manager](/alt-text#who-can-use-it).
- **Accessibility statement:** anyone who can publish pages (`publish_pages`).
- **AI suggestions:** anyone who can edit the post, once an administrator has switched the feature on. **Suggest alt text** in the Image block also needs `upload_files`. See [AI suggestions](/ai).

### Lumtera Pro <span class="pro-pill">Pro</span> {#lumtera-pro}
| Task | Administrator | Editor | Author | Contributor |
| --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| Page checks, Documents, Reports | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Fixes: see every task | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| **My fixes**: tasks assigned to them or on their posts | | | ✓ | ✓ |
| Track a fix | ✓ | ✓ | Assign to self only | Assign to self only |
| Activity log, Portfolio, Ignore rules, license, Pro settings | ✓ | | | |

Page checks, Documents, Reports and seeing every fix follow **See reports and check the site**. Anyone who can edit a post can track a fix on it. Assigning a fix to someone else needs the `edit_others_posts` capability (editors and administrators).

## Lumtera Reporter

**Lumtera Reporter** is a role with one job: letting an agency's [portfolio](/pro/portfolio) read this site's accessibility summary. It can log in to read its own profile, and read the summary through the REST API. That's all. It can't see or edit content, Lumtera's screens or anything else in wp-admin.

To give an agency access:

<ol class="step-list">
  <li>Go to <span class="screen-path">Users → Add New User</span> and create a user with the role <strong>Lumtera Reporter</strong>.</li>
  <li>Edit the user and create an <strong>Application Password</strong>.</li>
  <li>Send the username and Application Password to the agency.</li>
</ol>

The summary includes the site name and address, the Lumtera version, the score and totals, the five most common issues, and the titles of up to five published items with the most errors. It includes no page content.

To revoke access, delete the Application Password or the user.

The Reporter role appears in the **Permissions** settings like any other role. Leave it unticked.

## Changing permissions with code (developers)

These filters change which capability each check uses. A filter wins over the **Permissions** settings: once a filter returns another capability, the ticked roles no longer matter for that permission.

| Filter | Default | Controls |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `lumtera_capability` | `lumtera_view_reports` | Overview, Content, Dashboard widget, site-wide checks, and Pro's Page checks, Documents and Reports |
| `lumtera_dismiss_errors_capability` | `lumtera_dismiss_errors` | Dismissing and restoring errors |
| `lumtera_review_capability` | `lumtera_review_mode` | Review mode on the front end (on top of editing the post) |
| `lumtera_images_capability` | `upload_files` | The alt text manager |

Usually the **Permissions** settings are all you need. For example, to let authors dismiss errors, tick **Author** under **Dismiss errors**. To do the same in code:

```php
add_filter( 'lumtera_dismiss_errors_capability', fn() => 'publish_posts' );
```

See [Hooks & filters](/developers/hooks#permissions).