March 2022

How to write an accessibility statement

Here’s a guide on how to write an accessibility statement.

I’ve published accessibility statements for various organisations, including Just Eat, News UK, BPP and Checkout.com. They have proved an excellent source of feedback from disabled customers. Often the issues that customers report are not technical fails so they wouldn’t get logged by audits or unit tests. Instead, they are usability problems when accessing a site using assistive technology and this first hand feedback is invaluable to helping you improve.

What is an accessibility statement? Why is it important?

An accessibility statement shows your users that you care about accessibility and demonstrates your commitment to improve your experience for everyone. In the UK private sector, it’s not yet a legal requirement but it is for some public bodies that implement the EU Web Accessibility Directive. If you’re unsure, W3C has a filterable list of accessibility laws and policies by country.

Regardless of laws, writing a statement is a smart move. It shows you are considering people’s access needs. It’s also becoming something companies increasingly look for as part of the due diligence process they undertake when engaging your services.

What to include

There are no formal rules on what a statement should contain. Think about your users, the information and the format that would benefit them. The Worldwide Web Consortium has a useful section on how to write a statement which is a great place to start. W3C suggests that a minimal statement should include:

A complete accessibility statement might also include:

In addition, this talk by the Government Digital Service also recommends including:

This sounds like a lot of work but you can start small and build on it over time. The important thing is to get something out there that shows you care about accessibility.

How do I know what is not accessible?

An accessibility audit is a good place to start. You don’t have to test every screen — a sample of the core pages and functionality is sufficient to highlight the majority of fails. If you have someone in your team with knowledge of WCAG, the technical skills and the time, you can do an audit yourself.

The alternative is finding a third party consultant or agency to undertake an audit for you. I have used the Digital Accessibility Centre, AbilityNet, and Deque for past audits. They produce excellent reports and guidance for engineers on how to implement fixes.

Good examples

The W3C has a template for a minimal and complete statement and a tool to generate a statement if you fill in the blanks. If your goal is to write a statement in plain English that doesn’t read like legal T&Cs, check out these best practice examples:

If you’re not sure what to start with, you can use these examples as a template.

Publishing

Before putting an accessibility statement live, you’ll need feedback from your D&I team, design, product, engineering and legal. If you’re new to a company, this can be a great way to engage with all these specialisms and make contacts. At one company I formed an Accessibility Guild off the back of this initiative as it helped to get folks collaborating.

Publish your accessibility statement somewhere easy for users to find — usually in the footer. HTML is the most accessible format so avoid using a PDF or a download.

Finally, keep the statement alive and remember to update it when you get audit results, fix fails, and make improvements.

Here’s some statements I’ve written – you are welcome to copy the format:

I’ve enjoyed learning how to write a statement. If you’re planning to add an accessibility statement to your site, I hope these links help.

If you’re writing a statement for an organisation, seek advice from legal counsel before publishing.