How to Write an Accessibility Statement

What an Accessibility Statement Is, and Which Law Requires One

An accessibility statement is a public page that tells users which accessibility standard your website targets, how far it actually meets that standard, what the known gaps are, and how to reach you when something does not work. Whether the law requires you to publish one depends entirely on which of three distinct regimes you fall under, and the single most common error on this topic is treating them as one:

• UK public sector: PSBAR. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 require public sector bodies to publish an accessibility statement in the government's model format. The content is prescribed, and GDS monitors published statements. Our UK compliance guide covers the wider context.
• EU public sector: the Web Accessibility Directive. Directive (EU) 2016/2102 requires public sector bodies in EU member states to publish statements following the model in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1523. This is where the official EU model statement lives. It applies to the public sector, not to private companies under the EAA.
• EU private sector: the European Accessibility Act. The EAA, which has applied since 28 June 2025, mandates no statement template at all. Instead it imposes an information requirement, explained in detail below.
• Everywhere else: voluntary. No law requires a private US website to publish a statement. A voluntary one still demonstrates good faith, gives users a working contact route, and is commonly requested in procurement. The W3C publishes guidance and a free generator, and our own accessibility statement generator produces one interactively.

Many competitor pages tell private companies to follow “the official EU accessibility statement template” for EAA compliance. There is no such thing: the model statement belongs to the public sector directive, and the EAA asks for something different. Getting this distinction right is the point of this guide.

The UK Public Sector Statement Under PSBAR

If you are a UK public sector body, the statement is not optional and its structure is not up to you. PSBAR requires a statement in the government's model format, containing:

• Compliance status: fully compliant, partially compliant, or not compliant with WCAG at level AA.
• Non-accessible content, with reasons: each item listed as a non-compliance with the regulations, a claim of disproportionate burden, or content that is out of scope of the regulations.
• Accessible formats: how users can request content in an accessible format.
• Reporting route: how users can report accessibility problems with the site.
• Enforcement procedure: in Great Britain, EASS (the Equality Advisory and Support Service) and the EHRC; in Northern Ireland, the ECNI.
• Dates: when the statement was prepared and when it was last reviewed.

GDS reviews statements as part of its PSBAR monitoring programme, and that monitoring now tests against WCAG 2.2 AA, so the status you declare should be measured against the current standard. Our WCAG 2.2 checklist and UK compliance guide cover what that testing looks for.

The EAA and Private Companies: An Information Duty, Not a Template

The European Accessibility Act has applied to in-scope products and services since 28 June 2025, and it takes a different approach from the public sector directive. There is no single mandated statement template. What service providers must do is provide information, in their general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, explaining how the service meets the accessibility requirements. That duty comes from the Directive's Annex V, and it breaks down into three parts:

• Describe the service in a general way, so it is clear what the information covers.
• Explain how it meets the accessibility requirements that apply to it. In practice, conformance is assessed against EN 301 549, the European standard that incorporates WCAG for web content.
• Make the information available in accessible form to the public, including for persons with disabilities.

A public accessibility statement is the practical way most businesses satisfy this: one well-structured page can describe the service, state its conformance status against EN 301 549 and WCAG, list known limitations, and be accessible itself. That is good practice and we recommend it. But be precise about the legal position: the hook is the Annex V information requirement, not a statement template, and copying the public sector model statement does not automatically discharge it.

Enforcement is national, and it has teeth. Ireland, for example, enforces the EAA with criminal penalties; see our EAA Ireland guide for the details, and the EAA overview for who is in scope.

What Every Good Statement Contains

Across all three regimes, and for voluntary statements too, the same core elements separate a useful statement from filler:

• The standard you target. Name the version and level, normally WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Our WCAG 2.2 AA requirements guide explains what that commitment covers.
• Your actual conformance status, told honestly. Fully compliant, partially compliant, or not compliant. Most live sites are partially compliant, and saying so is a strength, not a confession.
• Known limitations, listed specifically. “Some older PDFs are not tagged” and “the store locator map has no keyboard alternative” are useful; “some content may not be fully accessible” is not.
• A real contact channel with a response commitment. An email address or form that reaches someone empowered to act, and a stated timeframe for replying.
• Dates. When the statement was prepared and when it was last reviewed.
• How the site was evaluated. Say whether the status rests on self-evaluation or a third-party accessibility audit, and when. Our auditing guide walks through both approaches.

Statement Mistakes That Create Risk

A bad statement is worse than no statement. The failure patterns are consistent:

If a statement is already published, the accessibility statement checker will read it and report which of the required elements are actually present. When GDS monitored 593 UK public sector sites, only about 7 percent had a fully compliant statement, while 83 percent had published one that was missing mandatory information.

• Overclaiming. Declaring “fully compliant” while the homepage fails basic automated checks contradicts what users experience, and in a dispute the statement becomes evidence that you knew accessibility was an obligation and misstated your position. A statement is a claim about your site, so it should follow testing, not precede it.
• Vagueness.A page of “we care about accessibility” sentiment with no conformance status, no contact route, and no date commits you to nothing and helps no one. It reads as decoration because it is.
• Stale dates. A statement last reviewed years ago tells users, monitors, and procurement teams that nothing behind it is being maintained either.
• No contact route.The contact channel is the most practically valuable part of the whole document: it lets a blocked user reach you instead of an enforcement body or a law firm. Omitting it wastes the statement's best feature.

And keep expectations realistic: a statement is not a legal shield. It does not immunize you against Equality Act claims, ADA lawsuits, or EAA enforcement. It is transparency plus a communication channel, and its value depends entirely on being accurate.

Write Yours Now

1. Draft it with the generator. Our free accessibility statement generator walks you through the elements above interactively: the standard you target, your conformance status, known limitations, evaluation method, contact details, and dates, and produces a statement you can publish.
2. Validate every claim before you publish. Run your key pages through the URL accessibility auditor for an automated baseline, and remember that automated tools catch only part of WCAG. For a conformance status you can stand behind, commission a professional audit with manual and screen reader testing; our sample audit report shows what that evidence looks like.
3. Publish it where users look. Link the statement from your site footer on every page, and make sure the statement page itself meets the standard it describes.
4. Keep it current. Update the statement after each remediation round or audit, review it at least annually, and refresh the review date so readers can see it is maintained.

Frequently Asked Questions