Guidance

Sample accessibility statement (for a fictional public sector website)

Updated 30 September 2024

This is a sample accessibility statement for a fictional public sector website. It contains sample wording and guidance on what to include in your statement.

It is based on the model accessibility statement which is the minimum legal wording for what needs to be included.

If the statement is for an app, say ‘mobile application’ instead of ‘website’.

For websites, publish the statement as a normal HTML page. Make sure it’s linked to from a prominent place on the homepage or from every page on the website in a consistent place like the website footer. Make sure it’s in an accessible format that everyone can use.

For mobile apps, make the statement available in the app store, on your website or both. It is also advisable that users can get to the statement from within the app.

Accessibility statement for [website name]

[Note: you can have a single accessibility statement that covers multiple domains, or a separate statement for each domain or subdomain. As long as the user can access relevant accessibility information easily from any page on your website.

For mobile apps also include the application’s version information and publication date.

This wording is legally required and must not be changed.]

This accessibility statement applies to [scope of statement, for example, website or domain to which the statement applies].

[Note: use this section to make a brief, general statement about what the website allows disabled users to do. Base it on the evaluation covered in detail in the ‘Technical information about this website’s accessibility’ section.

It must be specific to your own website. If you’re not confident that something is accurate, leave it out. If you’re not confident enough to say anything specific here, leave this section out completely.]

This website is run by [name of organisation]. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

[Note: use this section to provide a summary of accessibility issues that a disabled user can act on - for example, avoid a particular section of the website, or request an alternative version rather than waste time trying to make it work with their assistive technology. Try to list in order of most impact to least impact.]

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• live video streams do not have captions
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
• there’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact us’ page

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: [provide both details of how to report these issues to your organisation, and contact details for the unit or person responsible for dealing with these reports].

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• email [email address]
• call [phone number]
• [add any other contact details]

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in [number] days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us [add link to contact details page] for directions.

Enforcement procedure

[Note: this wording is legally required and must not be changed.]

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

[Note: if your organisation is based in Northern Ireland, refer users who want to complain to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) instead of the EASS and EHRC.

You must link to either the EASS or ECNI websites.]

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

[Note: this wording is legally required and must not be changed.]

[Name of organisation] is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

[Note: say that the website is fully compliant if the website meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard in full.

Say that it’s partially compliant if it meets most requirements of the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

If it does not meet most requirements of the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, say that it’s not compliant.

If your website is either partially compliant or not compliant with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, you’ll need to explain why. This will be due to one or both of the following:

• non-compliances - this means the content in question is in scope of the regulations, but there’s an accessibility problem with it
• an exemption - this means the inaccessible content is out of scope of the regulations, or it’d be a disproportionate burden for you to make it accessible

There’s a legally required way of expressing the compliance status of your website, so do not change it. Choose one of the options below, for example (a), (b) or (c), and delete those not applicable.

[Select (a) only if all requirements of the technical specification are fully met without exceptions for WCAG 2.2.]

(a) This website is fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

[Select (b) if most requirements of the technical specification are met, but with some exceptions. This means not yet fully compliant and that the necessary measures are to be taken in order to reach full compliance.]

(b) This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to [insert one of the following: ‘the non-compliances’, ‘the exemptions’ or ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’] listed below.

[Select (c) if most requirements of the technical specification are not met.]

(c) This website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. The [insert one of the following: ‘non-compliances’, ‘exemptions’ or ‘non-compliances and exemptions’] are listed below.

[Note: delete the options that do not apply.]

Non-accessible content

[Note: if the website is fully compliant with the standard, you can leave the ‘Non-accessible content’ section out.

Otherwise, do not change the ‘Non-accessible content’ heading or the ‘The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons’ sentence - they’re legally required.

Do not change the ‘Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations’, ‘Disproportionate burden’ and ‘Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations’ subheadings: they’re also legally required.

But if you need to list a lot of problems, you can break these subsections up with further subheadings - for example, ‘Navigation and accessing information’ or ‘Interactive tools and transactions’.]

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

[Note: In this subsection, list:

• accessibility problems
• which of the WCAG success criteria the problem fails on
• when you plan to fix the problem

Do not include any problems where you’re claiming disproportionate burden, or where the problem is outside the scope of the accessibility regulations (those should go in the subsections below).

These are examples only. Your statement must be specific to your website.]

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2022. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

[Note: in this subsection list accessibility problems you’re claiming would be a disproportionate burden to fix.

You must carry out an assessment before claiming disproportionate burden.

Bear in mind that something which is a disproportionate burden now will not necessarily be a disproportionate burden forever. If the circumstances change, your ability to claim disproportionate burden may change too.

These are examples only. Your statement should be specific to your website.]

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in [rough timing].

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

[Note: in this subsection list accessibility problems that fall outside the scope of the accessibility regulations.]

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix [example of non-essential document].

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

[Note: publishing an accessibility roadmap is optional. It’s a good idea to publish one if you want to be specific about the order you’re planning to tackle accessibility issues, and there’s no space to do so in the accessibility statement itself.]

Our accessibility roadmap [add link to roadmap] shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

[Note: the wording about when the statement was prepared and reviewed is required.

It is recommended that an audit be carried out following a substantial revision to your website. The statement must also be updated.

The statement must be reviewed at least once a year, even if there have not been significant changes to the website. Include the date of the last review.]

This statement was prepared on [date when it was first published]. It was last reviewed on [date when it was last reviewed].

This website was last tested on [date] against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

[Note: describe how you tested the website to write this statement - such as a self-assessment done by the website team or an assessment carried out by a third party.]

The test was carried out by [add name of organisation that carried out test, or indicate that you did your own testing]. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

[Note: publishing the test report is optional but doing so may allow you to make your accessibility statement shorter and more focused.]

You can read the full accessibility test report [add link to report].