An accessibility statement that is true

What the page is for

Two things. It tells a visitor what to expect, and it gives them a route to tell you when something blocks them.

The second is the part that gets forgotten and the part that matters most. Somebody stuck at your booking form needs a way through today, not a description of your commitment.

Give a real contact route and say how quickly you answer. Since no email address belongs on a public page, point at your contact form and say a person reads it.

Of those two jobs, the reporting route is the one that matters on the day it is needed. Somebody stuck at your booking form wants a way through this afternoon, not a description of your values.

What belongs in an honest one

Name the standard you are working toward, and say which level. Say when the page was last reviewed and what that review consisted of.

List what you know is not right yet. A supplier document that has not been rebuilt, an older video without captions, a map that is hard to operate by keyboard.

Then say what somebody should do if they hit one of those, and what you will do about it. That is a useful page. Everything else is decoration.

• The standard you are working toward, and which level
• When the page was last reviewed, and what that review involved
• What you know is not right yet, named specifically
• What somebody should do if they hit one of those
• How to report a problem, and how quickly you answer
• Who to contact — a route, not a person who may change role

Why naming the gaps helps you

It feels wrong to publish your own shortcomings. In practice it is the strongest thing on the page.

A statement that lists three known issues with dates reads as an organization that has actually looked. A statement claiming everything is perfect reads as one that has not, particularly to anyone who just met a barrier.

It also gives you a working list. A statement with known issues and review dates turns into a maintenance plan on its own.

It also converts the page from a statement into a plan. A list of known issues with dates beside them is a maintenance schedule that happens to be public.

The claim to avoid

Do not write that your site meets the standard in full, or that it is certified, unless that has been verified and you can produce the evidence.

Conformance under the standard is specific. It is assessed page by page. A phrase copied from another company's statement is not an assessment of your site.

Nothing here is legal advice. The plain point is simpler. A published claim is a written record, and writing down more than you can support helps nobody.

The pattern to avoid is a badge or a seal implying certification. There is no certification scheme for the accessibility guidelines, and displaying something that looks like one is a claim about a thing that does not exist.

How to say it without overclaiming

Working toward is honest and understood. So is a sentence naming what you check automatically and what you review by hand.

You can describe your process without describing an outcome. We check every page before it publishes, we review the site twice a year, here is what the last review found.

That tells the reader more than a compliance badge, and it stays true as your site changes.

Keeping it alive

A statement dated three years ago is an admission. Put a review date on it and hold to the schedule, even when the review finds nothing.

Tie it to something that already happens. A twice yearly look at the site, or a check whenever you add a template rather than a page.

Every page written by Website Builder Studio passes a check that runs before anything publishes, which covers the automated half continuously. The reviewed half is the part your statement should describe honestly.

Where to put it

In the footer, beside your privacy page, on every page of the site. Somebody who needs it is often already stuck and will not go hunting through a menu.

Keep the wording plain and the page short. This is not a place for legal drafting, and a statement nobody can read defeats itself.

One page, genuinely useful, reviewed on a date you actually keep. That is the whole job.

Link it from the footer of every page, beside your privacy policy. Somebody who needs it is often already stuck and will not go looking through a menu.