You might be surprised to learn that up to 20% of visitors to your website need help with accessibility-related issues. That’s a lot of potential customers!
Think about it: if you get 50,000 monthly visitors, around 10,000 might need accessible features. Can you afford to miss out on all those potential sales?
But it’s not just about sales figures. Accessibility laws are becoming commonplace worldwide, and both multinational companies and small businesses face legal issues over website accessibility. Creating an accessibility statement is essential to being inclusive to every website visitor.
An accessibility statement is a declaration that defines the level of web accessibility you’re targeting for your website, as well as how you will achieve that. You can also use your statement to acknowledge areas of your website where you haven’t met your accessibility targets and how you plan to resolve these issues.
In this blog post, I’ll share some examples of accessibility statements and walk you through creating an effective one for your business.
Start with an Accessibility Audit
Before you create an accessibility statement, it’s crucial to understand whether your existing website is accessible. By identifying any current limitations, you can create an honest accessibility statement that reflects your current position and details any improvements that will be made.
An accessibility audit is the first step in this process. This audit will review your website and pinpoint areas that need improvement to meet accessibility standards. While you can conduct an audit yourself using various online tools, a third-party audit will provide a more comprehensive and unbiased assessment. If you’re interested, we offer professional accessibility audits as part of our services, ensuring your website meets the required standards and can be confidently presented in your accessibility statement.
Use an Accessibility Statement Generator
Once you have a clear understanding of your website’s current accessibility status, the next step is to create your accessibility statement. A good starting point is to use an accessibility statement generator. The team at W3C has developed a tool that assists with this process, making it an excellent first step for business owners when crafting their accessibility statements.
If you prefer to start with this tool, you can access the W3C accessibility statement generator here.
Review Accessibility Statement Examples
It can be helpful to look at examples of accessibility statements from other businesses and organisations. This will give you a sense of the language used and the kinds of commitments typically made.
For instance, you might find it useful to review the accessibility statements from UK government websites, which are often excellent examples of thorough and compliant statements. Additionally, large retail stores often have well-crafted accessibility statements that clearly communicate their commitment to inclusivity.
What to Include in Your Accessibility Statement
Commitment
When you choose to make your website accessible to all visitors, you’re not just complying with legal regulations—you’re making a commitment to your customers. By sharing your commitment, you’re letting visitors know that your business is inclusive and that you welcome every new customer. Accessible websites provide a better user experience for everyone, so be sure to express your dedication to making your website accessible to all.
Outline
Provide an outline of the guidelines or accessibility standards that your website follows. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an internationally recognised standard for web accessibility. Many countries have adopted these guidelines as part of their accessibility laws. For example, your website might aim to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Including this information in your statement will reassure visitors that your website meets established accessibility standards.
Limitations
It’s important to inform your visitors about any accessibility limitations that currently exist on your website. These limitations may be known to you or have been flagged during your accessibility audit. Try to include information on any planned actions to resolve these limitations. For example, if your website contains video content without transcripts, you could outline your plan to add transcripts to make the content accessible to all users.
Technical Information
Providing technical information can help users understand any observed issues. For example, your website may be incompatible with outdated web browsers or mobile phone software. This data would typically be available through the accessibility audit or further compatibility testing. Including this information will help set user expectations and clarify any potential issues they may encounter.
Contact Details
To help visitors who experience issues or difficulties on your website, ensure you include contact information. Providing a telephone number, email address, and postal address will give visitors sufficient options for contacting you in a way that works best for them. Don’t forget to mention how long it will typically take to reply—for instance, you might say you will respond within five business days.
How to Add Your Accessibility Statement to Your Website
Once you’ve created your accessibility statement, it’s time to make it live on your website. Here’s how you can do it:
- Create a New Page: Log into your website’s content management system (CMS) and create a new page specifically for your accessibility statement. Title the page clearly, such as “Accessibility Statement,” to make it easy for visitors to find.
- Copy and Paste Your Statement: Copy the text of your accessibility statement and paste it into the new page. Make sure the formatting is clean and easy to read.
- Link to the Statement: Add a link to your accessibility statement in your website’s footer or main navigation. This will ensure that it is easily accessible from any page on your website.
- Test the Page: After publishing, test the page to ensure that it displays correctly across different devices and browsers. This is especially important for an accessibility statement, as it should be accessible to all users.
Remember, if you’re on one of our Care Plans, our team would be happy to assist you with making your new accessibility statement live on your website. We can also help with regular updates to ensure that your statement reflects any changes or improvements made to your website’s accessibility.
Creating an accessibility statement is a vital step in making your website more inclusive and compliant with legal standards. By following these steps, you’ll not only enhance your website’s accessibility but also show your commitment to all of your customers.
