Accessibility Statement - Accessibility Information Page

Most accessibility statements suck. They are boiler-plate documents which don't provide a useful snapshot about what an organization is doing to remove barriers to access.

My hope is that by developing a template collectively we can define best practices.

Accessibility statements can be useful as a step help defend yourself against accessibility lawsuits (especially in the USA) but what is important is demonstrating that you are actively working to reduce barriers for your users. This is something that is key for any customer/client focused organization.

An Accessibility Information Page should:

State that inclusion is important value to the organization
State the accessibility guidelines that the site is working to achieve
Outline exceptions (such as legacy PDF files)
Explain what has been done to make the site more accessible
Include information about other accessibility services
Outline what accessibility enhancements have been made to make them more discoverable
Highlight the technology stack and if accessibility played into it's selection - if an open source libraries (like Drupal) was used, it is worth metioning that
If you use automated testing tools, tell us which ones you use - explain how those are complimented with manual testing
Have an easy, accessibile way to contact the web admins if someone runs into a barrier (possibly including a phone number)
Provide details about the organization’s web accessibility policy
If there is an accessibility coordinator or committee, provide contact information
Highlight goals for assistive technology supported (ie. latest & previous versions)
Have statement linked to from every page on the site in the footer or header
Affirm that the organization is aware that this is a journey and that improvements are being made regularly

Bold text references to lflegal's guide

Bonus points if:

If an audit was done on the site, it would be beneficial to say who did it and when
If it was tested with assistive technology, it would be useful to know what versions and when.

Ontario Government Accessibility Reports

Large organizations in Ontario will be required by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) to create an Accessibility Report and make it available to the public. An Accessibility statemnet is a logical place to have this.

European Union Public Sector Accessibility Regulations

Tetra Logical: Public Sector Accessibility Regulations

Holland

Dutch Fill-in Assistant Accessibility Statement

UK Gov Encourages government sites to publish an accessibility statement

To comply with the requirements of the Directive public sector bodies must publish an accessibility statement. The statement must:

be in an accessible format
be updated frequently
use the model accessibility statement adopted by the European Commission (this will be provided by December 2018)

The accessibility statement must include the following:

a list of any parts of the website or app that aren’t accessible, an explanation of why, and links to accessible alternatives
a feedback mechanism that can be used by any person to tell the public body about content in the website or app that doesn’t meet the accessibility requirements
a link to the enforcement procedure to which recourse may be had in the event of an unsatisfactory response to the notification or the request

From their 2018 Open consultation and the final report. UK Legislation

Cheap and reliable Node.js hosting starts at $3/month, and $1/month static HTML hosting

accessibility / Accessibility-Statement

Labels

Projects that are alternatives of or similar to Accessibility-Statement