index.html

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title: "Developing an Accessibility Statement"
permalink: /planning/statements/
github:
  repository: w3c/wai-statements
  path: "index.html"
footer: >
  <p><strong>Date:</strong> Published 29 November 2018.</p>
  <p><strong>Editors:</strong> <a href="https://www.w3.org/People/shadi">Shadi Abou-Zahra</a>, Eric Velleman, Sanne Eendebak, Roel Antonisse, and Leon Baauw.</p>
  <p>Developed by the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/">Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG)</a>. Developed as part of the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/Tools/">WAI-Tools project</a>, co-funded by the European Commission. <a href="./acknowledgements/">Acknowledgements</a>.</p>
external_css: /content-images/wai-statements/generator.css
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<p>This tool helps you create an accessibility statement for your own website, mobile application, or other digital content. You can download the statement you created, and further customize, style, and brand it. Read more below about accessibility statements or <a href="{{ '/planning/statements/generator/' | relative_url }}#create">generate an accessibility statement</a> right away.</p>
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<h2>Why provide an accessibility statement</h2>

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<p>Accessibility statements are important for several reasons:</p>
<ul>
    <li>Show your users that you care about accessibility and about them</li>
    <li>Provide them with information about the accessibility of your content</li>
    <li>Demonstrate commitment to accessibility, and to social responsibility</li>
</ul>
<p>In some situations, you may be required to provide an accessibility statement, such as public bodies in countries that implement the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2016/2102/oj">EU Web Accessibility Directive {% include_cached external.html %}</a>. The W3C list of <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/policies/">Web Accessibility Laws &amp; Policies</a> can help you identify policies applicable to you.
</p>
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<h2>What to include in an accessibility statement</h2>

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<p>Accessibility statements should contain at least the following:</p>
<ul>
    <li>A commitment to accessibility for people with disabilities</li>
    <li>The accessibility standard applied, such as <a href="{{ '/standards-guidelines/wcag/' | relative_url }}">WCAG 2.1</a></li>
    <li>Contact information in case users encounter problems</li>
</ul>
<p>It is also advisable to include the following information:</p>
<ul>
    <li>Any known limitations, to avoid frustration of your users</li>
    <li>Measures taken by your organization to ensure accessibility</li>
    <li>Technical prerequisites, such as supported web browsers</li>
    <li>Environments in which the content has been tested to work</li>
    <li>References to applicable national or local laws and policies</li>
</ul>
<p>Note that in some situations you may be required to provide particular content in your accessibility statements. For example, there are specific <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2018/1523/oj">requirements for accessibility statements in relation to the EU Web Accessibility Directive {% include_cached external.html %}</a>.</p>
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<h2>How to write an accessibility statement</h2>

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<p>Accessibility statements are primarily for users of your content. Usually they will refer to accessibility statements when they encounter problems. Technical and jurisdictional language will likely lead to confusion and increase the frustration rather than help your users. It is important to write in simple language, and to provide information that is useful to the users, rather than use the language of developers and lawyers.</p>
<p>In particular, accessibility statements should explain functionality and known limitations in common terms. For example, rather than to say “WCAG Success Criterion 1.2.2 was not met”, it is better to say “videos do not have captions”. Accessibility statements are not technical assessments or declarations of conformity, though they ideally refer to such background to provide verification and increase credibility.</p>
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<h2>Where to put an accessibility statement</h2>

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<p>Accessibility statements should be easy to find. Linking them from several places, such as from the footer, help menu, sitemap, about page, and other prominent areas helps users to find them. Use consistent link names for your accessibility statements to help users recognize them. This includes link names across the content of your website and mobile applications, and across groups of related websites and mobile applications. For example, use the same link name on all web pages to refer to an accessibility statement for that website, and use that same link name to refer to the accessibility statement of the mobile application version of the website.</p>
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<h2>Examples of accessibility statements</h2>

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<p>The following examples of accessibility statements were created using this generator tool:</p>
<ul>
    <li>
        <a href="{{ '/planning/statements/minimal-example/' | relative_url }}">Example of Minimal Accessibility Statement</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="{{ '/planning/statements/complete-example/' | relative_url }}">Example of Complete Accessibility Statement</a>
    </li>
</ul>
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<h2>About this generator tool</h2>

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<p>This accessibility statement generator tool is designed for use in different contexts and jurisdictions. These situations can be so different that we cannot provide support for each one individually. For example, you may be subject to a particular organizational policy, quality assurance process, or law that requires you to provide certain information in your accessibility statement.</p>
<p>This generator tool allows you to enter different types of information to create accessibility statements for your particular situation. You can download the generated accessibility statement to further customize it for your own needs. You can also reuse the <a href="https://github.com/w3c/wai-statements">source code for this generator tool {% include_cached external.html %}</a>, for example to translate it or to customize it for your particular situation.</p>
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<p>
    <a href="{{ '/planning/statements/generator/' | relative_url }}#create" class="button" style="margin-top: 2rem;">Generate an accessibility statement</a>
</p>