An accessibility statement is a public declaration on your website that explains how accessible your site is, what known issues remain, and how users can contact you if they encounter barriers.
Under the European Accessibility Act and related legislation, an accessibility statement is not optional. It's a required part of compliance — and publishing one, even before your site is fully accessible, demonstrates good faith and a commitment to improvement.
This article explains what a compliant accessibility statement must contain, where to publish it, and how to generate one for free using A11YO's accessibility statement generator.
What does an accessibility statement need to contain?
A compliant accessibility statement under the EAA and EN 301 549 must include the following:
Your conformance status: is your site fully conformant, partially conformant, or non-conformant with the relevant standard (typically WCAG 2.2 AA)? Be honest. "Partially conformant" with an explanation is better than a false claim of full compliance.
The standards you're referencing: WCAG 2.2 AA, EN 301 549, or any national legislation that applies (e.g. EAA Directive 2019/882 if you operate in the EU).
Known limitations: a list of specific accessibility issues you are aware of and haven't yet resolved. This is important. It demonstrates that you've actually assessed your site, and it gives users advance notice of barriers they may encounter.
Contact information: how users can report accessibility issues and request accessible alternatives. This must include an email address (at minimum) and a commitment to respond within a reasonable timeframe — typically 5 working days.
The date the statement was prepared or last reviewed.
Formal exclusions — what content can you exempt?
The EAA includes specific categories of content that organisations can formally exclude from accessibility requirements. These are not loopholes — they are defined in the legislation with specific conditions. The main categories are:
Third-party content: content you did not fund, develop, or control — for example, an embedded Google Map or a social media feed widget. You can note this as out of scope.
Archived documents: documents published before the EAA's accessibility deadline that are not needed for active processes. Older PDFs that are kept for historical reference, not active use, may qualify.
Live media: live audio or video streams at the time of broadcast. Pre-recorded content does not qualify.
If any of these apply to your site, your accessibility statement should explicitly list them and explain why they fall under the relevant exclusion.
What is a disproportionate burden claim?
Under the EAA, organisations can claim "disproportionate burden" for specific content where making it fully accessible would require resources grossly out of proportion to the benefit provided. This is not a blanket opt-out — it requires a formal assessment and must be documented.
If you are making a disproportionate burden claim, your accessibility statement must include a description of the content in question, an explanation of why remediation would be disproportionately burdensome, and a commitment to review the assessment annually.
Disproportionate burden claims are legitimate in specific circumstances — a small organisation with a large archive of legacy PDFs, for example. They are not appropriate as a substitute for routine accessibility fixes.
A disproportionate burden claim is not a blanket opt-out. It requires a formal assessment, documented in your accessibility statement.
Where do you publish it?
Publish your accessibility statement at a permanent, predictable URL. The convention is /accessibility-statement on your domain. Link to it from your site footer on every page.
It should be published on the same domain as the website it describes — not a third-party hosted page. It should be accessible itself: readable without JavaScript, usable by screen readers, with sufficient colour contrast.
Review and update it at least once a year, or whenever you make significant changes to your site. The date on the statement should reflect the last time it was genuinely reviewed, not just created.
Generate one for free in under two minutes
A11YO's free accessibility statement generator takes your organisation details, conformance level, applicable standards, known issues, and contact information, and produces a ready-to-publish plain text statement.
It covers EAA 2025, EN 301 549, WCAG 2.2 AA, ADA, Section 508, AODA, and the Accessible Canada Act. It includes fields for formal exclusions (with the correct legal language for each EAA Article 14 category), disproportionate burden claims, and full contact details including phone and postal address.
No account required. Fills in under two minutes. Copy and paste directly to your website.
A statement is a commitment, not a certificate
An accessibility statement is not a certificate of compliance. It doesn't mean your site is perfect. It means you've assessed your site, you're transparent about where it stands, and you've committed to improving it and supporting users who encounter barriers.
That commitment — backed by an actual contact email that someone responds to — is what regulators, users, and customers are looking for. A website with an honest accessibility statement is in a fundamentally better position than one that either ignores the issue or makes false claims of full compliance.
Start with the statement. Fix the critical issues. Update the statement to reflect your progress. That is the whole process.