Accessibility Statements - What Role Do They Play?
As its name suggests, an accessibility statement is, at its most basic, an official statement from a business or organization regarding accessibility. In the world of online commerce, the accessibility in question is digital accessibility across a website's main and associated pages, including the homepage, corporate or organizational information pages, product or service pages, pricing or plan options, contact information, checkout, and more.
However, the simplicity of this idea doesn’t do justice to its overall importance or the outsized role it can play in setting the tone and engagement for consumers facing common online accessibility hurdles. Typically, this means addressing the navigational and useability blocks for blind, low-vision, or deaf web visitors. Let’s explore the role of an accessibility statement for your online business and how you can optimize it to create an overall positive experience for your customer base and your business.
What is an Accessibility Statement?
In the world of e-commerce, an accessibility statement speaks explicitly to the business’ embrace of digital accessibility as an overall objective and also as a roadmap for optimizing the user experience for consumers. Typically, it appears as a footer on the home page or as a stand-alone page (if there’s a rich amount of content to include) linked from the footer on the home page. This statement presents an opportunity to communicate directly with website visitors about organizational or corporate values pertaining to digital accessibility, the practical steps taken to ensure digital accessibility is optimized across the site, address any shortcomings that can’t be immediately overcome or worked around, and develop an open, collaborative, and transparent conversation around accessibility.
Though your business can include additional information or even build a robust accessibility statement with informative data or other insights, here are the core things that need to be included in any accessibility statement:
- Business or Organization. Identify your business by name, web address, and accessibility objective. If there are related segments or brands, those can be included as well. A simple, distilled statement is sufficient.
- Compliance Standards. Identify the various federal, state, local, or global accessibility standards your website interface strives to comply with. For most U.S.-based companies, this will include acknowledgment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- Compliance Implementations and Gaps. Identify the specific steps, processes, design implementations, etc., that your website incorporates to meet the named accessibility standards. If your website still has some accessibility gaps, provide insight into what they are, why the gaps remain, and what (if any) workarounds are available. If there is an expectation of being able to achieve full compliance going forward, an explanation should be provided. Similarly, if your website exceeds standards, you should mention this, too.
- Specific services or platforms. If your business utilizes specific services, such as AllyADA’s CPACC-certified manual review services, to achieve and maintain compliance initiatives, don’t be shy about including this information in the statement. It provides additional context and insight for compliance efforts. For instance, your statement might include the following, “We engage a CPACC-certified, digital accessibility auditing service to conduct twice annual reviews of our ADA-compliance standards and implement evolving web design improvements based on the feedback they provide.”
- Contact Information. Identify the correct contact information, including name or position (if relevant), that a consumer can use to reach out with accessibility issues, concerns, or questions.
- Value Statement. Identify your business relationship to accessibility as an objective. Though optional, this very important step goes beyond the practical information of standards and compliance initiatives to convey the organizational sentiment of genuinely embracing and valuing accessibility as a means of fostering equity, inclusivity, and independence.
- Dates and Updates. Keep your accessibility statement fresh by indicating the date of the most recent accessibility improvements and including information on the frequency or necessity of updates. For instance, “We review evolving digital accessibility standards on a rolling basis, formally test our website for conformity twice annually using manual testing and make compliance updates as necessary.”
What Role Does an Accessibility Statement Play?
Once you have a sense of what needs to be included in an accessibility statement (see above), you can more easily understand the role that these statements play in your overall business strategy and objectives. From the perspective of web users and potential customers, they establish values, provide information, set expectations, offer assistance, and set goals. From the perspective of your business, they also grow brand loyalty and trust and offer some protection from liability.
- Values. This may not seem like it is extremely important, but it absolutely is. Taking a public stance on the importance of prioritizing digital accessibility sends a clear message. Not only does the broad audience of consumers who access your website understand that accessibility matters to your business, but so does the very specific audience for whom accessibility is a daily game-changer.
Expectations. In the world of digital accessibility, being clear about how you have optimized accessibility across your website sets expectations from the start. Blind, low-vision, and deaf consumers should be able to read your accessibility statement and gain an express understanding of which steps your business has taken to ease equity of access and useability across the platform. Similarly, they’ll understand which accessibility design features may still be lacking and why.
- Collaboration. Your accessibility statement also serves as a bridge to collaboration by demonstrating that accessibility is a priority, explaining compliance achievements and continuing goals, and providing contact information that invites inquiries.
- Brand Loyalty. Blind, low-vision, and deaf online consumers who encounter an accessibility statement understand immediately that the content across your website is made with their experiences in mind. Not only is this beneficial to them, but it is also beneficial to your business. It demonstrates transparency, builds trust, encourages brand loyalty, and invites collaboration through feedback.
Liability. Though having an accessibility statement does not provide any stand-alone liability protection, in conjunction with implementing a solid accessibility compliance strategy, it is one piece of an overall liability shield that comes with staying current and compliant.
Can You Combine a Non-discrimination Statement and an Accessibility Statement?
Yes, you absolutely can combine a non-discrimination statement and an accessibility statement. A non-discrimination statement advises consumers that a business or organization conforms to all applicable laws regarding nondiscrimination. For instance, you may include language like, “We adhere to all local, state, and federal laws regarding equity, fairness, and non-discrimination in employment and in the provision of our goods [or services].” Or, “We do not discriminate on the basis of…,” followed by a list of the many characteristics, practices, beliefs, etc., for which your business does not discriminate.
Including your accessibility statement within this context is perfectly valid. If you combine the two, though, we suggest making this clear through a transparent title, such as “Statement on Non-Discrimination and Website Accessibility.” The key is to make sure that users know exactly where to look to ascertain your business’s stance, efforts, and practices with respect to accessibility, whether you include it as a larger nod to inclusivity, diversity, and non-discrimination or you just include it as a stand-alone segment.
Examples of an Accessibility Statement
As discussed above, an accessibility statement can be robust and specific, worthy of a standalone landing page that is linked from your website’s homepage, or it can be a statement appearing in the footer of the homepage. Below are two examples. (These are not intended to be universal or comprehensive statements applicable to all businesses or websites; they are just examples.)
Example 1
This example is tight, concise, and practical, providing only the most basic information about accessibility efforts.
“As of [DATE], allyada.com is compliant with the standards set forth under the ADA, WCAG 2.1 AA, and section 508. We conduct no less than TWO annual website audits using our CPACC-certified manual review services and implement digital accessibility improvements as needed to remain in compliance. For questions or concerns about website navigation, useability, or accessibility issues, please reach out to our in-house compliance team at contact@allyada.com or 1-844-ALLY-ADA.”
Example 2
This example is slightly more robust, providing greater context and insight into the organizational values, objectives, and practices around accessibility.
“Thank you for visiting allyada.com, the website for AllyADA, a digital auditing service that centers manual review to help businesses and organizations achieve website accessibility compliance with national and global standards under the ADA, WCAG, and others. We aspire to provide industry-leading navigational experiences for our blind, low-vision, and deaf consumers by building our values directly into our design, implementation, and useability interface. We conduct no less than TWO annual website audits using our CPACC-certified manual review services to stay apprised of ever-changing compliance, regulatory, legal, technological, and consumer accessibility best practices. As of [Date], allyada.com is compliant with ADA, WCAG 2.1 AA, and section 508 standards. We believe in a collaborative approach to building a more equitable and independent web, and invite inquiries, insights, and feedback from anyone experiencing difficulty navigating any competent of our site. For specific details about our accessibility efforts or to discuss questions or concerns, please reach out to our in-house compliance team at contact@allyada.com or 1-844-ALLY-ADA.”
How Can AllyADA Help?
As a leading-edge digital accessibility auditing service offering regulatory compliance reviews (including ADA, WCAG, and section 508 standards), AllyADA can help get and keep your business fresh, equitable, and high-traffic. Numerous organic benefits flow from achieving and maintaining website compliance for blind and low-vision consumers, and our CPACC-certified accessibility professionals know how to leverage our knowledge to optimize your results. Contact us today for a quote, conversation, or question.