Key points
- Parish and town councils have to publish an accessibility statement. The duty sits in the 2018 regulations.
- Start from the GOV.UK model and sample. Keep the required lines, and delete the notes before you publish.
- State whether the site meets WCAG 2.2 AA, meets it only in part, or does not meet it, based on the testing you have done.
- Name the barriers in plain language, and give a contact so someone can report a problem or ask for another format.
- Say when you prepared and last reviewed the statement. The council keeps the page current.
On this page
What your statement must include
- Name the site and the address it covers. Say whether a separate booking tool or vendor page is included.
- Keep the required lines from the GOV.UK model accessibility statement. Use the sample for the rest, then delete the notes.
- State a position against WCAG 2.2 AA: the site meets the standard, it meets it only in part, or it does not meet it, matching the testing you have done.
- List what fails, in language a resident can follow: the part of the site, the barrier, what to do instead, and a date for a fix if you have one.
- If you rely on disproportionate burden, record the assessment. Old documents are not exempt just because they are old.
- List content outside the regulations separately, and still offer a way to get the information.
- Give an email that reaches the clerk, and a phone number if you have one, for problems and other formats.
- Say when the statement was prepared and last reviewed, and what you tested.
- Link it from the footer, so it is easy to find from every page.
An accessibility statement is a public page. It tells a resident, in ordinary language, how far the council website goes and what to do if something is in the way. Parish and town councils have to publish one. The duty sits in the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (opens in a new tab). GOV.UK’s requirements page (opens in a new tab) is the practical starting point, and it currently expects WCAG 2.2 AA.
We build council sites following WCAG 2.2 AA standards. We do not describe a live site as meeting that standard until representative pages and documents have been tested. The statement is where the council tells the truth about the gap, if there is one. This guide says what to put in the page. It does not fill the page in for you.
Use the GOV.UK wording, then make it yours
Some of the wording is fixed. Do not rewrite those sentences to sound friendlier. Start from the model accessibility statement (opens in a new tab) and the sample accessibility statement (opens in a new tab). The model says which lines you have to keep. The sample shows the same ideas written out, with notes on what disabled users actually need. Replace the words in square brackets. Delete the notes before you publish. Leave the required lines alone.
The statement should say which site it covers. If the council has one website, name it and give the address. If you also have a separate booking tool or a vendor page, say whether this statement covers it. A statement that claims “all council websites” and then ignores a third-party form is worse than a short honest one.
Say how far the site goes
The model asks the council to state a position against WCAG 2.2 AA. There are three positions in the model: the site meets the standard, it meets it only in part, or it does not meet it. Pick the one that matches the testing you have actually done. Then list the reasons, in language a resident can follow.
Do not write that the site meets WCAG 2.2 AA because a plugin said so, or because the theme was built with accessibility in mind. We will not put that sentence on a council site for you. Automated tools miss a lot, including a lot of PDF problems and a lot of unclear link text. If you have only run a scan, the honest position is that you do not yet know, and the statement should say what you have and have not checked.
When something fails, name it. “Some older PDFs have no headings, so a screen reader cannot move through them.” “The map on the contact page cannot be used with a keyboard.” Say which part of the site, what the barrier is, and what someone can do instead. Give a date for a fix where you have one. If you do not have a date, say so. A vague promise to “review accessibility regularly” does not help the person who cannot open tonight’s agenda.
Disproportionate burden, and things outside the regulations
The regulations allow a council to say that fixing a particular thing would be a disproportionate burden. The model statement has a place for that. It is a real assessment of the cost and the benefit, written down, not a slogan. Old scanned minutes are the example clerks raise most often. The fact they are old does not, by itself, take them out of scope, and it does not, by itself, prove a disproportionate burden. If you want to rely on the exemption, read the model and the regulations, and take advice. We will not mark a folder of PDFs as exempt because it would take a week to redo them.
Some content is outside the regulations. Third-party content that you did not fund or develop, and did not control, is the sort of thing the model asks you to list separately. A YouTube video, an embedded map, or a consultation tool from another body may fall here. Check the current GOV.UK notes rather than guessing. If it is outside scope, say so, and still offer a way to get the information.
A contact that a person can use
The statement needs a way to report a problem and a way to ask for the information in another format. Publish an email address that reaches the clerk, and a phone number if you have one. Say what you need from the person: the page address, what they were trying to do, and what went wrong. Say how quickly you aim to reply. Do not invent a promise you cannot keep. Our own terms, for support we provide, treat one working day as an aim for a reply, not as a promise that every fault is fixed in that time. A council statement should be just as plain.
The link to the statement should be easy to find from the homepage, and in practice from every page. A footer link is the usual place. Do not bury it under “policies” with no label. The sample statement (opens in a new tab) shows the sort of contact block GOV.UK expects.
Testing, dates, and who keeps it current
Say when you prepared the statement and when you last reviewed it. Say what you tested: which pages, which documents, whether you used a keyboard, a phone, a screen reader, or only an automated tool. Name the tool if you used one, and say that a tool is not the whole test.
Review the statement when the site changes in a way that matters, and at least on a cycle the council can remember. A review date with nobody named to do the review will slip. The clerk usually owns the page. Councillors who upload minutes need to know that a new PDF can make the statement out of date.
We supply a statement page with a new council site, written so the council can edit it. The council remains the publisher. Our accessibility statement for this marketing site is a worked example of the tone: it says testing is unfinished, and it does not claim the site meets WCAG 2.2 AA. Copy the honesty, not the sentences. Your site is a different site.
The guide to what a council website publishes covers the Transparency Code and where the statement sits in the page list. The compliance page is the shorter version of our own limit: we build following WCAG 2.2 AA standards, and we do not certify a live site.
A statement is a page, not a badge
Residents use it when something blocks them. Auditors and the Government Digital Service’s monitoring can read it too. A statement that overclaims is a problem of its own. Write what is true this month, link the model (opens in a new tab) and the sample (opens in a new tab), and update it when the site changes.
If you are not sure what your current statement says, or whether you have one, the free website check includes that question. It is a look at the public page. It is not a certificate.