A complete guide to creating the one document every EU public-facing website needs — with a free generator and a fill-in template.
Updated August 2026 · Reading time: 7 minutes
Since the European Accessibility Act (EAA) took effect in June 2025, every website offering goods or services to EU consumers must publish an accessibility statement. This is not optional — it is a legal requirement under Article 4 of the EAA, enforced by each EU member state's designated authority.
An accessibility statement serves three purposes:
The EAA explicitly requires a published statement of accessibility conformance. Without one, your site is automatically non-compliant — regardless of how accessible it actually is.
Visitors with disabilities can immediately understand your site's accessibility level, known issues, and how to report problems. This builds trust and reduces support friction.
Enterprise clients and marketplaces now ask for accessibility statements as part of vendor onboarding. Having one signals professionalism and pre-empts a common contract blocker.
The good news: an effective accessibility statement does not need to be long or legalistic. Most sites can write one in under an hour using the structure below — and our free generator does it in 2 minutes.
Regulation (EU) 2023/2419 specifies exactly what every statement must include. The requirements are consistent across all member states that have transposed the directive:
Requirement: A clear statement of your site's commitment to making content accessible to all users, regardless of ability.
Requirement: The standard you aim to meet. For the EAA, this is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. You must state whether your site is fully conformant, partially conformant, or non-conformant.
Requirement: A list of known accessibility issues and, where possible, an alternative way to access the content or service.
Requirement: A way for users to report accessibility issues. This must include an email address or web form, and you must acknowledge receipt within a reasonable timeframe.
Requirement: Describe how you evaluated your site's accessibility — automated tools, manual testing, user testing, or external audit.
Requirement: The contact details of the relevant national enforcement body. Users who are not satisfied with your response can escalate to this authority.
Over the past year, we have reviewed dozens of agency client websites for EAA compliance. These are the most common statement pitfalls we see:
If you claim "fully conformant WCAG 2.1 AA" and a user finds a contrast error or missing alt text, your statement becomes a liability. It is safer to claim "partially conformant" and document limitations honestly. You can upgrade to full conformance later when you have verified every page.
A surprising number of statements describe the site's accessibility but provide no way for users to report issues. This alone can make the statement non-compliant. Always include at minimum an email address.
Not all EU member states have designated their EAA enforcement body yet, and some changed their designated authority after the 2025 deadline. Check the European Commission's list before publishing. Our statement generator includes the correct contacts for each member state.
The statement must be easy to find from any page on your site — typically linked in the footer. Burying it in a privacy policy page or making it available only through search does not satisfy the "prominently displayed" requirement.
WCAG 2.2 was published in 2023, but the EAA references WCAG 2.1 AA specifically. Your statement should reference the correct standard (WCAG 2.1 AA) unless your jurisdiction explicitly updates the reference. Do not prematurely claim conformance to a standard the EAA does not require.
An accessibility statement must include the date it was last reviewed and updated. A statement that is two years old with no review date signals neglect and may be flagged in an audit. Review and re-date the statement quarterly when you run your accessibility scan.
There are three ways to get your statement published, depending on how much control you want:
This is the minimum structure every EAA accessibility statement should follow. Paste it into a page on your site and fill in the placeholders:
Accessibility Statement for [Your Site Name] Commitment: [Site Name] is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We continually improve the user experience for everyone and apply the relevant accessibility standards. Conformance Status: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. [Site Name] is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard. Known Limitations: Despite our best efforts, the following areas have known limitations: - [List specific issues, e.g. "Older blog posts may contain PDFs that are not fully accessible"] - [Alternative: "We are working to address [specific issue] by [date]"] Feedback: We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of [Site Name]. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers: - Email: [your email] - Phone: [optional] - Postal address: [optional] Evaluation Methods: We assessed the accessibility of [Site Name] using the following approach: - Self-evaluation using automated WCAG scanning tools - [Add: Manual testing with keyboard navigation] - [Add: Screen reader testing if applicable] Date: This statement was created on [Date] and last reviewed on [Date]. Enforcement Body: If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the relevant national authority: [Your Country's EAA Enforcement Body Name] [Website link] [Postal address]
Before publishing, verify each item:
An accessibility statement is not a one-time document. Treat it as a living record of your site's accessibility status:
Creating the statement is step one. Maintaining compliance requires the right tools on a regular cadence:
16-point WCAG 2.1 AA scan. Paste any URL and get an instant grade with every issue listed by severity.
Fill in your details and get a complete EAA-compliant statement in 2 minutes. Handles conformance status and enforcement contact.
Full 25-page guide with 10-point checklist, 14-day fix plan, testing tool comparison, and sample statement template.
No. One statement for the entire site is sufficient, as long as it covers the full scope of pages and services offered. Link it in the footer from every page.
Each site needs its own statement unless all sites share the same theme and content management system. If each site has custom themes, plugins, or content, create separate statements. The statement generator supports multiple sites.
No. Each site has different content, themes, and known limitations. Copying the same statement across client sites without customising the known limitations section is misleading and could be flagged in an audit.
If your site serves users in multiple EU countries, it is best practice — and increasingly required — to provide the statement in each language your site is available in. The statement itself is an essential accessibility feature that should be understandable to all users.
Your site is automatically non-compliant with the EAA under Article 4. Enforcement varies by member state, but fines for non-compliance have already been issued across the EU (up to €900,000 in Sweden, €600,000 in Spain as of mid-2026). Beyond fines, you risk damaging your reputation and losing clients who require documented compliance.
It must be on a dedicated page with an intuitive URL such as /accessibility or /accessibility-statement. A paragraph buried in a privacy policy or terms page does not satisfy the requirement. The URL should be linked from every page footer.