Accessibility statement generator
Answer a few questions about your website and get an accessibility statement in plain English, laid out like the GOV.UK sample. It's made for parish, town and community councils, but any small organisation can use it.
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What goes in an accessibility statement
An accessibility statement is a page on your website that tells visitors how well the site works for disabled people, what doesn’t work yet, and how to ask for information in another format. Parish and town councils in England and community and town councils in Wales count as public sector bodies, so the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 say you must publish one and keep it up to date.
How the statement is put together
The tool follows the headings in the GOV.UK sample statement, in the same order: who runs the website, how accessible it is, how to contact you, how to report a problem, the enforcement procedure, the technical information, what you’re doing to improve it, and when the statement was prepared. Each problem you tick is written up twice: once in plain words near the top, for visitors, and once in the technical section with the WCAG 2.2 success criterion it fails. Maps and embedded content from other organisations go under “content that’s not within the scope”, because the regulations treat them differently.
You get the statement as plain text, for an email or a Word document, and as HTML, for pasting into your website’s code view. Anything in square brackets is a gap for you to fill in.
Be honest about the problems
Most small council websites have a few known problems: scanned minutes that a screen reader can’t read, photos without text descriptions, or a pale colour scheme. It’s fine to say so. The regulations expect you to list what doesn’t work and say what you’re doing about it. A statement that claims everything is perfect when it isn’t is worse than one that’s honest. If you’re not sure about your colours, try our colour contrast checker.
A note on “disproportionate burden”
You can only claim a disproportionate burden if you’ve written down an assessment weighing the cost of fixing something against the benefit to disabled people. A small budget can be part of that, but “it’s a lot of work” on its own isn’t enough. Most councils don’t need to claim it at all.
Where to go next
For a step-by-step guide, read how to write a parish council accessibility statement. If your council’s website is hard to update or the problems are piling up, see our websites for parish and town councils: we build and look after the site for £47 a month, and fixes like these can be sent as part of your 10 changes a month.
Questions about this tool
Does our parish council need an accessibility statement?
Yes. Parish and town councils in England and community and town councils in Wales are public sector bodies under the 2018 accessibility regulations. Your website should meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard as far as you can, and you must publish a statement saying how well it does.
Do charities and small businesses need one?
Usually not by law, as the regulations are mainly for public sector bodies. It’s still good practice, and the Equality Act 2010 expects you to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. A statement shows visitors you’ve thought about it and tells them how to ask for help.
Will this make our website compliant?
No. The statement describes your website; it doesn’t change it. You still need to check the site, fix what you can and keep the statement up to date. The GOV.UK guidance explains what’s expected.
Do we have to fix all our old minutes and PDFs?
PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018 don’t have to be fixed if they’re not needed for your current services. Documents published since then, and anything people need now, such as the latest agenda, should be accessible.
Where should the statement go on our website?
On its own page called Accessibility statement, with a link from the footer so it’s on every page. Use the HTML version if your website editor has a code view, or the plain text version if it doesn’t.
How often should we review it?
At least once a year, and whenever you make a big change to the website. Update the review date each time, even if nothing else has changed. Nothing you type here is saved, so keep a copy of the text.
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