The accessibility statement

Doing accessibility work and being able to show you did it are two different things. The Statement screen is for the second one.

What it generates

A draft accessibility statement, built from what the plugin actually knows about your site: what has been checked, what was found, what was fixed, and what is still outstanding.

It includes the feedback contact mechanism European rules expect, which is a way for somebody who hits a barrier to tell you about it and get a reply.

It is a draft, not a publication

The statement is never published automatically and it never asserts conformance on your behalf.

You review it, edit it, and attest to it. The attestation needs a name, because a conformance claim with nobody’s name on it is worth nothing.

That sequence is the whole point of the screen. A statement generated and published without a person reading it is a legal document written by a machine about a site it only partly understands.

What it will not say

It will not say your site is compliant, certified, or protected from legal action. No plugin can determine that, and one that claims to is selling you something.

Specifically, the plugin does not determine or certify compliance with the ADA, the European Accessibility Act, Section 508, AODA, the UK Equality Act, or any other law. It helps you do the work and keep a record of it. It is not legal advice.

Writing the parts it cannot

A good statement says more than a tool can know. Worth adding yourself:

• Which standard you are aiming at, usually WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
• What you know is not right yet, and when you expect to deal with it. A statement listing known problems is far more credible than one claiming none.
• How you tested, including whether any of it involved disabled users.
• Who to contact, and how long a reply takes.

Keeping it true

A statement is a claim about the state of your site on a particular day. It stops being true as the site changes.

Re-generate it when you have done a round of work, and review it whenever the site changes substantially. An out-of-date statement is worse than none, because it is a documented claim that no longer holds.

In code

wsak_statement_html filters the generated markup if you need to change its structure or wrap it in your own template.