Your Business Needs a Website Accessibility Statement
- Aug 3
- 4 min read
A website accessibility statement explains how accessible your ecommerce site is, what standards it meets, and how users can report barriers. A strong statement includes a clear conformance level, contact details for support, and a commitment to ongoing accessibility improvement, and is a critical aspect of legal risk management. An example of a good Website Accessibility Statement can be found here.
Accessibility is no longer optional for ecommerce businesses. Tens of thousands of web accessibility lawsuits are now filed each year, and many of them might have been prevented with a detailed accessibility statement. A website accessibility statement is one of the most direct ways to communicate your commitment to inclusive design. Yet many ecommerce businesses either omit one entirely or publish a vague, boilerplate page that does more harm than good.
What Is a Website Accessibility Statement?
A website accessibility statement is a publicly available document that outlines the accessibility of your website. It communicates which accessibility standards your site conforms to, identifies any known limitations, and provides users with a direct way to seek assistance or report issues.
For ecommerce websites specifically, an accessibility statement signals to customers with disabilities that their experience matters—and that your business has taken deliberate steps to accommodate them. This can be very helpful in the event that a blind or visually impaired customer runs into an issue on your site.
Why Does an Ecommerce Website Need an Accessibility Statement?
There are two core reasons every ecommerce website should publish an accessibility statement:
Legal compliance: In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites operated by businesses open to the public. An accessibility statement demonstrates good-faith efforts toward compliance, which can be a relevant factor in ADA-related legal disputes. Similar obligations exist under the UK Equality Act 2010 and the European Accessibility Act (EAA), which came into full effect in June 2025.
User trust: Customers with disabilities—including those who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies—are more likely to engage with and purchase from a site that visibly acknowledges their needs. A clear accessibility statement reduces uncertainty and builds confidence before a user begins browsing.
What Are the Characteristics of a Good Website Accessibility Statement?
Does the statement specify a conformance level?
A credible accessibility statement references a recognized standard. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or 2.2, published by the W3C, are the globally accepted benchmarks. The statement should specify whether the site is fully conformant, partially conformant, or non-conformant with a particular WCAG level (typically Level AA).
Does it identify known accessibility barriers?
Transparency is a hallmark of a strong statement. Rather than claiming full compliance without qualification, an effective statement lists any known limitations—such as third-party content that cannot be fully controlled—along with any workarounds for users.
Does it include a mechanism for user feedback?
Users must be able to report accessibility issues and request assistance. A good accessibility statement includes a dedicated contact method—email address, phone number, or online form—with a clearly stated response timeframe. This is not just best practice; it is a requirement under the EU Web Accessibility Directive for public sector bodies and expected under the EAA for private businesses.
Is it written in plain language?
Accessibility extends to how the statement itself is written. Technical jargon should be minimized, and the document should be understandable to a general audience, including those using assistive technologies to read it.
Putting It Into Practice
A website accessibility statement is not a legal shield on its own—but it is a foundational component of a responsible accessibility strategy. For ecommerce businesses, it serves as a public commitment to accessibility, a practical resource for users with disabilities, and a document that reflects organizational accountability.
To assess how accessible your website currently is, start with an automated audit using a tool such as a web accessibility checker. Automated tools can surface a significant proportion of WCAG violations and provide a clear starting point for remediation—before updating or publishing your accessibility statement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a website accessibility statement legally required for ecommerce businesses?
In the US, there is no federal law that explicitly mandates an accessibility statement. However, under the ADA, ecommerce sites must be accessible to people with disabilities. Publishing a statement demonstrates good-faith compliance efforts. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act requires private sector compliance—including accessibility statements.
Where should an accessibility statement be placed on an ecommerce website?
An accessibility statement should be easy to find. Best practice is to link to it in the website footer, alongside privacy policy and terms of service links, so it is accessible from every page.
How often should an ecommerce website update its accessibility statement?
Accessibility statements should be reviewed and updated any time significant changes are made to the website, or at minimum once per year. An outdated or inaccurate statement can undermine credibility and misrepresent the current state of your website's accessibility.
Accessibility improvements can reveal problems that go far beyond compliance, especially confusing navigation, weak headings, poor mobile layouts, or service pages that don’t explain enough. Once the site is easier for people to use, I’d ask Vladenza to build practical seo for small business website support around the pages with real commercial value. Competitor research, stronger internal connections, and relevant external links can help those pages become easier to discover as well as easier to understand. I’d keep accessibility and SEO aligned from the start, because fixing usability first gives later promotion a much stronger destination than sending traffic to pages that still frustrate visitors.