Status in the accessibility statement

Is your organisation legally required to make its websites and mobile apps accessible and account for them in an accessibility statement? If so, you will have to deal with different statuses. Here we are happy to explain.

For whom is an accessibility statement mandatory?

Government organisations are required by the Temporary Decree on Digital Government Accessibility (later the Digital Government Act) to make websites and mobile apps accessible. They must also report their progress in an accessibility statement.

The intention is to complete this statement via the fill-in assistant at www.toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl, so that all statements are the same and can be viewed via this website.

There is no legal requirement for companies and other organisations to have an accessibility statement on their websites. Fortunately, however, we do see more and more companies and organisations paying attention to digital accessibility. They do not then use the "fill-in wizard", but make their own statement describing what they have already done and often what still needs to be improved. We too have a statement on the accessibility of Technobility.co.uk.

The accessibility statement

Think of the accessibility statement as a kind of "plan of attack". You describe how accessible your website or app already is and what problems remain.

For each problem, you tell the following:

  • What is causing the problem

  • What is affecting the users

  • What you are doing to fix the problem

  • When you have fixed the problem

  • When you have fixed the problem

Ideally, you should also tell for which people these problems pose a potential limitation. Offering an accessible alternative can be a temporary solution for some problems. For example, you could offer someone to personally help at a location.

The accessibility statement is valid for 1 year. It is therefore important that you check the accessibility of your website or app every year, for example with an additional survey. The results of this annual check are of course recorded in an update of the accessibility declaration.

Accessibility statement status: A to E

When you consult the register, you will see the accessibility statement status of each website or app. This status can range from A to E, with A being the highest achievable and E the lowest. Ultimately, the aim is for all websites and apps to achieve status A, but what do these statuses mean?

In a nutshell, this boils down to the following:

  • Status E: an accessibility statement has not been published.

  • Status D: the statement has been published, but an accessibility survey has not yet been scheduled and conducted.

  • Status C: the statement has been published, an accessibility survey has been scheduled, but it has not yet been conducted.

  • Status B: the statement has been published and an accessibility survey has been conducted, but accessibility issues have not yet been found.

  • Status A: the statement has been published, an accessibility survey has been scheduled and no accessibility issues have been found.

  • Status A: the statement has been published, an accessibility survey has been scheduled and no accessibility issues have been found.

Which accessibility statement status you get is also shown in the following flowchart:

If you are continuously accountable for your progress, then it is common to move gradually from status E to status A. An important part of this is whether an accessibility survey has been carried out.

Status AA?

Accessibility declaration status A is thus the ultimate goal, where the website or app demonstrably meets the accessibility requirements. The accessibility inspection report then states that the website or app fully meets all 50 success criteria of WCAG 2.1 A and AA.

However, this "A and AA" is different from "Status A" in the accessibility statement. This is because the "A and AA" in the accessibility report refers to the points on which the website or app has been assessed. These points are so-called success criteria which are divided into different levels: A and AA. There is even a third level here (AAA), but by law, you don't have to meet points sitting at that level.

So does the website or app meet all 50 success criteria of WCAG 2.1 A and AA? Then you can claim status A in the accessibility statement. Does the website or app not yet meet all these 50 points? Then you can claim status B, provided you can show a research report of this.

Making accessibility statement

If you already have A or B status, the accessibility declaration is something you make yourself as a company or organisation. For government bodies, the fill-in assistant helps you create it. With our complete inspections you will also receive a file that you can import into the fill-in assistant.

Please contact us if you need help drafting a good accessibility statement when you want to work towards better digital accessibility.

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