Government Website Accessibility Statement: Template and Requirements

An accessibility statement is a public declaration by a government entity that it has assessed its digital properties against a recognized technical standard, that it is committed to removing barriers for people with disabilities, and that it has established a mechanism for the public to report problems and receive a response. It is not a legal disclaimer. It is not boilerplate. It is operational documentation with real compliance implications.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II, state and local governments have always been obligated to make their programs and services accessible. The DOJ's 2024 final rule (effective April 2026 for most jurisdictions) made that obligation concrete: public entities must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA for their web content and mobile apps. While the rule does not explicitly mandate an accessibility statement, the DOJ's supplementary guidance strongly encourages one — and enforcement attorneys consistently treat its presence, quality, and currency as evidence of good-faith compliance effort.

The statement signals two things simultaneously. To the public — including people with disabilities who rely on your site every day — it signals that your agency takes this seriously, that there is a real person to contact when something is broken, and that you will respond. To the DOJ (and to any plaintiff's attorney reviewing your site before filing a complaint), it signals that you have a documented process, that you know what standard you are targeting, and that you are not flying blind.

A broken or absent statement is itself a compliance risk — independent of whether your underlying site meets WCAG. If a complaint is filed and the investigator discovers you have no public contact mechanism for accessibility issues, that absence becomes a separate line item in the findings.

Based on the DOJ 2024 rule, the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative model statement, and the practical expectations of ADA enforcement, a government accessibility statement should include every element in the checklist below. These are not suggestions — treating any of them as optional creates gaps that surface during complaint investigations.

• ✓Current conformance status — one of three values: Full Conformance (rare; requires documented audit), Partial Conformance (most honest and appropriate for the majority of agencies), or Non-Conformant. Do not claim full conformance without a recent third-party audit to back it up.
• ✓The technical standard referenced— explicitly name WCAG 2.1 Level AA (or WCAG 2.2 if your agency has moved to that baseline). Vague references to "accessibility standards" or "Section 508" alone are insufficient under the DOJ 2024 rule, which specifically aligns with WCAG 2.1 AA.
• ✓Known limitations — list specific areas, pages, or content types that are not yet conformant, and if possible, the specific WCAG criteria they fail. This is the most uncomfortable element for agencies, but disclosure of known gaps paired with a remediation plan is far better than a later discovery that you knew about issues and said nothing.
• ✓A contact mechanism — an email address, phone number, and/or accessible feedback form dedicated to accessibility issues. This must be functional. A dead email or a feedback form with broken CAPTCHA is worse than no contact mechanism at all.
• ✓A response time commitment— name a specific SLA such as "We will acknowledge your message within 2 business days and provide a substantive response within 5 business days." Vague promises like "we will respond promptly" are unenforceable and unverifiable.
• ✓Date last reviewed or updated — this single field is the most commonly missing or falsified element. A statement dated 2021 on a site that underwent a major redesign in 2024 tells investigators that your statement is decorative, not operational.
• ✓How to request an alternative format — people with disabilities have the right to request content in an accessible alternative format. The statement should explain how to make such a request and what formats are available (large print, audio, accessible PDF, etc.).
• ✓ADA/504 Coordinator contact information— name, title, email, phone. The ADA/504 Coordinator is the designated accountability officer for your agency's compliance program. Their contact must be public.
• ✓Grievance procedure reference — if your agency has a formal ADA grievance procedure (required for entities with 50+ employees), the accessibility statement should link to it or describe it. This closes the loop for users who have reported an issue and feel it was not adequately resolved.
• ✓Scope of the statement — which websites, subdomains, or applications does this statement cover? If you have a main site at cityname.gov and a separate permit portal at permits.cityname.gov, state explicitly whether the statement covers both.

The template below is publication-ready. Copy it, replace every placeholder in brackets, and post it. Placeholders are in [ALL CAPS IN BRACKETS]. Every clause has a purpose; do not delete sections you find uncomfortable — address them.

Every bracket in the template above is a decision point, not just a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Here is what to consider for each one:

A perfect accessibility statement that no one can find provides zero compliance value. Placement is not a design decision — it is a legal one. Here is where the statement must live:

• ✓Footer link on every page— labeled "Accessibility Statement" or "Accessibility". This is the standard location users with disabilities look for it, and it is where DOJ investigators look first. It must appear on 100% of pages, including subdomains and portals if the statement covers them.
• ✓A canonical URL: /accessibility-statement or /accessibility — Use a clean, predictable URL. Avoid dynamic URLs or deeply nested paths. The URL should be easy to cite in complaint responses and accessible from any browser bookmark.
• ✓In the site's accessibility toolbar (if one exists) — if your site has a dedicated accessibility toolbar or widget, include a direct link to the statement within it. Users who are already engaging with accessibility features are exactly the audience who needs to find this page.
• ✓From the ADA/504 Coordinator's office page— wherever your agency's ADA resources are listed, the digital accessibility statement should be prominently linked alongside physical accessibility resources.
• ✓In the ADA Transition Plan — if your agency has an ADA Transition Plan (required for entities with 50+ employees), the digital accessibility statement and its URL should be explicitly referenced there as part of your documented compliance program.
• ✓In your sitemap.xml — include the accessibility statement URL in your XML sitemap. This helps search engines index it and makes it discoverable through web searches, which some users and researchers use to locate it.

The feedback mechanism is where most agencies fail in practice, even when they succeed on paper. Publishing a contact email is the beginning of an obligation, not the end of one. If someone emails your accessibility contact reporting that the emergency management portal is inaccessible with their screen reader, and they receive no response for three weeks, that is a separate compliance failure — independent of the original accessibility issue.

Build a real process, even in small agencies. The process does not need to be elaborate — but it must be intentional:

Before and After: Weak vs. Strong Accessibility Statement

The minimum update frequency for a government accessibility statement is annually — without exception. Set a recurring calendar event, assign it to the web manager and the ADA Coordinator jointly, and treat it as a compliance deadline rather than a housekeeping task.

Beyond the annual review, you must update the statement when any of the following events occur:

• ✓Major site redesign or CMS migration — a new theme, a new CMS platform, or a structural redesign introduces new code, new components, and new potential failures. Your previous conformance claims no longer apply to the new architecture. Update the statement to reflect the new baseline and any new gaps discovered post-launch.
• ✓Completion of a significant remediation push — if you have spent six months fixing PDF accessibility and have now converted your top 200 documents, update the known limitations section to remove or update that entry. A statement that still lists gaps you have already fixed is inaccurate and misrepresents your current status.
• ✓Discovery of a previously unknown compliance gap — if an audit, a complaint, or user feedback reveals a significant WCAG failure you did not know about, add it to the known limitations section promptly. Disclosing a newly discovered issue is evidence of good faith; having it discovered by a complainant while your statement claims it does not exist is the opposite.
• ✓Change in ADA/504 Coordinator — update the named coordinator, contact email, and phone within 30 days of any personnel change. An accessibility feedback email that routes to someone who left the agency six months ago is a functional failure of the feedback mechanism.
• ✓Regulatory or standard update — if the applicable standard changes (e.g., your jurisdiction moves from WCAG 2.1 to WCAG 2.2 as its baseline), update the statement to reflect the new standard and your current conformance status against it.

These two documents serve different audiences and should not be confused with each other.

For the majority of city, county, and special district web teams, a well-maintained public accessibility statement is sufficient for meeting the public disclosure and feedback mechanism requirements of ADA Title II. A full VPAT is a different document with a different purpose — it is what your IT procurement team requests from a software vendor before signing a contract, not what you publish on your website.

That said, if your agency conducts a formal third-party accessibility audit, the resulting ACR is valuable supporting documentation. The accessibility statement can reference it: "A full Accessibility Conformance Report for this website is available upon request by contacting the ADA/504 Coordinator." You need not publish the full VPAT publicly, but making it available on request demonstrates transparency.

The federal ADA Title II rule sets a floor, not a ceiling. Several states have enacted their own digital accessibility laws and agency policies that are more stringent than the federal baseline — and those obligations apply regardless of whether the DOJ has initiated enforcement in your jurisdiction.