Preparing an Accessibility Evidence Pack for Insurance and Counsel
When a claim or a question arrives, the stores that respond well already have their accessibility evidence in one place. What an evidence pack should contain and how to keep it current.
At some point a store with any traffic gets the question in a formal setting: from an insurer during renewal, from counsel reviewing a claim, or from a partner doing diligence. What is the state of your site accessibility, what have you fixed, and what can you show for it? Teams that have the material gathered answer in days. Teams that have to reconstruct it from old emails and scan exports answer in weeks, and the reconstruction usually has gaps.
An evidence pack is not a legal shield and it does not replace advice from your own attorney. It is simply the organized record of what you tested, what you found, what you fixed, and what you monitor. Building it before you need it is the whole point.
What belongs in the pack
Start with dated audit and scan reports, including the scope of each: which templates and flows were covered and which were not. Add the remediation log that ties findings to fixes, with dates and the person or vendor responsible. A report with no fix record invites the obvious follow up question, and it is better to answer it in the pack itself.
Include your accessibility statement and the date it was last reviewed, your monitoring schedule, and any conformance report you have published. If a demand or complaint was previously received, include the response timeline and the testing done afterward. Insurers and counsel are looking for a pattern of attention, not a single perfect score.
Keep evidence that shows testing, not just scores
Automated scores are the weakest part of most packs. Strengthen them with records of manual testing: keyboard passes, screen reader checks on the buying path, and zoom testing, each dated and signed off by whoever did it. Notes that name the pages tested and the issues found are worth more than a dashboard screenshot.
Keep the raw exports as well as summaries. If a question turns on what a scan actually said on a given date, the export settles it. Store the pack where legal, operations, and the web team can all reach it, with one named owner responsible for updates.
What not to put in it
Do not include speculation about fault, internal arguments about whether a barrier matters, or promises with dates nobody approved. An evidence pack should be factual: what was tested, found, fixed, and scheduled. Drafts and debate belong in working files, not in the record you hand to an insurer.
Do not backfill dates or tidy up history after a claim arrives. A pack with an honest gap and a clear plan reads far better than a suspiciously complete one assembled in a weekend. If there are gaps, name them and state what is being done about them.
Keep it current with a light rhythm
Update the pack whenever a remediation sprint finishes, a new template or channel launches, or a monitoring cycle completes. A short quarterly review by the owner keeps it from going stale. The pack should never be more than one quarter behind the site it describes, or it stops being evidence of anything except good intentions.
Frequently asked questions
Is an evidence pack the same as a conformance report?
No. A conformance report, such as a VPAT based document, evaluates a product against a standard at a point in time. An evidence pack is broader and more operational: audits, fix logs, monitoring records, manual testing notes, and statements, gathered in one place for whoever needs to review them.
Who should own the evidence pack?
One named person, usually in operations or compliance, with the web team supplying reports and fix records. Shared ownership with no named owner is how packs go stale. The owner updates it on a schedule and after every remediation sprint.
Should we include scans that show problems?
Yes. A scan showing problems, followed by a dated fix record, is evidence of a working process. A pack containing only clean results is less credible and leaves you unable to show how issues were handled when they were found.
Does having a pack prevent a claim?
No document prevents a claim. A current pack helps you respond quickly and accurately, supports conversations with insurers and counsel, and shows a consistent pattern of testing and fixing, which is the position every store wants to be in if a question arrives.