Your Accessibility Statement: What to Publish, What to Leave Out, and How to Keep It True
An accessibility statement is a promise a plaintiff, a customer, and a regulator may all read. How to write one that helps shoppers and stays honest as the site changes.
Most stores publish an accessibility statement because someone told them they should, paste in a template full of commitments, and never look at it again. Two years later the statement promises a standard the site does not meet, names a contact email nobody monitors, and describes an audit that never happened. At that point the statement is not protection. It is evidence against its own author.
A good statement is shorter, specific, and maintained. It tells disabled shoppers how to get help, tells the truth about the current state, and gets updated when the site changes. That is achievable for any store willing to treat it as a living page.
What every statement should contain
Four things earn their place: the standard the store aims for, usually WCAG AA, the date the statement was last reviewed, the known limitations stated plainly, and a working way to report a barrier and get help completing a task another way, such as by phone or email with a real response time. That contact route is the most important line on the page, and it should be tested like a checkout form.
What to leave out
Leave out claims you cannot prove: fully compliant, 100 percent accessible, certified, when no certification exists. Leave out vendor names presented as guarantees, especially any suggestion that a widget or overlay makes the site compliant. Leave out copied legal language about jurisdictions your store does not sell into. Every sentence in a statement should be something the store could defend, line by line, on a bad day.
Known limitations are a strength, not a confession
Naming real limitations, for example that some older PDF catalogs are not yet accessible and are available in another format on request, does two useful things. It helps the shopper who would otherwise hit the barrier blind, and it shows a pattern of honest assessment and planned remediation. Statements that claim perfection invite the reader to go looking for the first flaw, which never takes long.
Put the statement on a review schedule
Review the statement whenever the site has a major change and at least twice a year otherwise. Check that the contact method still works, the standard named is current, the limitations list still matches reality, and the review date is updated only when a review actually happened. Assign an owner. A statement with no owner becomes fiction on a predictable schedule.
Related reading
If this topic is useful, these earlier guides go deeper on connected questions: ADA Accessibility Due Diligence When Buying an Existing Shopify Store, Accessibility Clauses in Vendor and Agency Contracts: Shifting Risk Before It Lands, and Preparing an Accessibility Evidence Pack for Insurance and Counsel.
Frequently asked questions
Is an accessibility statement legally required for a Shopify store?
There is no single rule requiring one for every private store, though some contracts, public sector rules, and settlement agreements do require them. Required or not, a truthful statement with a working contact route helps shoppers and demonstrates good faith.
Should a statement say the site is fully ADA compliant?
Almost never. Full compliance is a claim very few sites can prove across every page, app, and document. State the standard you target, the work underway, and known limitations instead. Accuracy protects you. Absolutes expose you.
What should happen when someone reports a barrier through the statement?
They should get a prompt human response, help completing their task another way, and the barrier should be logged and scheduled for fixing. Test the route yourself twice a year, because an unmonitored inbox is worse than none.
How often should an accessibility statement be updated?
At least twice a year and after any major site change that affects accessibility, such as a new theme, a new checkout setup, or a remediation project completing. Update the review date only when the review was actually done.