Free School Accessibility Statement Generator

Answer a few questions and get an accessibility statement that says what is actually true about your school website. It will not let you claim compliance you have not tested for, which is the single most common mistake in the ones already published.

2 min
to a finished statement
£0
free, no sign-up
0
data sent anywhere
WCAG 2.2
AA, the current standard
1

About your school and website

2

What do you actually know about it?

Answer honestly. A statement that claims more than you can back up is worse than one that says plainly what you have not got to yet, and this tool will not let you claim compliance you have not tested for.

3

Known problems

Tick anything you know about. These are the issues we see most often on school websites. Leaving one unticked does not make it go away, it just means your statement will not mention it.

4

How people reach you

5

Your statement

Most school accessibility statements are wrong, in one of two directions

This is the requirement schools get wrong more often than any other, and they get it wrong in both directions at once.

What is actually true
  • Schools are partially exempt from the 2018 accessibility regulations
  • A partially exempt organisation still has to publish an accessibility statement. That duty is not exempted
  • The exemption does not cover content someone needs in order to use a service, for example an online form
  • The standard is WCAG 2.2 AA
  • An honest statement saying you have not tested yet is a perfectly legitimate thing to publish
What we hear said
  • “Schools are exempt from the accessibility regulations”, so nothing is needed
  • “Every page of the site has to meet the standard”, which overstates it
  • “We have an accessibility plan, so we are covered”, which is a different duty entirely
  • “We are fully compliant”, published by a school that has never tested
  • “It is not on the DfE list, so it does not count”

The one that costs schools most

The accessibility statement and the accessibility plan are two different duties. The plan comes from the Equality Act 2010 and is about improving access to education for disabled pupils. The statement comes from the 2018 regulations and is about your website. Having one does not give you the other, and we regularly see schools who believe it does.

What the regulations actually say

The rules come from the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Everyone shortens that, but it is worth knowing the full title, because the public sector bodies websites and mobile applications accessibility regulations are what an inspector or a complainant will actually cite. Two parts of them matter to a school.

Regulation 4 sets out the exemption. It exempts the websites of schools except for content relating to essential online administrative functions. The guidance illustrates that as content a person needs in order to use a service, for example a form for school meal preferences. So the exemption is real, but it is narrow, and it stops exactly where a parent needs to do something.

The public sector bodies websites and mobile applications rules apply to the site as a whole, but regulation 4 is what narrows them for schools.

Regulation 8 requires an accessibility statement. It is not exempted for schools. A partially exempt organisation still publishes one, and it has to be accurate.

Neither of the two Department for Education publish online lists mentions the accessibility statement at all, which is a large part of why so many schools have never produced one. Not being on that list does not make the duty go away.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission enforces the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Complaints from members of the public go to the Equality Advisory and Support Service, or the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

What is exempt, and what is not

The regulations carve out specific things. Knowing them matters, because content that is outside the scope should not be described as a failure in your statement, and a genuine failure should not be hidden inside an exemption that does not apply. The generator above sorts them into the right sections for you.

Content Position
Documents published before 23 September 2018 Exempt, unless they are needed to use a service
Pre-recorded video published before 23 September 2020 Exempt
Live video Exempt
Third party content you neither fund nor control Exempt, though you should still provide the information another way on request
Online maps Exempt, provided essential information is given in an accessible form
Archived content no longer updated Exempt
Anything a parent needs in order to use a service Not exempt. This is the part regulation 4 deliberately leaves in
New documents you publish from now on Not exempt

What the finished accessibility statement looks like

This is a worked example for a fictional primary school that has had its website tested and knows about a few problems. Your own accessibility statement will follow the same structure, with the wording matched to your answers.

Accessibility statement for Example Primary School

This accessibility statement applies to www.exampleprimary.sch.uk.

This website is run by Example Primary School. We want as many people as possible to be able to use it. For example, that means you should be able to change colours, contrast levels and fonts, zoom in up to 400 percent without the text spilling off the screen, navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, and listen to most of the website using a screen reader.

How accessible this website is

We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible: older PDFs and documents, some images without alt text, and some colour contrast.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, email of****@****************ch.uk or telephone 01234 567890. We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any accessibility problems that are not listed on this page, or you think we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, please contact us.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG version 2.2 AA standard, because of the non compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

Some images do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. Some text does not have enough contrast against its background. Older documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt from the accessibility regulations unless they are needed to use a service.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are working through the issues listed above and will publish dates for each of them.

Preparation of this statement

This statement was prepared on 8 August 2026. This website was last tested in July 2026.

Notice what it does not do. It does not claim full compliance, it separates a genuine failure from content that is outside the scope of the accessibility regulations, and it gives a real contact route with a real response time. Those three things are what a complaint will turn on.

Why this one is different

It will not let you overclaim

Every other generator lets you tick fully compliant, because that is the answer people want. This one works out your compliance status from your answers instead. If you have not tested the site, it says so plainly and refuses to state a status at all. That is a legitimate statement to publish today, and far safer than a confident claim you cannot evidence.

It knows schools are a special case

The generic statement generators are written for councils and NHS trusts. They produce a statement that ignores the partial exemption entirely, which is why so many school statements read as though the school were a government department. This one quotes regulation 4 properly and puts exempt content in its own section.

Nothing you type leaves your device

It all runs in your browser. No account, no sign-up, and nothing is stored or sent anywhere. You can put your laptop into aeroplane mode after the page has loaded and it will carry on working, which is the simplest proof there is.

Accessibility requirements for a school website

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 point at one set of web accessibility standards: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.2, at AA level. In practice, meeting those accessibility standards on a school website comes down to a handful of things that go wrong again and again.

  • Alternative text on images. Every photograph and graphic needs alternative text, or the information in it is simply missing for anyone using screen reader software. Decorative images are the exception and should be marked as such.
  • Documents. Older PDF documents are the most common problem on a school website. An untagged PDF is not fully accessible, because assistive technology cannot work out the reading order.
  • Colour contrast. Text needs enough contrast against its background, which catches out a lot of school brand palettes.
  • Keyboard use. Every menu, form and slider should work without a mouse. This is where third party embeds usually fail.
  • Headings and structure. Headings used for structure rather than for styling are what lets a screen reader user skim a page.

Website accessibility is not only about people with permanent disabilities. Assistive technology includes screen magnification, speech recognition and captions, and a parent reading your admissions page one handed on a phone benefits from the same work.

How to improve accessibility, and what to do first

You do not have to make the whole site fully accessible before you publish a website accessibility statement. Publish an honest one now, then work through the list.

Start with what parents actually need. Admissions, term dates, contact details and any online form. That content is the part regulation 4 deliberately leaves inside the accessibility requirements, so it is both the highest legal risk and the highest practical value.

Then alternative text and older PDF documents. Between them these two account for most of what an audit finds on a school website, and both can be worked through by the office team without a developer.

Then test with the tools your visitors use. Try your own site with a keyboard only, and with the screen reader software built into Windows or macOS. Ten minutes of that teaches you more than any automated report.

Each time you improve accessibility, update the statement. A statement that reflects real progress is far more convincing than one that has not changed in three years.

Common questions

Do schools really need an accessibility statement?
Yes. Schools are partially exempt from the accessibility regulations, but the duty to publish a statement under regulation 8 is not one of the things exempted. If you have no statement at all, that is the gap to close first, and it takes a couple of minutes.
We already have an accessibility plan. Is that the same thing?
No, and this is the most common confusion we see. The accessibility plan comes from the Equality Act 2010 and covers improving access to education for disabled pupils. The accessibility statement comes from the 2018 regulations and covers your website. You need both, and one does not stand in for the other.
What if we have never tested our website?
Then say so. The generator will produce a statement that says the site has not yet been assessed and that you are arranging a review. That is honest, it is legitimate, and it is a great deal better than publishing a compliance claim you cannot back up. Come back and update it once you have tested.
Can we just say we are fully compliant?
Not here. The status is worked out from your answers, so full compliance only appears if you have told us the site has been tested and you have not flagged any failures. That is deliberate. An inaccurate statement is worse than a modest one, because it is the thing a complainant will quote back at you.
What about all our old PDFs?
Documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt unless someone needs them to use a service. Anything you publish now is not exempt. Untagged PDFs are the most common accessibility problem on school websites and the easiest to overlook, because the page around them looks perfectly fine.
What standard do we have to meet?
WCAG 2.2 at AA level. That is the standard named in the current guidance, and it is the one the generator writes into your statement.
How often should we review it?
At least annually, and whenever the website changes in a meaningful way. A statement that was accurate two redesigns ago is not accurate now, and the preparation date at the bottom makes that visible to anyone reading it.

Want to know what else your website is missing?

The accessibility statement is one of 26 areas we check. Across 247 audits in 2025, only 6.5 percent of school websites were fully compliant, and the gaps are almost always in the detail rather than anything obvious. A free audit is a straightforward place to start.