Writing a WCAG 2.2 conformance statement

Conformance claim vs accessibility statement

These two terms get used interchangeably, but WCAG treats them differently:

• Conformance claim — a formal, optional statement defined by WCAG’s Conformance section. It has a fixed set of required components and strict rules. Making no claim is permitted; an invalid claim is worse than none (Source: WCAG 2.2, 5.3 Conformance Claims ) .
• Accessibility statement — the public-facing page (often linked in the footer) describing your accessibility commitment, status, known issues, and contact route. W3C recommends one and offers a generator (Source: W3C, Developing an Accessibility Statement ) . It typically contains a conformance claim, in friendlier wording.

The five required components of a conformance claim

If you publish a formal WCAG 2.2 conformance claim, it must include all five (Source: WCAG 2.2, 5.3 Conformance Claims (Required Components) ) :

1. Date of the claim.
2. Guidelines title, version, and URI — “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/”.
3. Conformance level satisfied — Level A, AA, or AAA.
4. A concise description of the pages covered, such as a list of URIs (a whole site can be described by its base URI plus scope).
5. A list of the web content technologies relied upon — for example HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WAI-ARIA.

Optional components

A claim may also add, among others: a description of the technologies that are used but not relied upon, the specific metadata describing the evaluation, information about the user-agent and assistive-technology combinations tested, and machine-readable metadata. These strengthen a claim but are not required (Source: WCAG 2.2, 5.3.2 Optional Components ) .

Partial conformance

WCAG defines two ways to acknowledge content you cannot fully control:

• Third-party content — if a page has content injected by parties you do not control (user comments, third-party widgets, syndicated content), you can make a “statement of partial conformance” describing it, provided the page would conform if that content were removed and you monitor and repair it (Source: WCAG 2.2, 5.4 Partial Conformance — Third Party Content ) .
• Language — a statement of partial conformance is also available when content is in a language for which there is no accessibility-supported way to meet a criterion.

Accessibility statement template

A practical template that satisfies the required components and reads in plain language:

Accessibility statement for [Site name]

[Organization] is committed to digital accessibility. We aim to
conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2,
Level AA.

Conformance status: [Fully | Partially] conformant with WCAG 2.2
Level AA. [If partial: list the parts that do not yet conform.]

Standard and version: WCAG 2.2 Level AA
  (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/)
Date: This statement was last reviewed on [DATE].
Scope: [The pages / sections this statement covers, by URL.]
Technologies relied upon: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, [WAI-ARIA, etc.].
Evaluation method: [Self-evaluation | third-party audit], using
  [automated tool + manual review / WCAG-EM].

Known limitations: [Anything not yet conformant, and your plan.]

Feedback: If you find a barrier, contact us at [email / phone /
form]. We aim to respond within [timeframe].

Fill every bracket. The honest, dated version with a real contact route and a list of known limitations is far more credible — and more legally defensible — than a vague “we are fully accessible” line. Overstating conformance is a common cause of demand letters.

A worked example

This site publishes its own statement targeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA. It names the standard and level, the review date, the scope, the technologies relied upon, the evaluation method (automated axe-core plus manual review), and a feedback route — the five required components in plain language. See it at our accessibility statement, and pair it with the conformance checklist and the testing guide to gather the evidence behind the claim.

Common questions