What is the W3C?
W3C is the acronym for the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C's commitment to lead the web to its full potential includes globally promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a universal drive of the W3C.
WCAG 2 International Standard
At this stage in the W3's evolution, every publicly accessible website in the world is encouraged to be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) international standard, including WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1, and WCAG 2.2.
Accessibility Statement
An accessibility statement is a public information page that discloses a business's internal organizational policies, accessibility goals, and past successes when it comes to serving and working with people who have disabilities.
Accessibility statements are important for several reasons:
- Show your users that you care about accessibility and about them
- Provide them with information about the accessibility of your content
- Demonstrate commitment to accessibility and social responsibility
In general, anything that promotes or enhances website accessibility is a worthwhile investment. An accessibility statement is an important way for every organization to support the need for accessibility. The legal issues surrounding accessibility provide additional motivation for publishing a statement.
In some situations, you may be required to provide an accessibility statement, such as public bodies in countries that implement the EU Web Accessibility Directive. The W3C list of Web Accessibility Laws & Policies can help you identify jurisdictions applicable to you.
Generating an Accessibility Statement
W3C Generator Tool
Until the release of this product, the one and probably only way to generate an accessibility statement was to use the W3C Generator Tool. This tool was developed as part of the WAI-Tools project, co-funded by the European Commission. The W3C Accessibility Statement Generator was first published in November 2018 and updated on March 11, 2021.
The W3C provides their generator's source code to the public in the w3c/wai-statements GitHub repository. The W3C allows you to fork this code and use it for your own business needs.
How the W3C Generator Tool Works
The W3C generator tool is built with Jekyll. Jekyll does not support databases. The generator is session only. You cannot save or edit a form after the browser closes. It outputs an HTML page for either the Complete or Minimal Accessibility Statement version that you cut and paste to load into WordPress.
Formidable Forms W3C Generator
The W3C Accessibility Statement Generator for Formidable Forms changes all of that. This product is Formidable Forms based. Need we say more? If you're reading this page, you already know how valuable Formidable Forms is for a business, especially if you're a WordPress developer managing many websites.
Now you can easily create, store, and edit Accessibility Statements for all the websites you support. The application requires Formidable Pro and uses a View to generate the content for the Create Post add-on.
Compare the Features
| Features: | W3C Generator | Masterminds Generator |
|---|---|---|
| Single Site Use | ||
| Use on Multiple Sites | ||
| Source Code Available | ||
| Create HTML Download | * | |
| Unlimited Site Use | † | |
| Editable Content | ‡ | ‡ |
| Saves Entries | ||
| FSE Content | ||
| Classic Content | ||
| Works with WordPress | ||
| License | W3C | GPL 3 |
| Cost | Free | Buy |
| Platform | Jekyll | Formidable Forms |
*on the roadmap for future release
†one site at a time
‡W3C: session only, Formidable: save draft enabled
How to Use the W3C Generator Tool
After purchasing and downloading the application's zip file:
- Unzip the file to extract w3c-accessibility-statement-generator.xml
- Import the XML file through the Formidable Import/Export page
Settings on the form allow you to choose to generate your content in Block or Classic format for either the Complete or Minimal Accessibility Statement versions. The View handles all the rest when you create or edit the entry.
When you save the entry, a draft page is created or updated with the title "Accessibility Statement for [Name of your website or mobile application]"
You can then export and import the page on a remote site if you're creating Accessibility Statements for clients. Make sure you charge a reasonable fee for your hard work!
Development Roadmap
This application is on the evolutionary path to becoming a fully grown Formidable Forms add-on. There are a lot more features we'll be adding to it over the planned development sprints. Please look forward to the details.
Buy Now Bonus!
There's no doubt that our W3C Generator Tool for Formidable can provide another income stream for your web development business. If you buy the app today and get productive with it now, you'll receive a free Lifetime license for the Accessibility Tools Add-on when it launches. Don't wait, though! Lifetime licenses for this will cost a whole lot more than this application when it's release as a full-fledged add-on.
If you want to learn how to output Create Post content as FSE blocks, please visit this tutorial: FSE Blocks from Create Post Add-on? You Betcha!
Don't Buy This App If...
You don't need to purchase this app if you manage one or just a small number of websites. If this is your situation, you'd probably be better off using the original W3C Generator Tool. Of course, if you choose to buy this today, you won't be the least disappointed and you'll get a Lifetime license for the future add-on when it's available.
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