diff --git a/optimum/onnxruntime/trainer_seq2seq.py b/optimum/onnxruntime/trainer_seq2seq.py
index 7e6a67a3bba..0a2938802d2 100644
--- a/optimum/onnxruntime/trainer_seq2seq.py
+++ b/optimum/onnxruntime/trainer_seq2seq.py
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@
 
 if is_accelerate_available():
     from accelerate import __version__ as accelerate_version
+else:
+    raise ImportError(
+        "The package `accelerate` is required to use the ORTTrainer. Please install it following https://huggingface.co/docs/accelerate/basic_tutorials/install."
+    )
 
 logger = logging.get_logger(__name__)