Why is this so hard? We start with a haiku.
Ancient file format
Accessibility weeps
PDFs remain.
Poetry can express the deepest anguish of the soul, an anguish I sometimes feel when I encounter PDF remediation.
PDF. Potentially Disappointing File? Perpetually Demanding Futility? Or Portable Document Format? The world may never know. Regardless, you’re here because you have PDFs that need to be remediated.
The Department of Justice recently finalized a rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring state and local governments to make their web content accessible. The rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard.
For most public entities, the deadline to comply has been extended to April 26, 2027. Smaller government agencies now have until April 26, 2028.
For many agencies, the biggest accessibility challenge on their website isn’t the website itself: it’s the PDFs. And in many cases, there are thousands of them across your digital footprint.
Fear not. There is a path forward. But it is not for the faint of heart.
The Two Real Options: Remediate or Archive
When it comes to existing PDFs, there are really two practical compliance options:
- Treat the document as archived content
- Remediate the document so it meets accessibility standards
Let’s start with the easier of the two paths.
Archiving PDFs
The DOJ rule allows certain older digital documents to remain as it is if they qualify as archived web content. In general, legacy PDFs can be left alone if the material:
- Is kept only for reference, research, or record-keeping.
- Is not actively used for current government services or programs.
- Is clearly identified as archived.
In practice, many agencies can implement this by creating a clearly labeled archive section on the website. For many agencies, this is where a significant number of PDFs can go, whether that’s old reports, outdated flyers, meeting materials or documents that are no longer actively used but must be retained for record keeping.
What Makes a PDF Compliant?
If a PDF needs to remain part of the active website, it will likely need to be remediated to meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility requirements. Accessible PDFs require several elements that standard documents often lack, including:
- Proper document tagging
- Logical reading order
- Descriptive alternative text for images
- Accessible data tables and lists
- Properly labeled form fields, if applicable
Many older PDFs were created without accessibility in mind. That means these PDFs are scanned images, without text for assistive technologies to read. In other cases, PDFs lack the structural tagging needed for screen readers to interpret headings, lists and tables.
If a document needs remediation, there are a few approaches. If the PDF was originally created in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, the best path is often to return to the original document and add accessibility features there before exporting a new PDF. If the original document is unavailable, Adobe Acrobat Pro can be used to add tagging, reading order, alt text and other accessibility features directly within the PDF.
In other words, fixing them manually takes an immense amount of time.
Automating Your PDF Accessibility Audit
At SiteCrafting, we built a specialized website crawler to help agencies understand the scope of the problem before diving into remediation.
Our tool automatically scans your website and identifies every publicly linked PDF file. For each document, we capture:
- The unique document URL
- The exact pages that link to the file
- The last modified date
- Critical accessibility signals
These structural signals look at key compliance metrics, including whether the document has an existing tag structure, if a document title is present, if the file contains images, its total length and the overall word count.
While these automated checks don’t certify that a PDF is accessible, they provide data-driven strong signals about which documents are likely to require significant remediation.
From there, we triage your PDF backlog into three practical categories:
- Delink or archive: These documents are typically older, rarely used or have significant accessibility barriers. In many cases, it is faster and more cost-effective to remove or archive them rather than remediate them.
- Review: These documents require human judgment. They may still be important or they may be candidates for archiving or removal. Someone should evaluate whether they still need to exist on the public website.
- Remediate: These are documents that are actively used and must remain accessible. These should be prioritized for remediation.
Turning PDF Chaos into a Clear Plan
The path forward is not trying to remediate every PDF at once. At SiteCrafting, we help agencies take a practical approach.
We start with a full inventory of PDFs, help archive or remove low value documents, review what still serves a purpose, then prioritize remediation for the files people actually use.
This structured process turns an overwhelming accessibility problem into a manageable strategy. Instead of chasing every document, we focus on the ones that matter most to your users and your organization.
With a clear inventory and triage plan in place, PDF remediation becomes less about reacting and more about building a sustainable accessibility strategy for your agency.
If your organization is staring down a mountain of legacy files, you don’t have to climb it alone. Let’s talk about building a clear and manageable remediation strategy.
