As digital accessibility becomes more of a focus for organizations, it’s easy to prioritize web pages, navigation, and video captioning while neglecting PDF accessibility. PDFs are often inaccessible to assistive technology users, even if they just include text. Your PDFs must be tagged, too. There are a number of different ways to accomplish this, depending on your timeline, budget, knowledge, and needs.
What are my options?
In-House Remediation
Keeping PDF remediation in-house helps to promote a culture of accessibility within the organization. It requires organizations to train staff to make content accessible or designate experts from each department to own the process.
When companies remediate their own PDFs, they have more control over completion timelines. Many organizations also choose to keep remediation in-house so sensitive information never leaves their premises. In-house remediation can help organizations stay within their budget, since many PDF remediation services charge on a per-document basis.
Outsourcing
If your organization stores lots of information as PDFs, or doesn’t have staff available to remediate documents, or both, outsourcing may be a better option. Outsourcing is particularly useful for large projects, tight deadlines, or complex projects outside the scope of your team’s ability level. Sending PDFs to outside remediators allows experts to ensure your content is accessible and compliant.
Deciding Factors: not just about the budget
While budget is an important factor for every organization, it should not be the only consideration when choosing an accessibility solution. While in-house remediation is often less financially taxing, more strain is placed on internal staff. And less expensive outsourcing options may mean sacrificing quality and compromising compliance.
Consider the documents you’ll have to make accessible and what staff is available to remediate those PDFs.
Document Quantity and Complexity
How many PDFs actually need remediation? While ideally all PDFs should be accessible, anything that is no longer used, no longer valid, or no longer publicly available could potentially be archived or removed from the website. Test any relevant, valid, publicly available PDFs for accessibility. Of those, determine how difficult they may be to remediate–are there scanned PDFs, documents with lots of complex tables and lists, or many forms? With the right tool, most of these projects can be kept in-house if you have enough staff to complete the work.
However, if you have a significant number of PDFs or many that are complex, outsourcing may be a better option.
Staff and bandwidth
Next, consider the number of staff available to work on PDF remediation projects. If your organization has internal digital accessibility specialists, the most cost-effective, efficient option is to invest in a reputable remediation software and complete the project in-house. However, internal digital accessibility specialists are often tied up with other, more complex projects, and your organization may not have enough specialists to complete large PDF remediation projects (many have only one person with technical accessibility knowledge).
If you don’t have a large team devoted to accessibility, you could still keep PDF remediation projects in-house if there aren’t many to remediate, or if you aren’t under a tight deadline. In either case, having software specifically designed for PDF remediation makes the job faster, easier, and much more efficient for in-house teams.
Time
Is this something that needs to be done right away? Have you received a letter from an attorney saying your content is inaccessible? Or perhaps you’re a government agency with a deadline to become compliant, or working in the EU and under pressure to comply with the European Accessibility Act (EAA). If so, you need to become compliant as soon as possible, and now is not the time to learn how to remediate your own documents. If time is of the essence, leave it to the professionals. They are usually faster, but keep in mind that your documents are likely not the only ones they’re working on.
Once immediate compliance requirements have been met, it’s still wise to train content creators how to make their PDFs accessible so all future content continues to meet standards.
If you are proactively investing in accessibility to prevent litigation, and you also have the time and resources to remediate PDFs internally, invest in efficient PDF remediation software. It allows staff to make their own content accessible to reduce the need for outsourcing and promote a culture of accessibility.
How do I pick what’s best for my company?
To decide whether in-house PDF remediation is possible for your company, consider how many PDFs you have that need to be remediated, how many staff members are available to work on remediation, and what timelines you may be facing. To determine these factors, first audit the public-facing PDFs on your website. How many do you have, and of those, how many contain relevant, timely information the public needs to access your products and services? Any information available on your website will need to be made accessible, but PDFs that are frequently used should be prioritized.
Tools for successful in-house remediation
Ideally, each content creator should be trained to make their own content accessible to avoid bottlenecks and to keep the document generation process smooth and efficient.
Equidox PDF Remediation Software uses AI-powered Smart Detection Tools to detect PDF page elements, allows users to add and adjust tags in just a few clicks, and provides an HTML preview so users can see how information will be presented to assistive technology users. These features shorten remediation time considerably and are easy enough for non-experienced users to master quickly. Even inexperienced users can learn the basics in an hour, reducing ramp-up time and allowing organizations to start remediating very quickly.
Tips for outsourced PDF Remediation
As you evaluate potential remediators, consider more than just price. Set the expectation that documents must actually be accessible when you receive them back, not just tagged. Some companies simply add one giant tag to a page, regardless of its contents. While technically the document is tagged, it is no more useful to someone using assistive technology than it was to begin with, and it still doesn’t comply with WCAG, the ADA, or other standards.
When choosing a PDF remediation service, it’s important to choose a company that validates its work. Just taking their word that your PDFs have been tagged–and tagged correctly–can mean paying for inaccessible content that still leaves you at risk for digital accessibility lawsuits.
Not just about the money
Deciding about PDF accessibility doesn’t just come down to a price tag. Consider whether your team has the time and bandwidth to remediate PDFs, whether they can meet compliance deadlines, and whether they possess the necessary skills to remediate accurately. Vet any outsourcing companies to ensure they can meet your needs effectively and efficiently.
Nina Overdorff
Nina comes to Equidox with years of sales and marketing experience from a variety of industries and holds a BS in Language Arts Education. Nina has a passion for words, storytelling, and information, which she believes everyone should have access to regardless of ability. After spending time as a teacher with a blind student, she became much more aware of the limitations and abilities of web accessibility, and how essential it is to those experiencing disabilities. “Being able to access information equally ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity for education, employment, and success in life.”
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