Most organizations didn’t set out to create an accessible PDF workflow. They started creating their PDF workflows before they knew accessibility was an issue. Addressing accessibility is much easier to accomplish proactively, from the beginning, than it is to retrofit into an existing workflow. It can take time for existing workflows and accessibility programs to develop and mature.
Organizations tend to move through several stages as their PDF accessibility programs mature. Some are responding to individual complaints or deadlines. Others have centralized remediation teams. More mature organizations delegate routine remediation to the people creating PDFs and establish processes that make accessibility part of normal document production.
Knowing where your organization falls in this maturity process allows you to intentionally shape its steps forward, creating a more efficient PDF accessibility system.
Stage 1: PDF Accessibility Is Reactive
At the first stage, accessibility is addressed when someone discovers a problem.
A student requests an accessible course document. A resident needs an accessible government form. An employee reports that a PDF doesn’t work with their screen reader. A compliance deadline approaches and suddenly thousands of documents need attention.
The organization responds by remediating the document in front of them.
This approach can work when PDF volume is low. It becomes increasingly difficult as the number of documents grows.
There is usually no centralized inventory of PDFs, no consistent remediation process, and no clear ownership. Different departments may use different tools and approaches. Some documents may be remediated thoroughly, while others receive only basic fixes.
The biggest problem at this stage is that accessibility is treated as an exception rather than part of the document lifecycle.
The goal for moving forward: Establish who owns PDF accessibility and create a repeatable process for identifying, prioritizing, and remediating documents.
Stage 2: A Specialized Team Handles Remediation
The organization recognizes that reactive remediation isn’t sustainable, so it creates a centralized accessibility function.
This might be a disability services team at a university, an accessibility office, IT department, communications team, or another group with responsibility for digital accessibility.
Centralization has important benefits. It creates expertise, consistency, and accountability. Instead of every department figuring out PDF accessibility independently. There is a team that understands the requirements and can establish standards.
But centralization can create a new problem: the bottleneck.
Consider a university where hundreds of faculty members, departments, and administrative offices create PDFs. If every document has to pass through one small accessibility team, the team can quickly become overwhelmed.
The same thing can happen in government. A central accessibility team may be responsible for documents produced by dozens of agencies, divisions, or departments.
The more PDFs the organization creates, the more difficult it becomes for a small group of specialists to handle all of the remediation themselves.
The goal for moving forward: Keep accessibility expertise centralized while finding ways to distribute routine remediation work.
Stage 3: The Organization Has a Defined Remediation Workflow
At this stage, PDF accessibility is no longer handled entirely on a case-by-case basis.
The organization establishes a documented workflow.
There are clear answers to questions such as:
- Who determines which PDFs need remediation?
- Who is responsible for fixing them?
- How are high-priority documents identified?
- Who reviews the finished PDF?
- Where are accessible versions stored?
- What happens when the document is updated?
- What happens when a new version is created?
This is an important transition because accessibility becomes a process rather than an emergency response.
The organization may also begin categorizing documents by factors such as public availability, audience, importance, complexity, and frequency of use. Instead of trying to remediate every PDF immediately, teams can prioritize the documents that matter most.
However, there may still be a significant amount of manual work involved. If every document requires a specialist to inspect tags, correct reading order, structure tables, add alternative text, and review the final result, the workflow can still struggle as document volume increases.
The goal for moving forward: Make the remediation process efficient enough that accessibility doesn’t depend on a small number of specialists completing every task.
Stage 4: Content Creators Can Remediate Routine PDFs
A more mature organization recognizes that the people who create PDFs are often in the best position to make them accessible.
A communications employee creating an annual report understands the tables and charts.
A financial services employee creating a benefits document understands the terms.
A faculty member creating course materials understands the images and diagrams.
A government employee creating a public notice understands the form fields.
They may not be PDF accessibility experts, but they don’t necessarily need to be.
With the right training, guidance, and remediation tools, content creators can handle many routine PDF accessibility tasks themselves. Specialized accessibility staff can then focus their time on complex documents, quality assurance, policy, training, and the issues that genuinely require deeper expertise.
This changes the role of the accessibility team.
Instead of being the only people who can make a PDF accessible, they become the people who make PDF accessibility possible across the organization.
If 500 employees each create PDFs, an organization will have a difficult time scaling accessibility if all 500 employees have to send their documents to the same two specialists.
It has a much better chance of keeping up when all employees have a straightforward way to address accessibility as part of their normal workflow.
The goal for moving forward: Give document creators the tools and processes they need to remediate routine PDFs while maintaining appropriate oversight for more complex work.
Stage 5: PDF Accessibility Is Managed at Scale
At the most mature stage, accessibility is no longer something added to the end of the PDF process.
It is part of how the organization manages documents.
Accessibility responsibilities are clearly defined. Content creators have appropriate tools and training. Accessibility specialists provide oversight and handle complex cases. Organizations have processes for quality control, document updates, and recurring publications.
Automation can also play a larger role.
For organizations producing large numbers of PDFs, automated tools can reduce repetitive work and help identify or address common structural elements. Similar or recurring documents can sometimes reuse previous remediation work rather than starting from scratch.
The result isn’t a completely hands-off process. Human review still matters, particularly for complex documents and content that requires judgment.
The difference is that the organization isn’t relying on humans to perform every repetitive task manually.
At this stage, PDF accessibility becomes scalable.
The organization can continue producing large numbers of documents without the remediation workload increasing at exactly the same rate.
Moving From One Stage to the Next
There isn’t a single right way for every organization to manage PDF accessibility.
A small organization that creates a handful of PDFs each year may not need the same infrastructure as a university, state agency, or large enterprise producing thousands of documents.
But organizations with significant PDF volume eventually encounter the same fundamental problem: you can’t scale PDF accessibility by simply adding more work to the same small group of people.
Moving toward a more mature model usually means addressing five areas.
Ownership. Everyone should understand who is responsible for creating, remediating, reviewing, and publishing accessible PDFs.
Workflow. Accessibility should have a defined place in the document lifecycle instead of being addressed only after a problem occurs.
Tools. The people responsible for PDFs need tools that allow them to complete remediation efficiently, without requiring advanced technical expertise for routine documents.
Training. Content creators don’t necessarily need to become accessibility specialists, but they do need to understand the fundamentals of accessible PDFs and how to use the organization’s workflow.
Quality control. Distributed remediation still needs standards and oversight. A mature program makes it clear what should be checked before an accessible PDF is published.
Where Is Your Organization?
If you’re still responding to individual accessibility requests, you’re not alone. That’s where many organizations begin.
If a centralized team handles every PDF, you’ve already established important expertise and accountability. But you may eventually find that centralization itself is limiting your ability to keep up.
If you have a defined workflow, you’re moving toward a sustainable program. The next question is whether that workflow can handle the organization’s current and future PDF volume.
And if content creators can remediate routine PDFs while accessibility specialists provide oversight, you’re much closer to a scalable model.
The most mature PDF accessibility programs aren’t necessarily the ones with the largest accessibility teams. They’re the ones with the most effective systems for getting accessibility work done.
For organizations facing growing PDF volumes and accessibility requirements, the goal shouldn’t simply be to remediate today’s backlog. It should be to build a process that makes the next PDF easier to handle than the last one.
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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