Accessible Documents
Public-facing documents (including documents that are downloaded from a website) must meet the requirements of Section 508 . In addition to the Section 508 Americans with Disabilities federal law, many states have laws governing accessibility with equal or greater requirements than Section 508, including:
- California AB-434 State Web accessibility
- Colorado Technology Accessibility Standards 8 CCR 1501-11
- Illinois 30 ILCS 587 Information Technology Accessibility Act.
- New York NYS-P08-005 Accessibility of Web Based Information and Applications
- Massachusetts Chapter 93, Section 103
- Texas House Bill 5195
If your state is not listed here, it does not mean you are exempt from the requirements – especially if you are a government contractor! All federal contractors – REGARDLESS OF WHAT STATE THEIR BUSINESS OPERATES IN – are required to produce documents that meet Section 508 requirements. Organizations who are bidding on state and federal contracts may need to name the person or organization who will provide these services during the bidding process.
YOU CAN BE SUED (AND WILL LOSE!) FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY LAWS!
High Litigation State: California leads the nation in accessibility lawsuits, with 3,252 Title III filings in 2024 alone (37% increase from 2023).
Accessibility Standards
The standard for accessibility is currently WCAG 2.1 though some states – notably, Massachusetts, are already requiring WCAG 2.2 compliance.
Learn more about WCAG standards on the W3C Consortium website
There are two types of compliance:
- WCAG applies semantic standards to documents, ensuring the content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR). WCAG governs content presentation
- PDF-UA applies PDF-specific structural standards to a document. PDF-UA governs document structure
Your documents should meet both standards.
Do you have the capabilities in-house to produce standards-compliance accessible documents?
Most small companies do not have these capabilities in-house and trying to learn everything you need to know to successfully remediate documents is probably not the best use of your valuable time.
Melissa Raulston is a highly-experienced Document Production Specialist who will integrate into your workflow and ensure that your documents are fully compliant with all state and federal laws. Unlike remediation companies that force you into their schedule, Melissa is available on call to meet even the tightest deadlines.
Melissa specializes in technical documents – especially in the area of environmental compliance with NEPA and CEQA (California), which generally have multiple authors, complex tables and figures, and may also need to meet OCR requirements in addition to accessibility requirements.