Guides
Plain answers for the people responsible for accessible documents: what the rules require, what fixing costs, and how to prove it’s done.
Accessible PDF forms: how to make a fillable form screen readers can use
An accessible PDF form has real, tagged form fields, and each field has a tooltip that matches its printed label and states any required format, such as “Date of birth, MM/DD/YYYY.” Screen readers announce the tooltip, not the field's internal name, so a field named “Text1” with no tooltip tells a screen reader user nothing. Radio buttons need a shared question plus a label for each choice, and the Tab key must move through fields in the form's logical order. Test by tabbing through the form with a free screen reader such as NVDA.
Guide · 10 min read · Ockem teamTitle II archived content exception: archive, keep or fix your PDFs
Most public PDF libraries hold years of agendas, minutes and reports. This guide helps clerks and web managers decide what to archive, what to keep, what to fix and what to take down.
How to find all PDFs on a website and decide what to fix first
You cannot sort, budget or plan PDF remediation without a list. Here is where PDFs hide, five ways to find them, what to record for each file, and a simple way to decide what to fix first.
Should this be a PDF at all? When HTML beats remediating a PDF
The most common advice on a PDF backlog is to stop publishing PDFs. This guide shows when that advice is right, when it isn't available, and what you can archive for free first.
PDF color contrast: how to check it, and how to fix brand colors that fail
Acrobat's checker leaves contrast to you. Here is how to measure it with free tools, which colors usually fail, and why fixing two or three template colors can clear hundreds of failing lines at once.
Scanned PDF accessibility: why OCR alone isn't enough, and what a scan needs
Signed resolutions, old ordinances and letters in agenda packets are often scans. Here is how to spot one, what OCR does and doesn't do, and how to decide whether to fix, retype, archive or provide it on request.
Free tools
Work out the size of the job.
Count the PDFs on your site
Enter your domain. We count every linked PDF, score a free sample against WCAG 2.1 AA (12 by default, up to 100 for requests we qualify) and price the job, usually within 3 business days.
CalculatorPrice your library
Type a document count and see the cheapest combination of packs, with your team’s review time.
By sector
Start from where you work.
State and local government
Cities, counties, states and special districts under the ADA Title II web rule.
Higher education
Public institutions under Title II, and any institution with HHS funding under Section 504.
K-12 school districts
Public school districts under the ADA Title II web rule.
Health
Hospitals, clinics and health departments that receive HHS funding, under Section 504.
Start with one PDF.
Free, no account: a verified email, one document per email, up to 10 pages and 50 MB. Get the remediated file and its verification record, and see which checks still need a person.
Longer document? Request an assessment.