Remediation Options

Remediation Options

Remediate a PDF Yourself

If you decide to keep a document in PDF format and determine that the PDF can be remediated in house, you should complete the relevant topics related to the PDF in the following LinkedIn Learning courses facilitated by Chad Chelius:

Important Note

Although Chad Chelius states that he will show folks how to make a fully accessible PDF, depending on the complexity of the PDF, there may not be a way to actually make it accessible and usable for screen reader users. It's important to reference the Before You Get Started and PDF Usage Guidelines sections of this guide before remediating a PDF. 

Submit a PDF for Professional Remediation Services

If you decide to have your PDF remediated by a professional remediation service, please use one of the PDF companies that the University has contracted:

Important: Review Your PDF Content Before Submitting for Remediation 

PDF Remediation companies can make basic design and technical changes (fix the color contrast of graphs, add alt text to images, etc.), but they cannot change the content within the document as that would impact the overall length and layout of the document. Here are out of scope content changes that the content owner should review before submitting a PDF.

  • Always review the format and confirm if a PDF is the best format going forward. To discuss other solutions, reach out to the Digital Experience team.
  • Review all links in the document. Fix any broken links and ensure all links are descriptive so they pass the Link Purpose (In Context) WCAG success criteria. Descriptive links are covered in digital accessibility training.
  • Review document to ensure all design elements (logo, colors, etc.) align with President's Office brand guidelines.
  • Check content to ensure no content is out of date (for example, job aid steps that haven't been updated in years).
  • Review the font size and type to confirm readability (If the font size is too small or the font being used is not a familiar and readable font, the content owner needs to adjust the font size and type as that can significantly impact document length and layout).
  • Review and update the file name to a readable file name.
  • Change any italics text to bold text for emphasis.
  • Ensure all content is left-aligned.
  • Add a chart description or data table below a chart or graph to provide a text-based interpretation of that content for blind, low vision, and neurodivergent employees.
  • Change any underlined content that is not a link to bold for emphasis.
  • If there are complex visuals such as maps or complex charts, seek guidance from the digital accessibility team on how to redesign that content for the blind, colorblind, low vision, and neurodivergent communities.

Examples of why reviewing your content before remediation matters

  • A campus submitts a campus map to a remediation service. The PDF remediation company applies all technical standards to the one page document, but due to the hundreds of data points on that one page, the document is still not usable by blind employees and students. The university spent money to remediate the document that did not fix the overall usability of the document and thus it was compliant, but not actually accessible. Due to the complexity of map content, the better solution would have been an accessible interactive html-based map.
  • A PDF is submitted to the remediation company without being reviewed and is remediated by the company. The campus pays the remediation company, posts the document and shares out the accessible version to customers. Someone reports that there is a broken link in the PDF. The department needs to fix the broken link at the source file level and then needs to re-submit the PDF to the remediation company, incurring double the cost.