1. How to Create Accessible Web Content
2. Creating Accessible Content in Canvas
3. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
   The primary source for WCAG standards, explanations, tutorials, testing guidance, and accessibility fundamentals.
4. W3C WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference
   The most useful official WCAG reference. You can filter requirements by Level A, AA, topic, technology, and content type.
5. WebAIM
   Excellent plain-language articles about headings, links, images, forms, tables, keyboard accessibility, screen readers, and color contrast. It also provides the widely used WAVE accessibility checker.
6. Minnesota Digital Accessibility Quick Cards
   Especially good for training school staff. It offers short, practical instructions for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, email, social media, documents, and websites.
7. Section508.gov – Create Accessible Digital Products
   Clear government guidance for creating accessible documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, websites, meetings, and other digital materials.
8. Adobe PDF Accessibility
   One of the best places for information specifically about accessible PDFs, Acrobat tools, tags, reading order, forms, and document remediation.
9. The A11Y Project
   A friendly community resource with an accessible-content checklist, practical explanations, patterns, and guidance for common website elements.
10. Deque University and axe Resources
    Strong training and testing resources. Deque develops axe, one of the most widely used automated accessibility-testing engines.
11. Accessibility Insights
    A free Microsoft-supported testing tool that provides automated checks and a guided manual WCAG assessment.
12. ADA.gov Web Accessibility Guidance
    The U.S. Department of Justice’s explanation of how the ADA applies to website accessibility. This is particularly useful when explaining why accessibility work is legally necessary.

Notes:

• W3C WCAG Quick Reference for determining the actual requirement.
• WebAIM for understanding how to meet it.
• Minnesota Quick Cards for instructions to give.

A quick checklist for staff before sharing or posting a PDF.

Best rule: Make the original document accessible first, then export it as a tagged PDF. Fixing the source is usually much easier than repairing the finished PDF.

Accessible source → Tagged PDF → Accessibility check → Human review

1. Fix the source document

• Use built-in Heading 1, Heading 2, and other heading styles in a logical order.

• Use real bulleted or numbered lists, not typed dashes or symbols.

• Write meaningful link text, such as “View the school calendar,” rather than “Click here.”

• Add concise alt text to images that convey information.

• Mark decorative images as decorative.

• Use simple tables with a header row.

• Do not use tables merely to arrange content on the page.

• Use readable fonts, adequate text size, and strong color contrast.

• Do not use color alone to convey meaning.

2. Export the document correctly

• Use Save As, Download, or Export to PDF.

• Select the option to create document structure tags or an accessible or tagged PDF, when available.

• Avoid Print to PDF. Printing to PDF may remove tags, links, bookmarks, and other document structure.

• Give the file a short, descriptive filename.

• Set the document title and language in the source document or Adobe Acrobat.

3. Check the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro

• Open All Tools → Prepare for Accessibility and run the accessibility check.

• Confirm that the PDF is tagged.

• If tags are missing, use Autotag Document, and then review the results.

• Check that the reading order follows the page visually and makes sense when read aloud.

• Confirm that headings, lists, links, images, and tables have the correct tags.

• For forms, use the Tab key to test the field order.

• Make sure form fields have clear labels and instructions.

4. Complete a quick human review

• Can you select and copy the text? If not, the file may be a scan and need optical character recognition.

• Can you navigate links and form fields using only the keyboard?

• Does each heading accurately describe the section that follows?

• Would the alt text give a nonvisual reader the same useful information?

• Does the content still make sense without color, images, or visual position?

• Fix problems in the original source document and export it again whenever practical.

Scanned PDFs

Run optical character recognition, commonly called OCR, first. Then add and review tags, reading order, headings, image descriptions, and document properties.

Remember

A passing automated accessibility checker does not prove that a PDF meets WCAG standards. A person must still review the document’s meaning, reading order, alt text, links, headings, tables, and keyboard accessibility.

What staff need to know about webpage accessibility.

Yes—pasting the actual content onto a SmartSites page is generally much easier and more accessible than posting the PDF. However, SmartSites cannot reliably determine the document’s structure by itself.

When you paste content, SmartSites will usually create ordinary webpage text. It may preserve some formatting from Word or Google Docs, but it will not necessarily know that:

• Large bold text is supposed to be a heading.

• Typed dashes are supposed to be a list.

• A particular image needs alt text.

• The first row of a table contains headers.

• “Click here” needs more descriptive wording.

After pasting, do a quick cleanup

1. Use the page title as the main heading, usually Heading 1.

2. Select section titles and apply Heading 2 or Heading 3 from the SmartSites formatting menu.

3. Use the actual bulleted or numbered list buttons.

4. Add alt text to meaningful images.

5. Make links descriptive.

6. Remove strange fonts, colors, spacing, or formatting carried over from the original document.

Bottom line

Converting a PDF’s content into a SmartSites webpage is often the easiest accessible solution.

SmartSites supplies the accessible HTML structure, but the person entering the content still has to identify which text is a heading, list, link, table, and so forth.

Creating an accessible webpage should require far less work than fully remediating most PDFs.

PDFs to Review

The highest-priority PDFs are those people need to access, understand, apply for, or participate in a district service, program, benefit, or activity.

The Department of Justice specifically recommends prioritizing content that enables key tasks, is frequently accessed, supports essential programs, has been reported as inaccessible, or is based on a frequently reused template. DOJ’s Title II implementation guidance

Recommended district priority order

Priority 1: Immediate access, safety, rights, or required action

These should be addressed first:

• Enrollment and registration materials
• School-transfer and school-choice applications
• Special education and Section 504 information and forms
• Civil rights, discrimination, harassment, Title IX, complaint, and grievance procedures
• Emergency information and safety instructions
• Health, medication, immunization, and nursing forms
• Transportation applications, route information, and bus procedures
• Free and reduced-price meal applications
• Current student and family handbooks
• Current codes of conduct and discipline procedures
• Forms requiring a parent, student, employee, or community member to take action
• Documents with deadlines
• Documents already reported as inaccessible
• Course materials students currently need to participate in instruction

A document does not become low priority merely because it is old. If people still use it to access or participate in a current program, it generally does not qualify for the preexisting-document exception. The DOJ specifically notes that documents used to participate in public-school courses remain important even when previously posted. DOJ guidance on documents and exceptions

Priority 2: Frequently used current information

Next, address current PDFs that families and staff use regularly:

• Academic calendars
• Bell schedules
• School schedules
• Current lunch menus
• School maps and transportation maps
• Current newsletters
• Program descriptions
• Graduation requirements
• Course catalogs and curriculum guides
• Athletic and extracurricular information
• Field-trip information and forms
• Current employment information and applications
• Frequently downloaded documents
• PDFs linked prominently from school homepages

Whenever possible, put this information directly on an accessible SmartSites page instead of remediating the PDF.

Priority 3: Recurring documents and templates

These deserve early attention because fixing one template prevents hundreds of future inaccessible files:

• Newsletter templates
• Board agenda and minutes templates
• School improvement plan templates
• Event-flyer templates
• Family letter templates
• Handbooks updated annually
• Field-trip and permission forms
• Procurement and bid templates
• Budget and financial-report templates
• Standard forms used by multiple schools

Creating an accessible source template is much more efficient than repairing each resulting PDF separately.

Priority 4: Current accountability and public-record information

These are important but may not be as immediately necessary for accessing a service:

• Current board agendas and meeting materials
• Current budgets and financial reports
• School improvement plans
• District reports
• Policies and administrative regulations
• Current audit reports
• Public notices
• Current strategic-planning documents
• Collective bargaining documents
• Procurement documents and requests for proposals

Prioritize within this category according to deadlines, public use, legal importance, and download frequency.

Priority 5: Older, low-use documents

Review these before spending time remediating them:

• Expired event flyers
• Old newsletters
• Superseded handbooks
• Duplicate documents
• Obsolete forms
• Past menus and schedules
• Old announcements
• Historical reports
• Old meeting materials

For each one, decide whether to:

1. Delete it because it is obsolete or duplicated.
2. Move it into a clearly identified archive.
3. Keep it available but document a possible legal exception.
4. Remediate it because it is still being used.

Do not simply label a folder “Archive” and assume everything inside is exempt. The DOJ’s archived-content exception has specific conditions. Preexisting PDFs may also qualify for an exception, but not when they are still used to apply for, access, or participate in current district services, programs, or activities. DOJ Title II rule summary and exceptions

A simple scoring system

Give each PDF points:

Factor	Points
Required to access or participate in a program or service	5
Concerns safety, legal rights, health, or emergency information	5
Requires the user to complete an action or meet a deadline	4
Currently used	3
Frequently viewed or downloaded	3
Used across multiple schools	3
Accessibility complaint or request received	5
Reusable template that produces more PDFs	4
Superseded, duplicated, or expired	-5
Potentially qualifies as archived or preexisting content	-3

Work from the highest scores downward.

The most important principle is: prioritize by the consequence of inaccessibility, not merely by the PDF’s age or page count. A one-page medication form can be more urgent than a 200-page historical report.

Districtwide PDF Accessibility Plan

Purpose

The district has more than 5,000 PDFs across its district and school websites. Attempting to open and remediate every PDF individually would require an unrealistic amount of staff time.

The district should first determine which documents are still needed, which can be deleted or archived, which should be converted to webpages, and which must remain PDFs and be remediated.

The goal is not merely to check 5,000 PDFs. The goal is to make current district information, services, programs, forms, and activities accessible to people with disabilities.

Accessibility Standard

The federal technical standard for public schools is WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Current Department of Justice guidance establishes the following compliance dates:

• April 26, 2027, for public entities serving 50,000 or more people.

• April 26, 2028, for smaller entities and special district governments.

The district should confirm with legal counsel which deadline applies.

Learn more from the Department of Justice Title II rule summary.

1. Stop the Backlog from Growing

The district should immediately establish requirements for newly posted documents.

• Do not post a new PDF unless it is accessible or has been approved for an exception.

• Use a SmartSites webpage instead of a PDF whenever practical.

• Reserve PDFs for materials that genuinely require printing, signatures, fixed formatting, or formal document presentation.

• Make documents accessible in Word, Google Docs, InDesign, or another source program before exporting them as PDFs.

• Require accessibility review for scanned PDFs, complicated forms, maps, and documents from outside vendors.

• Add accessibility requirements to contracts and purchasing agreements.

• Create accessible templates for recurring district documents.

Section508.gov recommends prioritizing HTML and using PDFs only when necessary because PDFs are often less accessible and less mobile-friendly.

2. Create One Districtwide PDF Inventory

The district should create one master inventory covering all district and school websites.

The inventory should include:

• A unique PDF identification number

• Filename and document title

• Direct PDF URL

• Webpage linking to the PDF

• School or department

• Content owner

• Date posted or updated

• Page count

• Current, expired, or unknown status

• Whether the document requires an action or has a deadline

• Estimated usage level

• Whether the original source file is available

• Document type, such as form, flyer, handbook, report, or agenda

• Current accessibility status

• Priority level

• Planned action

• Person assigned to complete the work

• Quality-assurance reviewer

• Completion date

• Notes about exceptions or special circumstances

The inventory should also identify:

• Duplicate PDFs

• Broken PDF links

• PDFs that are no longer linked but remain publicly available

• Multiple versions of the same document

• Common templates producing repeated accessibility problems

• Documents supplied by outside vendors

3. Assign One Action to Every PDF

Every PDF should receive one of the following actions:

1. Delete

2. Archive

3. Convert to a webpage

4. Replace with an accessible online form

5. Recreate from the original source

6. Remediate the existing PDF

Delete

Delete documents that are:

• Duplicated

• Expired

• Superseded

• Incorrect

• No longer useful

• Connected to events or deadlines that have passed

Archive

Historical documents may be moved into a clearly identified archive when they are retained only for reference, research, or recordkeeping.

Simply placing a document in a folder named “Archive” does not automatically make it exempt from accessibility requirements. The Department of Justice has specific requirements for archived web content.

Convert to a SmartSites Webpage

Whenever practical, convert PDF content into an accessible webpage.

Webpages are usually preferable for:

• Program descriptions

• Contact information

• Instructions

• Announcements

• Frequently asked questions

• School schedules

• Calendars

• Event information

• Short newsletters

• Policies people consult regularly

• Lists of resources or links

After pasting the content into SmartSites, staff must apply real headings, lists, descriptive links, table headers, and image alt text.

Replace with an Accessible Online Form

Consider an approved accessible form system for:

• Registrations

• Applications

• Requests

• Surveys

• Permission processes

• Information-gathering forms

Keep a PDF version only when a printable form is genuinely necessary.

Recreate from the Original Source

When the Word, Google Docs, InDesign, or other source file is available:

1. Correct the headings, lists, links, tables, color contrast, reading order, and alt text in the source.

2. Export the document as a tagged PDF.

3. Check and correct the exported PDF.

4. Save the accessible source file for future updates.

Remediate the Existing PDF

Direct PDF remediation should be reserved for documents that:

• Must remain PDFs

• Have no usable source file

• Are current and necessary

• Cannot reasonably be converted to HTML

• Contain layouts or functions that must be preserved

Complex scans, forms, tables, maps, and long reports may require a trained accessibility specialist or outside vendor.

4. Prioritize the PDFs

Priority should be based on the consequences of a document being inaccessible, not simply its age, length, or location.

Priority 1: Critical Access, Safety, Rights, or Required Action

Address these documents first:

• Enrollment and registration information

• School-transfer and school-choice applications

• Special education and Section 504 materials

• Civil rights, discrimination, harassment, Title IX, complaint, and grievance procedures

• Emergency information and safety instructions

• Health, medication, immunization, and nursing forms

• Transportation applications and procedures

• Free and reduced-price meal applications

• Current student and family handbooks

• Current codes of conduct and discipline procedures

• Documents with current deadlines

• Forms requiring a parent, student, employee, or community member to act

• Course materials students currently need

• Documents already reported as inaccessible

Priority 2: Frequently Used Current Information

Address these next:

• Academic calendars

• Bell schedules

• School schedules

• Current lunch menus

• School and transportation maps

• Current newsletters

• Program descriptions

• Graduation requirements

• Course catalogs

• Athletic and extracurricular information

• Field-trip information and forms

• Current employment information

• Frequently downloaded documents

• PDFs prominently linked from school homepages

Priority 3: Recurring Documents and Templates

Fixing recurring templates prevents future accessibility problems.

Examples include:

• Newsletter templates

• Board agenda and minutes templates

• School improvement plan templates

• Event-flyer templates

• Family-letter templates

• Annual handbooks

• Field-trip and permission forms

• Budget and financial-report templates

• Standard forms used by multiple schools

Priority 4: Current Public Records and Reports

This category includes:

• Current board agendas and meeting materials

• Current budgets and financial reports

• School improvement plans

• District reports

• Policies and administrative regulations

• Audit reports

• Public notices

• Strategic-planning documents

• Collective bargaining documents

• Procurement documents and requests for proposals

Priority 5: Historical, Expired, or Low-Use Material

Review these documents before spending time remediating them:

• Expired event flyers

• Old newsletters

• Superseded handbooks

• Duplicate files

• Obsolete forms

• Past menus and schedules

• Old announcements

• Historical reports

• Old meeting materials

Each document should be deleted, archived, retained under a documented exception, or remediated if it is still being used.

5. Conduct a Pilot Project

Do not begin by attempting to process all 5,000 PDFs.

Select approximately 100 representative documents:

• 25 Priority 1 documents

• 25 frequently used PDFs

• 20 forms

• 10 scanned documents

• 10 long or complex reports

• 10 documents created from recurring templates

Use the pilot to determine:

• Average review time

• Average remediation time

• Percentage of documents that can be deleted

• Percentage that can be archived

• Percentage that can be converted to webpages

• Percentage requiring direct PDF remediation

• Types of documents requiring outside assistance

• Staff training needs

• Estimated staffing and vendor costs

6. Use a Standard Production Workflow

Every document should move through the same process:

1. Add the PDF to the inventory.

2. Ask the content owner whether the document is current and necessary.

3. Assign an action: delete, archive, convert, recreate, or remediate.

4. Assign the work to an appropriate staff member or vendor.

5. Perform accessibility quality assurance.

6. Ask the content owner to verify that the information remains accurate.

7. Publish the accessible version.

8. Remove obsolete or duplicate copies.

9. Record the new location and completion date.

10. Recheck the document during future website scans.

7. Require Automated and Human Testing

Automated checkers cannot identify every accessibility problem. The district should use both automated and manual review.

Every PDF retained on the website should be checked for:

• Searchable and selectable text

• Document tags

• Document title

• Document language

• Logical heading structure

• Correctly tagged lists

• Logical reading order

• Useful image alt text

• Decorative images marked appropriately

• Correct table headers and structure

• Descriptive links

• Bookmarks in long documents

• Keyboard accessibility

• Form-field labels

• Logical form tab order

• Accurate optical character recognition

• Basic screen-reader usability

Whenever possible, a person other than the original remediator should complete the final quality review.

8. Divide Responsibilities

Central Accessibility Lead

The central accessibility lead should:

• Maintain district standards and procedures

• Manage the master inventory

• Train staff

• Review complex decisions

• Coordinate remediation

• Monitor progress

• Oversee quality assurance

School and Department Content Owners

Content owners should:

• Determine whether documents are current

• Identify obsolete and duplicate files

• Provide original source documents

• Verify content after conversion

• Use accessible templates for future documents

School secretaries and other occasional website contributors should not be expected to perform advanced Acrobat tag-tree remediation without substantial training.

Trained Remediation Staff or Vendors

Use trained specialists for:

• Long documents

• Scanned documents

• Complex tables

• Fillable forms

• Maps

• Unusual layouts

• Files without usable source documents

Independent Quality Reviewer

A trained reviewer should confirm accessibility before publication and audit samples of completed work.

9. Train Staff According to Their Roles

All Website Contributors

Training should cover:

• When not to use a PDF

• Accessible headings and lists

• Descriptive links

• Image alt text

• Accessible tables

• Exporting tagged PDFs

• Submitting files for review

Frequent Document Creators

Additional training should cover:

• Accessible Word and Google Docs

• Accessible templates

• Color contrast

• Accessible forms

• PDF export settings

• Basic accessibility checking

Remediation and Quality-Assurance Staff

Advanced training should cover:

• Acrobat tags

• Reading order

• Tables

• Forms

• Optical character recognition

• PDF accessibility validation

• Keyboard testing

• Screen-reader testing

10. Track and Report Progress

The district should report the following each month:

• Total PDFs inventoried

• PDFs awaiting owner review

• PDFs deleted

• PDFs archived

• PDFs converted to webpages

• PDFs replaced with online forms

• PDFs recreated from accessible source files

• PDFs remediated

• PDFs that passed quality assurance

• PDFs assigned to outside vendors

• Remaining Priority 1 documents

• New inaccessible PDFs posted

• Accessibility requests received

• Average response time for accessibility requests

The most important measurement is not the number of PDFs checked. It is the amount of current public content made accessible and the amount of inaccessible content removed or replaced.

Recommended Schedule

First 30 Days

• Adopt the new-PDF policy.

• Establish project ownership.

• Build the districtwide inventory.

• Remove obvious duplicates and expired files.

• Identify Priority 1 documents.

• Select the pilot documents.

Days 31–90

• Complete the pilot.

• Address Priority 1 documents.

• Convert high-use information to SmartSites pages.

• Create accessible templates.

• Train website contributors.

• Determine staffing and vendor needs.

Months 4–6

• Complete remaining Priority 1 documents.

• Address most Priority 2 documents.

• Correct recurring templates.

• Process current forms and handbooks.

• Begin Priority 3 and Priority 4 batches.

• Perform independent accessibility audits.

Ongoing

• Scan district websites monthly.

• Review the PDF inventory quarterly.

• Require accessibility before publication.

• Audit a sample of newly posted content.

• Review archive and exception decisions annually.

• Update staff training and templates as requirements change.

Final Consideration

At only five minutes per file, reviewing 5,000 PDFs would require more than 416 staff hours. Directly remediating every document could require thousands of hours.

Deletion, archiving, conversion to SmartSites webpages, accessible source templates, distributed content ownership, and selective vendor assistance must therefore be central parts of the district’s plan.

Can you make PDFs into Accessible PDFs?

Yes. If you upload a PDF, I can remediate it by:

• Running OCR on scanned pages
• Adding document tags
• Correcting headings, paragraphs, and lists
• Fixing reading order
• Adding or improving alt text
• Structuring tables
• Correcting links
• Setting the document title and language
• Adding bookmarks to long documents
• Reviewing keyboard and form-field order
• Running technical checks and visually inspecting every page

Some PDFs are better rebuilt from the original Word, Google Docs, or InDesign file—especially complex forms, tables, newsletters, and heavily designed documents. If you have the source, upload it with the PDF.