Four Questions to Ask Your PDF Remediation Service

Are you searching for a PDF document remediation service? When you compare document remediation services, evaluating the cost and quality of service is essential. You will frequently get a price per page ranging from $5/page to $15/page. Why the large range in price? How do you evaluate the cost vs. value?

To evaluate the price vs value, you must establish your goal in remediating the documents. Is the goal of document remediation to meet legal standards for accessibility compliance? Is the goal a highly usable and accessible document? What is your priority: Quality, full compliance, speed, or budget? Identifying and fixing accessibility issues in PDF documents is crucial to ensure they are usable by individuals with disabilities.

While it’s tempting to opt for the lowest-priced option, document accessibility is where quality truly matters. After consulting with individuals with visual disabilities, it’s clear that investing in high-quality, accessible documents is worthwhile. Ensuring accessibility compliance is essential to meet legal standards and make digital content inclusive for all users.

Here are four questions you should ask a PDF document remediation service to ensure they deliver the quality and value you need.

What accessibility compliance standard will be used for document remediation?

WCAG 2.0 is the standard for Section 508 compliance. If you want accessible documents, they must conform to PDF/UA 1.0.

What is their QA process to ensure the documents meet these accessibility standards? One essential tool in this process is Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat Pro is crucial for identifying and resolving accessibility issues within PDF files. It offers features for both automatic and manual testing, making it indispensable for thorough document accessibility testing and remediation.

Is the vendor going to use automated or manual remediation?

Many PDF remediation services rely heavily on automated software. Automated testing and remediation are attractive from a cost and speed perspective. Lower-cost remediation services will often stop after a document is processed through an automated process.

Unfortunately, automated document remediation often does not result in a document compliant with accessibility standards, and does not provide an equal or usable experience for people with disabilities.

Automated remediation tools are a helpful first step toward document accessibility. The reports that they produce guide remediation experts to evaluate and fix accessibility errors quickly. However, even after all the errors found by automated tools are fixed, an expert must find accessibility errors that no automated checker can identify. Human expertise is crucial for this step.

The manual QA process often increases the price from $5 to $12-$15 per page. Is this extra cost justified? It depends on your remediation goals and the complexity of your documents.

Low-cost remediation can result in documents that are technically “accessible” but practically unusable. For instance, a poorly remediated PDF might have all the required tags but lack logical structure. This can lead to a confusing and frustrating experience for users relying on screen readers or other assistive technologies. They may struggle to navigate through the document, find specific information, or understand the relationships between different content elements. The same principle applies to all types of digital documents – inadequate remediation can significantly hinder usability, defeating the primary purpose of making the document accessible in the first place.

Quality remediation ensures clear structure, accurate headings, proper reading order, and meaningful alternative image text. This approach creates documents that are compliant and truly accessible and user-friendly.

Leslie Janek’s article Ten Accessibility Errors Automated Tools Miss on PDF Documents covers accessibility errors frequently missed by automated tools.

How complex are your PDF documents?

Do you have documents that include tables, graphs, pictures, and fillable forms? Are your documents scanned images? Are they colorful? All these elements play a role in the complexity of your documents and the success of any automated solution.

Will the accessibility service:

• Work with your team to add alternative text (alt text) to documents, ensuring that the meaning of images is conveyed, particularly for users of assistive technology.
• Check the color contrast of images and work with your team to resolve issues.
• Make sure that fillable forms in the document are accessible.
• Make sure that the tables in your document are accessible.

Each of these processes is important to achieving a fully compliant document. Automated systems do not resolve these issues, which require collaboration between your team and the remediation team. Typically, lower-priced services will exclude these items.

Where are the documents going to be remediated?

Many vendors send their documents overseas to be remediated. That’s fine if you don’t have internal or external legal or security requirements prohibiting documents from being sent out of the United States.

Again, PDF accessibility remediation in the United States is more expensive than outsourcing it overseas. Is it worth it? Only if you have legal and security requirements.

Opting for the lowest-priced service can lead to higher costs in the long run. Poorly remediated documents may result in legal issues, the need for re-remediation, and potential damage to your brand. The expenses can quickly surpass any initial savings.

Remember, accessible documents are not all created equal. Low prices often indicate low value and can lead to increased overall costs. Prioritize quality over price to ensure truly accessible and compliant documents.

By getting answers to these questions and establishing clear success criteria, you’ll be better equipped to choose a document remediation service that meets your needs. The goal isn’t just to check a compliance box – it’s to create documents that are genuinely accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities.

What do federal agencies need to know about document remediation and assistive technology?

Microassist’s document remediation team helps Federal agencies transform inaccessible documents into accessible and compliant formats, ensuring compliance with Sections 508, 504, and 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Get your questions answered.

Microassist Document Remediation Service

Our US-based team offers high-quality PDF accessibility services that are rapid and effective, using automated tools and manual remediation to create compliant documents.

We provide comprehensive verification and remediation services to ensure that your digital documents meet compliance standards such as Section 508 and WCAG.

We can work with your team to remediate Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, and Microsoft PowerPoint, making various document types accessible to ensure usability for individuals with disabilities.