If you’ve been meaning to clean up your website’s PDFs, now is the time.
April is around the corner, and it marks a key milestone: public entities have an April 24, 2026 deadline to meet specific web accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) for web content and mobile apps under a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) rule. While this requirement applies to public entities, it reflects a broader trend across higher education: accessibility expectations are increasing, and the urgency around remediation work is growing.
While this rule is not a new expectation for the University of Rochester, it’s a timely reminder to renew our focus—especially on legacy PDF content.
PDFs are widely used across the University—and they can be a common source of accessibility barriers if accessibility isn’t built into the workflow. PDFs may not work well with screen readers or keyboard navigation when they’re missing tags, headings, properly formatted links, or a logical reading order.
Take action now: reduce, replace, plan
Here are three practical steps that make an immediate impact:
- Cut what’s not needed. If a PDF is outdated, duplicated, or rarely used—remove it.
- Replace what you can with accessible web pages. If the content is meant to be read online, the web is often the better format.
- If you must publish PDFs, publish them with a plan. Build skills through training, use the right tools, and plan time/budget for remediation support when needed.
New PDF accessibility resources
To support this work, we’ve published new PDF resources—including checklists, guidance, and practical workflows from the Digital Accessibility Community of Practice—to help you create, evaluate, and improve accessible PDFs.
Not sure where to start? Contact the Digital Accessibility team and we’ll help you prioritize.