{"id":10302,"date":"2026-01-22T17:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/digital-accessibility\/?p=10302"},"modified":"2026-01-22T17:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:22:36","slug":"a-good-time-to-reduce-pdfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/digital-accessibility\/a-good-time-to-reduce-pdfs\/","title":{"rendered":"New accessibility rule and renewed urgency (and a good time to reduce PDFs)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been meaning to clean up your website\u2019s PDFs, now is the time.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a class=\"u-link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/resources\/2024-03-08-web-rule\/\">U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) rule<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n<p>While this rule is not a new expectation for the University of Rochester, it\u2019s a timely reminder to renew our focus\u2014especially on legacy PDF content.<\/p>\n<p>PDFs are widely used across the University\u2014and they can be a common source of accessibility barriers if accessibility isn\u2019t built into the workflow. PDFs may not work well with screen readers or keyboard navigation when they\u2019re missing tags, headings, properly formatted links, or a logical reading order.<\/p>\n<h2>Take action now: reduce, replace, plan<\/h2>\n<p>Here are three practical steps that make an immediate impact:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cut what\u2019s not needed.<\/strong> If a PDF is outdated, duplicated, or rarely used\u2014remove it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Replace what you can with accessible web pages.<\/strong> If the content is meant to be read online, the web is often the better format.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you must publish PDFs, publish them with a plan.<\/strong> Build skills through training, use the right tools, and plan time\/budget for remediation support when needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>New PDF accessibility resources<\/h2>\n<p>To support this work, we\u2019ve published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/digital-accessibility\/pdfs\/\">new PDF resources<\/a>\u2014including checklists, guidance, and practical workflows from the Digital Accessibility Community of Practice\u2014to help you create, evaluate, and improve accessible PDFs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not sure where to start?<\/strong> Contact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/digital-accessibility\/get-help\/\">Digital Accessibility team<\/a> and we\u2019ll help you prioritize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been meaning to clean up your website\u2019s PDFs, now is the time. April is around the corner, and it marks a key milestone: public entities have an April&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New accessibility rule and renewed urgency (and a good time to reduce PDFs) - Digital Accessibility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/digital-accessibility\/a-good-time-to-reduce-pdfs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New accessibility rule and renewed urgency (and a good time to reduce PDFs) - Digital Accessibility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019ve been meaning to clean up your website\u2019s PDFs, now is the time. 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