How are PDF pages converted into accessible documents?

We utilize optical character recognition (OCR), advanced image processing, and proprietary AI-trained models to create fully accessible transcripts of PDF files. Complex pages undergo additional human review by accessibility specialists at no extra cost to ensure complete accuracy.

What accessibility standards does DocAccess follow?

DocAccess fully adheres to WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, ensuring compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the latest DOJ ruling 28 CFR Part 35, and the EU’s EN 301 549 accessibility requirements. We also comply with state-specific regulations across all 50 states, including California’s AB 434 and Unruh Act, as well as Colorado’s HB 21-1110.

Do I still need to remediate my PDFs?

No. Since DocAccess creates a fully compliant, accessible HTML transcript of your PDFs, this qualifies as an "alternative format" under ADA guidelines. Therefore, your original PDFs don’t require separate remediation. We have found that users with disabilities typically prefer this interactive format on the website itself, enabling quick navigation and immediate responses to their queries. Legal experts have also supported this position

How do you ensure accessibility for all users with disabilities?

We are both honored and humbled by the challenge of making documents accessible to users with all types of disabilities.

Live Assistance as a Foundation and Fallback

Understanding that every interpretive technology can fail, we provide 24/7 live interpreting via Aira, the leading visual interpreting service. Calls are free, recorded, and monitored for continuous improvement.

Expert Review

We regularly review high-complexity pages for accuracy. We partner with The Accessibility Guy to ensure that the transcriptions are accurate, complete, compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, and reasonably capture any structural nuances of the original PDF.

Comprehensive Accessibility Testing

In addition to testing in-house, we work with an accessibility partner, LevelAccess to conduct extensive live user testing covering a wide range of disabilities and assistive technologies, ensuring thorough compliance.

Tailored Accessibility by Disability Type

• Visual Disabilities: Our documents follow strict WCAG 2.1 AA standards, optimizing semantic structure for screen readers, alternative text for images, and concise summaries for complex information.
• Auditory Disabilities: Typically, no additional accommodations are necessary for standard documents. However, in an edge case where your document links to multimedia content without captions, we provide ASL interpreting through Aira.
• Cognitive Disabilities: DocAccess simplifies complex documents through intuitive navigation and a user-friendly "Ask a Question" feature that accommodates spelling errors and multiple languages.
• Motor Disabilities: DocAccess is fully operable via keyboard-only navigation and is tested against rigorous standards to ensure compatibility with a wide range of assistive technologies.

Can I exclude archived documents from DocAccess?

Yes. You can disable certain documents or URL paths (e.g., /archive/*) to remain excluded, and they will not count against your total number of pages. If you use Streamline for your website, any documents you set as archived are automatically excluded from DocAccess.

What payment methods do you accept?

We offer invoicing with NET 45 terms and accept credit cards, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and paper checks.

How does live assistance work?

We offer complimentary live human assistance via Aira to help your users with disabilities overcome any document-related challenges when using DocAccess, capped at 30 minutes of free covered interpretation time per user to prevent abuse.

What does installing DocAccess entail? Will it work on my website?

Installing DocAccess is a simple process, similar to installing Google Analytics. It typically takes less than 5 minutes to install and activate. It consists of a small JavaScript snippet that you can add to the footer or header of your website. This will allow DocAccess to work automatically on all of your PDF links. Instructions are available in your DocAccess dashboard. If you are not able to install the script for some reason, DocAccess will also provide you with an accessible document list that you can link to.

How does DocAccess count the number of PDF pages on my site?

DocAccess counts the number of PDF pages on your website by crawling your site and counting the number of total number of PDF files. We use your sitemap.xml if one is available to ensure we are counting all of your publicly-accessible pages. After we have a complete listing of your PDF pages, we will analyze each file for the total number of pages, and provide you with a total page count.

What if I link out to PDFs on other websites? Will DocAccess still count and transcribe them?

Yes! One of the unique (and most requested) features of DocAccess is that it will count, track, and transcribe PDFs on other sites that you link directly to, ensuring an accessible experience even on documents that you need to reference but cannot control. Any document linked on your website will be automatically made accessible by default, unless you explicitly disable the document in the dashboard.

Example: if site1.org/important-documents has a link to to site2.org/external-document.pdf, that external-document.pdf will be listed in site1.org’s dashboard and will be automatically transcribed for anyone on site1.org who clicks on it.

What if I have really complicated PDFs with maps, diagrams, budgets, and/or handwriting?

Bring it on! DocAccess can interpret almost any type of content. There is no extra charge for complex PDFs. We welcome your most complicated, ugly, seemingly unfixable documents. We see each one as a challenge to make the internet a more accessible place.

Does DocAccess use existing alt text that I’ve already added to my PDFs?

Yes and no. DocAccess will use your exact alt text on the print-friendly version of the document. However, DocAccess will add more comprehensive alt text to the transcript view to conform to WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines using a best-practices formula to best convey visual meaning.

I have multiple websites. Can I use DocAccess on all of them?

Yes. You can install DocAccess on as many websites as you want. Simply add more sites under the "Sites" tab in your DocAccess dashboard, and they will total up in your page count and can be managed from the same dashboard. You do not need to purchase a separate plan for each site.

What if I link to the same document from multiple places on my site(s)?

DocAccess will not charge you twice for the same PDF link. We track each document’s fingerprint (specifically, the MD5 hash of the document) to ensure that we only count each document once.

What if I update a file? How does DocAccess know to update the transcript?

DocAccess can now detect changes to a document (even if it is replaced at the same URL) in real time and will begin reprocessing the file immediately. It does this by comparing the document to its source each time DocAccess is opened. (Checking its SHA-256 hash against the DocAccess copy.) If there are any changes, it notifies the user, links the user to the updated version, and begins re-transcribing the document immediately.

What if I delete a file? Will it still be accessible via DocAccess?

If you delete a file and the link to the file from your website, you will effectively remove a user’s ability to access both the file and the DocAccess interface for that file. DocAccess will automatically remove the file from your dashboard at the next recrawl. (Every 1-2 weeks) You may also disable it or delete it from the documents dashboard if you want to ensure no access and/or increase the number of pages available to you in the meantime.

Will DocAccess work on my intranet or private website?

At this time, DocAccess can only activate on publicly-accessible document links. Otherwise, we are unable to retrieve the files for transcription. We are working on expanding our capabilities to include intranet and private websites, but this is not yet available.

Do we need to archive or delete old PDFs to stay compliant?

Absolutely not. True accessibility means making all information available to everyone, not hiding documents to reduce costs. DocAccess automatically handles every PDF on your site - old and new - without forcing you to restrict public information or make difficult decisions about what content is "worth" making accessible.

Why am I seeing a Content Security Policy (CSP) error when loading DocAccess?

Some websites use Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict which external scripts can run. If you see an error like "Loading the script violates Content Security Policy directive", your site is blocking the DocAccess script.

Solution: Your website administrator or CMS vendor needs to add DocAccess to the CSP whitelist by including `https://docaccess.com` in the `script-src` and `connect-src` directives.

See our Support Page for a ready-to-use email template you can send to your website vendor.