PDF Remediation Support: Now Available!

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Learning, Scholarship, and Technology (CATLST) is pleased to provide limited PDF remediation support to instructors preparing accessible course materials that align with the updated Title II accessibility requirements effective April 2026. Because remediation is time‑intensive and capacity is limited, the service is limited to unusual or complicated instances of PDFs. In many cases, instructors can manage remediation on their own using Equidox. You can request access to Equidox and view instructional videos for using it through the university using your NetID. Additional resources will be shared as they come online.

Before proceeding, please review the procedures and limitations of this service below.

Pre-Submission:

Before submitting a file for remediation, instructors should consult their library liaison to determine whether an accessible version of the material already exists or whether an alternative resource can fulfill the same instructional goal. If an accessible alternative is available, the document should not be submitted for remediation.

Submission Limits:

• Instructors may submit up to 5 PDFs at a time OR up to 50 total pages at a time; once you have received your remediated materials, you are eligible to submit additional requests
• This service will be available until June 30th, 2026

Documents Eligible for Remediation:

• Documents for which no accessible version exists
• One book chapter per course (fair use constraints apply)

Documents NOT Eligible for Remediation:

• Slide decks should be made accessible in their native applications (PowerPoint/Google Slides)
• Journal articles that are available through the library. Provide a link instead; if a PDF is included, it must be the most recent version
• Book chapters or textbook excerpts that are already available as eBooks or can be licensed by the department/library
• Syllabi (should be provided as accessible Word/Google documents)
• Excel or Google Sheets files (should be made accessible in their native applications)
• Handwritten documents
• Online news articles, blog posts, or general web content. Your library liaison can help you locate an accessible version. 
• Materials containing mathematical equations or chemical formulas. (An alternative tool, MathPix, is available for these types of conversions)
• PDFs in languages other than English
• Legacy documents created before April 24, 2026, that are not in active use and have not been updated
• Personal or private documents not shared with students or external audiences

Additional Limitations:

• Remediation services cannot provide alt text for images. Instructors must provide alt text because they determine the instructional intent
• Poor quality or unscannable PDFs (low resolution, skewed pages, heavy handwriting, dark backgrounds, marginalia) cannot be remediated
• Files must be instructor-owned or licensed for instructional use. Pirated or unlicensed PDFs will not be accepted
• Requests must be submitted in advance of instructional need
• Materials primarily intended for print or handwriting (e.g., worksheets) should be redesigned rather than remediated
• Priority may be given to courses with active disability accommodations