Re: Does a downloadable PDF report on a website fall under the legal requirements for ADA?

Hi Tyler,

First of all - not an attorney. That being said, WCAG is not the ADA. The ADA was law before the web even existed, so it doesn't have anything at all to say about web or digital content. As the web and digital assets have become prevalent and increasingly the way that people access goods, services, and information there have been legal actions taken under that ADA. Courts had to decide what constituted ADA compliance when it came to web and digital assets, and at the time WCAG was the most standardized, robust specification, so most rulings evaluated equal access through that lens, making WCAG the defacto ADA compliance standard. However, I want to again stress that nothing in the ADA requires WCAG conformance.

Here's a good article about that bit. https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/ada-web-site-compliance-still-not-a-thing.html

With all of that clear I can talk about my experience as an accessibility professional, as it applies to legal requirements related to the ADA.

As Karen asks, at the crux of it is the question of 'Is this related to access to a good or service which would otherwise fall under the ADA if it were a webpage on my website?'. Also, 'Is all of this same information provided in an accessible way on my site?' If the answers are "Yes" and "No", there is a strong argument that PDFs and other digital non-HTML assets would fall under the scope of ADA compliance, which - as explained above - basically rolls back up to WCAG.

If you can answer "Yes" to the second question - all of the same information is available in an equivalent, accessible way on the website itself - then the PDF can be considered an alternative to the accessible content and would not be considered a WCAG non-conformance, and therefor likely not an issue under the ADA.

Educational organizations and others who receive federal funding may have different internal policies in place which require PDFs to be accessible. For example, Section 508 conformance does require that "information and communications technology (ICT) is accessible to people with disabilities." and ICT includes digital documents. I believe those organizations are at risk of legal complaints if their digital documents are not accessible.


From DSH - Section 508 Testing [https://www.dhs.gov/508-testing]

"The Department of Homeland Security uses the guidelines for authoring, testing, and remediating Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents endorsed by the US Federal CIO Council Accessibility Committee. The guidance was created through an inter-agency workgroup called Accessible Electronic Documents Community of Practice (AED COP), whose purpose is to develop and promote best practices for authoring and testing accessible electronic documents. The DHS Office of Accessible Systems and Technology (OAST) currently chairs this federal wide effort, and has been instrumental in partnering with Microsoft and Adobe to develop relevant guidance for all federal users.

The AED ACOP published guidance includes:


* Authoring guides for creating accessible Microsoft Office documents (for versions 2016, 2013, and 2010) and Adobe Acrobat DC PDF documents
* Basic test processes for Microsoft Office and PDF documents: which provides step by step instructions for validating conformance to the 508 standards
* Baseline technical specifications which map test processes to the Section 508 Standard and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)
* Electronic document testing checklists
* Video training
To access the AED COP accessibility guidance, visit https://section508.gov/test/documents ."

Hope all this helps!

Best regards,
Juliette