US rules: ADA Title II and Section 508.
Three federal tracks cover documents in the United States — two for the public sector, one for health programs. All of them use WCAG as the technical yardstick.
ADA Title II — state and local government
The Department of Justice's 2024 final rule requires the web content and mobile apps of state and local government entities — including school districts, public universities, courts and transit agencies — to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Documents made available to the public are in scope, with limited exceptions for archived and individualized content.
Deadlines (as extended by the DOJ's April 2026 Interim Final Rule):
| Entity | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Population 50,000 or more | 26 April 2027 |
| Under 50,000 + special district governments | 26 April 2028 |
The extension changed the dates only — the WCAG 2.1 AA requirement itself did not change. For a university or county with thousands of published PDFs, the timeline is already tight at manual remediation speed; automated per-page remediation makes it budgetable.
Section 508 — federal agencies and their suppliers
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies' electronic content — including documents — to meet WCAG-based standards (the 2017 ICT Refresh). It is a standing procurement requirement: vendors selling to the federal government inherit it through contracts, typically evidenced by accessibility conformance reports.
HHS Section 504 — health programs
The Department of Health and Human Services' 2024 rule applies WCAG 2.1 AA to recipients of HHS funding. It has applied to providers with 15+ employees since May 2026 (smaller providers: May 2027) — hospitals, clinics, insurers and health programs publish enormous PDF volumes (statements, explanations of benefits, forms), all in scope.
Litigation context, briefly
Digital-accessibility lawsuits keep rising year over year in the US, and inaccessible documents regularly appear in complaints alongside websites. We won't pile on the fear: the practical point is that a validated, tagged PDF with an issue-level report is cheap insurance — and the right thing to publish anyway.
What to do about it
- Upload a PDF — free analysis against the machine-checkable requirements.
- Remediate at per-page cost — see pricing.
- Keep the validation reports as evidence of your remediation program.
a11yfy is a technology provider, not a law firm; this page is not legal advice.