PDFs, agendas and minutes under the ADA Title II rule

Documents are the biggest worry for most clerks: years of agendas, minutes, packets and forms, many of them scanned. Here's what the Department of Justice's ADA Title II web rule asks of them, using the Department's own examples. Your date is April 26, 2027 if your population is 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 if it's smaller or you're a special district (the rule, in plain English).

The short version

Posted after your date

Must meet WCAG 2.1 AA, whatever the format: web page, PDF, Word file, slides or spreadsheet.

Posted before your date

PDFs, word processing files, slides and spreadsheets don't have to meet it, unless people still use them to apply for, get or take part in a service.

Changed after your date

An old document you update loses the exception.

In an archive

Exempt only if it meets all four archive conditions (below). Minutes written after your date never qualify.

Someone asks for a copy they can use

You likely still have to give it to them in a format that works for them, even when the document is exempt.

ADA.gov's own examples

From the Department's small entity compliance guide. Exempt:

• A PDF flyer for a Thanksgiving Day parade, posted on a town's website in 2018.
• A sample ballot for a school board election, posted as a word processing file on a school district's website in 2014.

Not exempt:

• A presentation for an upcoming town council meeting, posted after the town's date.
• A document first posted in 2020 and updated with new contact information after the city's date.
• A business license application posted as a PDF in 2020 that people still use to apply.
• City council minutes created after the city's date, "even if they are posted in the 'archive' section of the city's website."

The archive exception

Old web content in an archive doesn't have to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, but only when all four of these are true:

1. It was made before your date, or it reproduces paper or other physical records made before then.
2. You keep it only for reference, research or recordkeeping.
3. It sits in an area clearly marked as an archive.
4. Nobody has changed it since it went into the archive.

If any one is missing, the exception doesn't apply. So moving this year's minutes into an "Archive" folder doesn't exempt them.

Which old documents are still "in use"?

The old-document exception ends when people use a document to apply for, get or take part in something you offer. Go through your site and list:

• Applications and forms: permits, licenses, facility rentals, records requests, job applications.
• Agendas and packets for meetings that haven't happened yet.
• Instructions people follow now: how to pay a bill, register to vote, sign up for a program.
• Fee schedules, maps and rules people need to complete one of those.

Fix those first. When you can't tell whether a document is in use, treat it as in use, or ask your attorney.

The simplest fix: post it as a web page

An agenda or set of minutes typed straight into your website, with real headings, is usually easier to make accessible than a PDF. It also reads better on a phone and shows up in search. For every new agenda and set of minutes:

• Type or paste the text into a page, not an attachment.
• Use the editor's heading styles for each item, not bold text.
• Write links that say where they go ("Item 4: budget amendment"), not "click here".
• Keep the words plain. Readability marks long sentences and jargon.
• Check the page with Accessibility Check.

Keep a PDF too if your state's open-meetings law or your records policy asks for one; the web page is the copy most people will read.

When it has to be a PDF

1. Start from the original file, the one you typed, not a scan of a printout. A scanned page is a picture of words: a screen reader hears nothing.
2. Use heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2) for titles and agenda items.
3. Describe pictures, charts and maps in alt text, or in the text next to them.
4. Make tables real tables with a header row, not columns lined up with spaces.
5. Run your program's accessibility checker (most word processors have one, usually under Review or File).
6. Save as a tagged PDF. "Print to PDF" usually throws the structure away; choose Save as or Export, and tick the accessibility or tagged option.
7. Ask for originals. Packets often include letters, contracts and plans from others. Ask whoever sent them for the digital file, not a scan.

PageKiwi's checks read web pages, not the inside of PDFs. Link Check does find links to agendas and minutes that no longer open.

Meeting videos

WCAG 2.1 AA asks for captions on recorded video and on live video, so livestreamed and recorded meetings need them. Automatic captions are a start, but names, motions and numbers often come out wrong: correct recordings before you post them. ADA.gov's example for an old, archived video: if someone who is deaf asks, add captions and send them a copy.

When someone asks for an accessible copy

Even when a document is exempt, ADA.gov says you "would likely still need to provide the content to a person with a disability who needs it in a format that is accessible to them." Be ready before anyone asks:

• Say on your website, where people will see it, how to ask: an email address and a phone number someone answers. Our accessibility statement template has the words.
• Ask what works for them: an accessible PDF, a Word file, large print, or someone reading it over the phone.
• Reply quickly. For a meeting, they need it before the meeting, not after.
• Keep a note of each request and what you sent, and fix that document for everyone while you're at it.