Solutions for Higher Education

PDF Accessibility for Higher Education

Higher education institutions face a multi-standard compliance challenge: ADA Title II for public universities, Section 508 for federally funded programs, and state-level accessibility requirements. With tens of thousands of documents spread across departments — syllabi, research papers, handbooks, forms, admissions materials, and meeting minutes — manual remediation is not an option.

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Multiple Compliance Standards Apply

Public colleges and universities are covered under ADA Title II as state entities. Institutions receiving federal funding must also comply with Section 508. Many states impose additional accessibility requirements. All digital content — including every PDF on your website — must conform to WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Start with an accessibility audit to identify your compliance gaps. The DOJ deadline for entities serving populations over 50,000 is April 24, 2026. Smaller institutions have until April 26, 2027.

Vendor Content Is Your Responsibility

If a third-party vendor provides documents that are hosted on your university's website or LMS, your institution is responsible for ensuring those documents meet accessibility standards. This includes publisher content, contracted service providers, and embedded third-party materials. CASO Comply can remediate these documents regardless of their origin.

The Scope of the Problem

Document accessibility in higher education spans every department, every course, and every public-facing page.

Syllabi & Course Materials

Syllabi, lecture slides, handouts, and assignments published through the LMS or departmental sites.

Research & Publications

Research papers, dissertations, institutional repositories, and digitized library collections made available online.

Handbooks & Policy Documents

Student handbooks, employee handbooks, policy documents, HR materials, and campus communications.

Forms & Admissions Materials

Financial aid forms, enrollment documents, admissions packets, and application materials.

Meeting Minutes & Accreditation

Board meeting minutes, committee reports, accreditation documentation, and governance records.

Maps, Reports & Events

Campus maps, annual reports, event materials, and institutional documents published on your website.

Why Higher Ed Needs Automation

The volume and decentralization of university content makes manual remediation impractical.

Decentralized Content Creation

Hundreds of departments and thousands of faculty create and publish documents independently. There is no single point of control.

No Centralized Inventory

Most institutions have no idea how many PDFs exist across their web presence. The number is typically in the tens of thousands.

Vendor Responsibility Gap

Universities are legally responsible for the accessibility of vendor-provided content hosted on their domains — even when they did not create it.

Volume and Budget Constraints

Manual remediation at $8–$50+ per page is not feasible when you have 50,000+ documents. Institutions need automation to make compliance achievable.

How CASO Comply Helps

Purpose-built for the scale and complexity of higher education document accessibility.

Phase 1: Audit

Automated crawling across your entire web presence — main site, department pages, LMS, and subdomains. Get a complete inventory and compliance score for every document.

Phase 2: Remediate Backlog

Process thousands of documents per day with AI-powered structure tagging, alt text generation, and reading order correction. Pricing designed for higher-ed volume.

Phase 3: Stay Compliant

New documents are automatically scanned as they are published. Track remediation progress by department and generate reports for administration and accreditation reviews.

Multi-Standard Compliance

Every document is validated against WCAG 2.1 AA, PDF/UA, and Section 508 simultaneously — meeting ADA Title II, federal funding, and state-level requirements in a single pass.

LMS & CMS Integration

Connect CASO Comply to your learning management system or content management platform. Our REST API and Docker Agent integrate with Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, SharePoint, and other systems — remediating documents and creating accessible course materials automatically as faculty and staff publish them. No manual upload required.

Volume Pricing for Higher Education

We offer bulk pricing designed for the scale of university document libraries. Whether you have 5,000 or 500,000 pages, we can build a remediation plan that fits your budget and timeline.

View standard pricing →

Frequently Asked Questions

Which accessibility standards apply to universities?

ADA Title II (public), Section 508 (federal funding), state requirements. CASO remediates to all three.

What types of university documents need remediation?

Syllabi, course materials, research, handbooks, forms, admissions, minutes, maps, reports.

Is our institution responsible for vendor-created content?

Yes, if hosted on your site/LMS.

How much does it cost for a university?

Starting at $0.30/page, volume pricing available.

Can you integrate with our LMS or CMS?

Yes, REST API and Docker Agent integrate with Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, SharePoint.

Ready to Get Started?

Talk to our team about document accessibility for your institution. We will walk you through the process, pricing, and timeline.

See How We Help Universities