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Web Accessibility

How-Do-I

How to Meet the NYSED Bronze Level for PDF Files

As part of our agreement with the Office of Civil Rights with the United States Department of Education, NYSED must make all web content fully accessible for users with disabilities by August 2018. The first phase of this work involved making all web pages (HTML content) accessible. NYSED offices are now focusing on making all PDF files meet a minimum level of accessibility – the NYSED Bronze Level of Accessibility. There are three requirements for PDF files to meet the Bronze Level:

  1. PDF files are fully tagged
  2. The primary language is identified
  3. They have a meaningful Title identified in the file properties

Not only do the existing PDF files need to meet the NYSED Bronze Level, but all new PDF files, that are to be posted on our site, also need to meet the NYSED Bronze Level. This page will explain how to fix the new PDF files, as well as the existing files.

Once all files meet this minimum level of accessibility, work will eventually continue towards the goal of maximizing the accessibility of all PDFs posted. So if additional work can be completed on PDF files to exceed the Bronze Level, we recommend that you do this now whenever feasible.

Instructions for Adding the 3 Bronze Level Items to a New PDF File

Steps to Follow to Revise the Older PDF Files on the Website

  1. If you are a Contribute user, before you can start revising PDF files, the Dreamweaver user in your area, or the Deputy area webmaster, will need to copy the PDF files from the Y: drive to an area where all staff can access the files. If there will be only one person working on the files, then the files can be copied to the user’s PC desktop. Please follow these instructions: 
  1. Once the files are in a common location, then any staff member, with Adobe Acrobat XI Pro installed on their PC, can revise the PDF files. First you will need to create the PDF batch process.
  1. Once the batch process has been created, then staff can run the process and then verify that the 3 bronze level items have been added.
  1. Once all of the files have been corrected, the Dreamweaver user in your area, or the Deputy area webmaster will need to get the revised files onto the web server.

When the revised files are on the web server, staff with SiteImprove accounts, can check to see if the files have been corrected.