ADA- and WCAG- Compliant PDFs and Websites

April 24, 2025

What happened?

Recently, many financial services and insurance companies are questioning whether their public-facing documents and websites meet current guidelines Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) expectations and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This piece provides an overview of both the ADA and WCAG, and may provide clarity on whether or not you have external-facing content that may need to be updated to meet these standards.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act lays out guidelines for how to make documents widely accessible and can be applied to certain file types often used for fund documents. Many funds are voluntarily making the transition to independently adopt accessibility standards throughout their organizations in order to better serve all types of stakeholders. With regards to the financial services industry, this primarily applies to PDF accessibility and website accessibility:

PDF Accessibility

In general, PDF accessibility refers to the ability of PDF content to be consumed by everyone, including those with disabilities, by allowing assistive technologies (like screen readers or braille devices) to access and interpret the content of the PDF.

The main requirements include:

• Tagging of all text content and structure
• Ensuring content is presented in a logical reading order
• Including alternative text descriptions for graphical or photographic content (e.g., “this is a picture of a tree”)
• Proper text and color contrast throughout the document

Most of these updates are not visible in the final PDF unless you are using such assistive devices. PDF/Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA) is the most modern standard for accessible PDF documents. Although many of the requirements can be met and verified via automated scans, some, such as reading order, are more subjective and require manual review and editing.

Website and HTML Accessibility

Like PDFs, websites, and general HTML content also have a set of guidelines, referred to as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The most current set of requirements is WCAG 2.2, which offers three levels of conformance, Level A through AAA. Some requirements include:

• All site functionality must be available from a keyboard and not require the use of a mouse
• Avoiding repetitive flashing elements to protect users susceptible to seizures
• Appropriately tagging in code interface elements such as menus and buttons
• Allowing text and interface elements to be resized dynamically

What does this mean for me?

While commonly referred to as “ADA” accessibility, the Americans with Disabilities Act was finalized in 1990, so it predates and does not specifically reference digital content of any kind. That said, the SEC does encourage conformance, and it is a useful upgrade to ensure documents are reaching the widest possible audience.

How FilePoint Can Help

FilePoint offers the following accessibility services:

• Test, convert, and update any existing PDF documents to meet PDF/UA standards
• Update your current workflow to ensure that PDFs are generated to natively meet PDF/UA standards
• Update or create new websites and HTML content to meet any level of WCAG 2.1 conformance

If you have questions or would like assistance, please let us know.