City forms and agendas that screen readers can actually read.

Legible Docs fixes the PDFs public agencies already post, including fillable forms, scanned documents and agenda packets, so they meet PDF/UA and WCAG 2.1 AA ahead of the ADA Title II deadline. They come back looking exactly the same.

Social Security No.

Before

“Text14, edit text”

After

“Owner 1 Social Security number, edit text”

What we found

In the typical Southern California city we checked, 82% of posted PDFs fail the basics.

In October 2026 we checked 2,848 PDFs linked from 37 city websites. A file failed if it had no tags, no title or no language, or if it was a scanned image with no real text. In 32 of the 37 cities, at least half the files failed.

These are automated checks of the minimum a screen reader needs. Passing them does not by itself make a file accessible; failing them means it is not.

What we fix

• Fillable forms and applications. Every field gets a spoken label, so people know which box asks for what.
• Scanned documents. A readable text layer, a reading order and, for forms, fields people can fill in on a computer.
• Agendas and agenda packets. Real headings, so someone can jump to the item they care about, plus descriptions for charts and photos.
• Reports, fee schedules, notices and handouts. Tags, reading order, tables marked as tables.

How each file is checked

AI and automation do most of the tagging, which keeps turnaround fast. Nothing goes back to you until it has passed every step below.

1. Tag. Structure, reading order, field labels, a title and a language are added to the file.
2. Review. Field labels, reading order and image descriptions are reviewed against the printed page.
3. Compare. The fixed file is compared with the original to confirm nothing visible moved or changed.
4. Validate. The file is checked against PDF/UA with veraPDF, the free validator from the PDF Association, and the report comes with it so your team can rerun it.

Standard turnaround is two business days per batch.

An example: Chino’s contractor license application

The City of Chino posts a one-page Contractors / Subcontractors Business License Application. It is fillable, but its 38 fields carried only internal names, so a screen reader read out “Text14” where the form asks for a Social Security number. The file also had no tags. We fixed it as an unsolicited sample in October 2026.

What a screen reader announces, a sample of the 38 fields

Before	After
Text1	Company name
Text8	Contractor’s license number
Check Box4	Type of ownership: LLC
Text14	Owner 1 Social Security number
Text34	Date signed

Read the full before-and-after (PDF) or open the fixed form (PDF).

Ten fixed samples from ten cities

We fixed these from documents the cities post publicly, to show the work. They are unsolicited samples, not the cities’ official copies and not client work. Every file below passes PDF/UA-1 in veraPDF with zero failed rules.

The deadlines

The Department of Justice’s ADA Title II web rule requires state and local governments to meet WCAG 2.1 AA for the documents they post. Under the April 2026 interim final rule, entities with a population of 50,000 or more must comply by April 26, 2027, and smaller entities and special districts by April 26, 2028. Old documents kept only for reference can be exempt; forms people still use are not.

For ADA consultants

If you write self-evaluations and transition plans, your reports already find the documents that need fixing. We can fix them behind you: you keep the client relationship, and the work goes out under your name or ours. The first document from a current client is free, so you can judge the quality before committing to anything.

Free check of your website’s PDFs

About

Contact

Email [email protected] or call 310-972-8222. Send a document, or ask for a list of the PDFs on your website that fail, and we’ll reply within one business day.