There are so many electronic documents. What do I do with them?

Many government organizations have more old electronic documents than they know what to do with, accumulated over years, and maybe decades. For older conventional electronic documents that are not used anymore to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the public entity’s services, programs, or activities, it would not be an optimal use of resources to make them all accessible. The recent changes made by the Department of Justice to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act acknowledge this reality.

What Are Conventional Electronic Documents?

Conventional electronic documents include the following types of documents:

• Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer word processor files, and other word processing documents

• Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Google Slides, LibreOffice Impress presentation files, and other presentation files

• Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc files, and other spreadsheet files

• Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files

Conventional electronic documents do not include web pages.

Documents Created Before the Deadline

Documents created before the compliance deadline for the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II changes that are not currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the public entity’s services, programs, or activities do not need to be made accessible. They also do not need to be separated into a separate “archive” area.

What about documents after the deadline?

Documents created after the deadline must be made accessible. We have guides for creating accessible Word documents and creating accessible Excel workbooks for you to review if you would like to take a look:

• Creating Accessible Microsoft Word documents on Windows
• Creating Accessible Microsoft Word documents on Mac
• Creating Accessible Microsoft Excel documents on Windows
• Creating Accessible Microsoft Excel documents on Mac

If you need to make a portable document format (PDF) document accessible that does not contain a form, please read our guide on remediating inaccessible static PDF documents.