What is this “Archive” thing? Can I do it?
There are so many old documents! What do I do with them?
Many government organizations have more old documents than they know what to do with, accumulated over years and maybe decades. It is impractical to expect agencies to expend the resources necessary to make all those documents accessible. For older documents that aren’t used anymore, it would not be an optimal use of resources. The new rules put out by the Department of Justice acknowledge this reality.
If you have the resources available, you may want to review your old documents to determine if they are still needed by reviewing for content ROT – Redundant, Obsolete and Trivial. Do you still need it? Is it duplicated in multiple locations? Is it current information? Is it useful? These are some of the questions you can ask as the files are reviewed.
Documents Created Before the Deadline
Documents that are currently being used to apply for, access, or participate in a state or local government’s services, programs, or activities must be accessible by the deadline.
Other documents created before the deadline do not need to be made accessible, but they must be marked as archive.
Archiving Old Documents
If a document is created before the deadline and is not currently being used to apply for, access, or participate in a state or local government’s services, programs, or activities, it can be archived. Archiving must occur without modifying the content of the document. That point is important because if you modify the content of the document, the accessibility requirements apply after the deadline.
There are many ways to organize your archived documents. The least invasive way to mark your document as archived is to append “_archive” to the end of the file name.
Example:
- Current document name: 02-11-2025-agenda.pdf
- Archive document name: 02-11-2025-agenda-archive.pdf
There are ways “_archive” can be appended to all your file names at once (like to all PDFs and potentially the associated links). Please contact the OCIO Digital Accessibility team for additional information on how this can be accomplished.
Just as a reminder: ALL documents created after the compliance deadline must be created in a way that they are accessible.
The full requirements are listed at the following, including the section on Archived Web Content