PDF accessibility for public authorities and government bodies
Public-sector bodies have long been required to make their digital content accessible under the BGG or corresponding state equality legislation and BITV 2.0. This includes PDFs on their websites. Accessful automatically audits and remediates official notices, forms and publications in line with BITV 2.0, EN 301 549 and PDF/UA-2 – simple enough for every department to use independently.
The challenge
Public authorities continually publish official notices, forms, gazettes, bylaws and public information. Unlike internal documents, PDFs on public websites are directly covered by accessibility assessments such as BITV conformance testing and by federal and state monitoring bodies.
This obligation predates the BFSG. Section 12a BGG requires federal public-sector bodies to provide accessible information technology, with BITV 2.0 defining the detailed requirements. State and local authorities are governed by the relevant state equality legislation and regulations, based at EU level on Directive (EU) 2016/2102. Embedded file formats such as PDF are also covered. In practice, many published documents still fail to meet these requirements, often because manual remediation requires specialist knowledge of tags, reading order and alt text and is not feasible for large collections.
Government is decentralised: documents are created by many authorities, departments and subordinate bodies, and no single central team can remediate them all. Accessful addresses this with a web app that each team can use without prior expertise and an automated workflow for the entire published collection: upload, remediate, download and publish.
Typical documents
- Notifications and forms
- Official gazettes and public notices
- Bylaws and local legislation
- Tender and procurement documents
- Public information and citizen-facing materials
- Reports, minutes and publications
How Accessful helps public authorities
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Available across departments without specialist expertise
Each authority and department can remediate its own documents directly in the web app using drag-and-drop, with no training or PDF/UA expertise required. Responsibility remains with the team that creates the documents.
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Remediate an entire website’s PDF collection
Process thousands of documents in one batch with live status updates – optionally by submitting a list of published PDF URLs through the REST API.
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Audit-ready evidence
Every document receives an audit-ready report that gives monitoring bodies, internal audit teams and senior management a clear record of the result.
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Notifications remain unchanged
Accessful only complements the structural layer: tags, reading order, alt text. The layout and content of your documents remain identical.
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On-premises in your own data center
Operation completely in your infrastructure, air-gapped if desired and with your own AI models - alternatively hosting in Germany in ISO/IEC-27001-certified data centres.
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Procurement-friendly packages
Prepaid page packages have no per-user licences or fixed term and are aligned with UVgO procurement thresholds. Usage and costs can be allocated by authority, department or institution.
Legal framework
- Directive (EU) 2016/2102
- Requires public-sector bodies throughout the EU to make websites and mobile applications accessible, expressly including file formats such as PDF. The requirements apply in full to documents published since 23 September 2018; older documents are also covered when needed for active administrative procedures.
- BGG, state equality legislation and BITV 2.0
- Section 12a BGG requires federal public-sector bodies to provide accessible information technology, with BITV 2.0 defining the detailed requirements. State and local authorities are governed by the relevant state equality legislation and regulations. EN 301 549 is the technical benchmark; for PDFs, this includes correct tags, a logical reading order and alt text.
- EN 301 549 & WCAG 2.2
- The European standard EN 301 549 is the technical benchmark behind BITV 2.0 and the BFSG. For documents, it references the WCAG success criteria. Accessful audits and remediates in line with PDF/UA-2 and WCAG 2.2 and records the result for each document in an audit report.
- BFSG (supplementary)
- The German Accessibility Strengthening Act applies to the private sector. It can also be relevant to public enterprises, such as municipal utilities or transport operators, where their consumer services fall within its scope. Both sets of rules may therefore apply to such hybrid organisations.
Note: This content provides general information about legal requirements and does not constitute legal advice.
Frequently asked questions for this sector
Do public authorities already have to provide accessible PDFs?
Yes. Although the BFSG has applied to the private sector only since June 2025, Directive (EU) 2016/2102 and BITV 2.0 have required accessible public-sector content, including PDFs published on websites, for years. For details on the legal basis and deadlines, see BITV 2.0: accessible PDFs in the public sector; for an overview of how the rules fit together, see BFSG & accessible PDFs.
Are published website PDFs covered by accessibility monitoring?
Yes. Unlike internal files, published PDFs are publicly available and included in assessments such as BITV conformance testing. Federal and state monitoring bodies regularly check compliance. Accessful can batch-remediate existing collections, optionally from a list of URLs on your website through the REST API.
Can every authority and department use Accessful independently?
Yes. Accessful is designed as a straightforward web app that requires no specialist expertise. Once uploaded, an official notice or information sheet is remediated automatically and is ready to publish. Usage and costs can be allocated to individual authorities, departments or institutions; packages are listed on the Pricing page.
Can Accessful run in a public authority’s own data centre?
Yes. For public administrations with strict digital-sovereignty requirements, Accessful runs entirely On-Premises – optionally air-gapped and using your own AI models behind your firewall. Alternatively, we operate the service in ISO/IEC 27001-certified data centres in Germany. For details, see Security & Privacy.
Do official notices and bylaws remain unchanged after remediation?
Yes. Accessful leaves layout and content unchanged and adds only the structural layer: tags, reading order and alt text. The visible appearance remains identical. Electronically signed PDFs must be signed again after remediation; please contact us before processing them.
What happens if the monitoring body or a BITV test objects to a remediated document?
The remediation guarantee covers this situation. If a document remediated by Accessful is not recognised as accessible during an accessibility audit, we will remediate it free of charge. Its audit-ready report provides evidence for the monitoring body or BITV testing body.
Check your PDFs for accessibility – free of charge.
Upload a document and receive a result in seconds - without registering. Or let us show you Accessful in person.