PDF accessibility for authorities and public administration
Public bodies have had to offer their digital content accessible for years - this also applies to the PDFs on their websites. Accessful audits and remediates notifications, forms and publications automatically according to BITV 2.0, EN 301 549 and PDF/UA-2 - so easy that every office can use it themselves.
The challenge
Authorities and public bodies continually publish documents: notices, forms, official gazettes, statutes, information material. Unlike internal documents, the PDFs are publicly visible on your websites - and are therefore directly subject to accessibility tests such as the BITV test and monitoring by the responsible federal and state authorities.
The obligation has not only existed since the BFSG: EU Directive 2016/2102 and BITV 2.0 have been obliging public bodies to make file formats such as PDF accessible for years. In practice, many published documents do not yet meet these requirements - often simply because manual post-processing requires specialist knowledge of tags, reading order and alt text and is not feasible for large collections.
Added to this is the decentralized structure of the administration: documents are created in many offices, departments and subordinate institutions. A central point cannot handle the processing alone. This is exactly where Accessful comes in - as a web app that anyone can use without any prior knowledge, and as an automated solution for the entire published inventory: upload, have it corrected, download, publish.
Typical documents
- Notifications and forms
- Official gazettes and public notices
- Statutes and local law
- Tender and award documents
- Information and citizen materials
- Reports, minutes and publications
What Accessful does for authorities and public administration
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Can be used decentrally without specialist knowledge
Each office and department corrects its own documents directly in the web app using drag-and-drop - without training and without PDF/UA specialist knowledge. Responsibility remains where the documents are created.
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Process entire website inventory
Batch processing thousands of documents in one go, with live status - if desired, directly via the URL list of your published PDFs via the REST API.
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audit report as proof
Each document receives an audit-ready report - documented in a comprehensible manner for monitoring bodies, internal auditing and in-house management.
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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 centers.
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Procurement-friendly packages
Prepaid page quotas without user licenses and without a fixed term, based on the value limits of the UVgO. Consumption and costs can be allocated per office, department or facility.
Legal framework
- Directive (EU) 2016/2102
- Requires public bodies across the EU to make websites and mobile applications accessible - explicitly including file formats such as PDF. The obligation applies in full to documents published since September 23, 2018; Older documents are recorded if they are required for active administrative procedures.
- BITV 2.0
- The Accessible Information Technology Regulation implements the EU directive for federal public bodies; the states have issued corresponding state regulations. The benchmark is the requirements of EN 301 549 - for PDFs this means correct tags, a comprehensible 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 BFSG. For documents, she refers to the WCAG success criteria. Accessful audits and remediates according to PDF/UA-2 and WCAG 2.2 and documents the result for each document in the audit report.
- BFSG (supplementary)
- The German Accessibility Strengthening Act is aimed at the private sector. It is also relevant for public companies – such as municipal utilities or transport companies – to the extent that their services for consumers fall within its scope. For such mixed forms, both sets of rules apply side by side.
Note: This content provides information about legal requirements, but does not replace legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Does the requirement for PDF accessibility already apply to authorities today?
Yes. While the BFSG has only been in effect for the private sector since June 2025, the EU Directive 2016/2102 and BITV 2.0 have been obligating public bodies for years - including the PDFs published on websites. The guide explains details about the legal basis and deadlines BITV 2.0: Accessible PDFs in the public sector, a classification of the regulations of the article BFSG & accessible PDFs.
Are published website PDFs the focus of exams?
Yes. Unlike internal documents, published PDFs are publicly visible and part of the scope of testing of procedures such as the BITV test; The federal and state monitoring bodies regularly monitor compliance. Accessful processes existing inventory using batch processing - if desired, directly via the URL list of your website REST API.
Can every office and department use Accessful themselves?
Yes. Accessful is deliberately designed as a simple web app that can be used without specialist knowledge: After uploading, the notice or information sheet is automatically corrected and is ready for publication. Consumption and costs can be assigned to individual offices, departments or facilities; You can find the packages on the Pricing page.
Can Accessful be operated in the administration's own data center?
Yes. For administrations with high demands on digital sovereignty, Accessful runs completely On-Premises – air-gapped if desired and with your own AI models behind your firewall. Alternatively, we operate the solution on German infrastructure in ISO/IEC 27001-certified data centers; Details below Security & Privacy.
Do the contents of notices and statutes remain unchanged after correction?
Yes. Accessful does not change the layout or content, but only adds the structural level: tags, reading order and alt text. The visible appearance remains identical. Electronically signed PDFs must be re-signed after processing - in this case, please contact us in advance.
What happens if the monitoring body or a BITV test objects to a remediated document?
There is a remediation guarantee for this: If a document remediated by Accessful is not recognized as accessible during an accessibility audit, we will remediate it free of charge - quickly, easily and at no additional cost. The audit-ready report for each document serves as proof for the monitoring body and the BITV testing center at all times.
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.