The Challenge
A Mid-Atlantic state university system with a main campus, four satellite campuses, and dozens of academic department websites had accumulated over 18,000 public-facing PDF documents — syllabi, financial aid forms, research publications, administrative policies, campus maps, event materials, and institutional reports.
With the ADA Title II deadline of April 24, 2026 approaching, the university's accessibility office conducted an initial audit and discovered that the vast majority of their document library failed WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Documents lacked proper structure tags, alt text for images, logical reading order, and basic metadata like document titles and language declarations.
The university solicited quotes from manual remediation firms. The estimates came back between $8 and $15 per page, putting the total cost at $144,000 to $270,000 — and the timeline at 8 to 12 months, which would miss the deadline entirely. Hiring a team of in-house remediation specialists was not feasible within the remaining timeframe or budget.
The Problem
$144K-$270K
Manual remediation quotes
8-12 months
Estimated manual timeline (deadline in weeks)
The Solution
The university engaged CASO Comply to handle the full scope of their document remediation. The process followed three phases:
Phase 1
SiteScan Document Inventory
CASO Comply's SiteScan crawler was deployed across the university's entire web presence — the main campus domain, four satellite campus sites, and 47 academic department subdomains. Every public-facing PDF was identified, downloaded, and scored against WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. The inventory revealed 18,247 total documents, of which 14,891 (82%) were non-compliant. The average compliance score across the library was just 23 out of 100.
Phase 2
AI-Powered Bulk Remediation
All 14,891 non-compliant documents were processed through CASO Comply's automated remediation pipeline. The system applied structure tagging (headings, lists, tables), generated descriptive alt text for images and figures, corrected reading order for multi-column layouts, added document metadata (titles, language declarations), and created navigational bookmarks. The entire remediation process completed in under 10 days.
Phase 3
Automated Validation
Every remediated document was validated against PDF/UA (ISO 14289) and WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Documents that did not pass automated validation were flagged for additional processing. The final delivery included compliant files organized by department and domain, along with a comprehensive compliance report for the university's records.
Results
The numbers tell the story: what would have taken nearly a year and cost six figures was completed in under two weeks for a fraction of the price.
18,247
Documents scanned and inventoried
14,891
PDFs requiring remediation (82% non-compliant)
12 days
Total processing time (vs 8-12 months manual)
97%
Cost reduction vs manual remediation quotes
23 → 96
Average compliance score (before → after)
~$4,467
Total cost at $0.30/page (vs $144K+ manual)
Timeline
From initial scan to final delivery, the entire project was completed in 12 days.
Week 1
Discovery and Inventory
SiteScan crawled the university's entire web presence — main campus site, four satellite campus domains, and 47 academic department subdomains. Every public-facing PDF was identified, cataloged, and scored for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.
Week 2
Automated Remediation
14,891 non-compliant PDFs were processed through CASO Comply's AI-powered remediation pipeline. Structure tagging, alt text generation, reading order correction, metadata updates, and bookmark creation were applied automatically.
Week 2-3
Validation and Delivery
Every remediated document was validated against PDF/UA (ISO 14289) and WCAG 2.1 AA standards using automated verification. The university received compliant files organized by department and domain, ready for deployment.
We went from facing a six-figure remediation bill to having our entire PDF library compliant in under two weeks.
— Accessibility Office, Mid-Atlantic State University System
Cost Comparison
CASO Comply
~$4,467
14,891 pages at $0.30/page
Completed in 12 days
Manual Remediation Quotes
$144K-$270K
14,891 pages at $8-$15/page
Estimated 8-12 months
Get Your Free Compliance Assessment
Find out how many of your documents need remediation and what it will cost. Our free SiteScan identifies every non-compliant PDF across your entire web presence.
This case study represents projected results based on typical document remediation outcomes. Actual results may vary based on document complexity and volume.