New Preferred Source Service
NYSID Preferred Source PDF & Document Remediation (DARS)
New York State agencies, authorities, and municipalities can purchase document and web accessibility remediation directly through NYSID — with no competitive solicitation. NYSID is approved to perform Digital Accessibility Remediation Services (DARS) as a Preferred Source offering. Under New York State Finance Law § 162, a Preferred Source offering that meets your form, function and utility requirements takes priority over competitive bidding (OGS recommendation memo, Procurement Council).
CASO Comply delivers the document side of that offering: PDF remediation at scale, tagged to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, Section 508, and PDF/UA, with before-and-after scoring and audit-ready documentation on every file.
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What Preferred Source purchasing changes
The compliance obligation does not change. The procurement path does.
No competitive solicitation
Under NYS Finance Law § 162, a Preferred Source offering that meets your form, function and utility requirements may be purchased directly. No RFP cycle, no bid protest window, no months of procurement calendar. (One nuance your purchasing office will know: NYSID contracts of $100,000 or more still require OGS price approval — a pricing review, not a bid.)
Start before the deadline consumes the runway
The April 26, 2027 Title II deadline is fixed, and remediation backlogs of 5,000 to 50,000 documents take time to work through. Preferred Source purchasing removes the procurement lag that eats the calendar.
Employment mission built in
NYSID exists to create employment for New Yorkers with disabilities — at least 50% of direct labor hours on Preferred Source work are performed by individuals with disabilities. Purchasing DARS through NYSID funds accessible employment while satisfying an accessibility obligation. The same dollars serve both.
Documented, audit-ready output
Every document returns with before-and-after scoring and a record of what was fixed. If DOJ or a constituent asks what you did, the answer is a file, not a recollection.
What the DARS offering covers
The approved scope of Digital Accessibility Remediation Services.
- Apply PDF tags, establish logical reading order, write alternative text, and perform table structure and form field fixes for PDFs and scanned documents
- Implement template-level HTML/CSS/ARIA corrections to remove accessibility barriers in web and CMS content
- Re-test corrected materials and document changes using standardized what-was-fixed templates
- Deliver production-ready, corrected files and audit-ready documentation back to the customer
- Apply post-production video captioning and audio description
What DARS pricing looks like
Pricing under the DARS offering is part of the public record of NYSID's Preferred Source application, and OGS confirmed it falls within 15% of prevailing market price.
| Service | Rate |
|---|---|
| PDF / document remediation | $1.75 – $4.09 per page, by document complexity |
| Post-production video captioning | $2.56 per minute |
| Audio description | $12.61 per minute |
What moves a document across the per-page range is complexity: a text-only memo sits at the low end; documents dense with tables, forms, charts, and scanned images sit at the high end. A free scan of your document library gives you the page counts and complexity mix to budget from — before any commitment.
The deadlines Preferred Source helps you beat
DOJ's Title II web accessibility rule (28 CFR § 35.200) requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance for web content and mobile apps, including PDFs. DOJ extended the original compliance dates by one year on April 20, 2026 — and signaled that agencies should use the extra year to finish, not to wait.
Compliance deadline
Extended from April 24, 2026
State and local governments serving populations of 50,000 or more
This deadline is approaching. Act now to ensure compliance.
Compliance deadline
Extended from April 26, 2027
State and local governments serving populations of under 50,000
This deadline is approaching. Act now to ensure compliance.
Not every old document must be remediated — the rule exempts true archives and some preexisting files. Our guide to the archived-content and preexisting-document exceptions explains what qualifies and what doesn't.
How an agency buys it
Scope the work
Identify the document library that has to be remediated. If you do not know how many PDFs are on your sites, a free scan will tell you before any commitment.
Contact NYSID under the DARS offering
NYSID confirms the Preferred Source offering meets your form, function and utility requirements. Krzysztof Zdunek, Sales Manager, kzdunek@nysid.org, (631) 372-4294.
Issue the purchase directly
Under NYS Finance Law § 162, no competitive solicitation is required once the Preferred Source offering is confirmed to meet your requirements.
Remediation and documentation
CASO Comply remediates the documents and returns production-ready files with before-and-after scoring and a record of what was fixed on every document.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a New York State Preferred Source?
- Under New York State Finance Law Section 162, designated Preferred Source providers take priority over normal competitive bidding. When a Preferred Source offering meets an agency's form, function and utility requirements, the agency may purchase directly without issuing a competitive solicitation.
- Is NYSID approved for digital accessibility work?
- Yes. NYSID is approved to provide Digital Accessibility Remediation Services (DARS) as a Preferred Source offering, covering PDF and document remediation, web and CMS template corrections, re-testing and documentation, and post-production captioning and audio description.
- How much does PDF remediation cost through DARS?
- Document remediation runs $1.75 to $4.09 per page depending on complexity, video captioning $2.56 per minute, and audio description $12.61 per minute, per the pricing in NYSID's Preferred Source application record. OGS confirmed the pricing is within 15% of prevailing market price.
- How does an agency buy DARS through NYSID?
- Contact NYSID to scope the work under the DARS offering, then issue the purchase directly to NYSID as a Preferred Source under NYS Finance Law Section 162. CASO Comply performs the document remediation and returns production-ready files plus audit-ready documentation.
- Is there really no procurement process at all?
- There is no competitive solicitation — no RFP, no bidding, no protest window. Normal purchasing mechanics still apply, and NYSID contracts valued at $100,000 or more require OGS price approval. For most agencies it turns a months-long procurement into a purchase order.
- What does CASO Comply do under the DARS offering?
- CASO Comply applies PDF tags, establishes logical reading order, writes alternative text, and performs table structure and form field fixes for PDFs and scanned documents. Every remediated document returns with before-and-after compliance scoring and audit-ready documentation.
- Does Preferred Source purchasing change the compliance deadline?
- No. ADA Title II still requires public entities serving 50,000 or more people to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by April 26, 2027, and smaller entities and special district governments by April 26, 2028, following DOJ's April 2026 extension. Preferred Source purchasing removes procurement delay, which is why agencies use it to start sooner.
- Do we have to remediate every old PDF on our site?
- No. The Title II rule (28 CFR 35.201) exempts archived web content meeting a strict four-part test and preexisting documents not currently used to access services. Any document people currently use to apply for, access, or participate in an entity's services must conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, regardless of its age.
- Who employs the people doing the remediation?
- NYSID's mission is employment for New Yorkers with disabilities, and at least 50% of direct labor hours on Preferred Source work are performed by individuals with disabilities. Agencies purchasing through the DARS offering meet an accessibility obligation while funding accessible employment.
Start the DARS conversation
Tell us how many documents you are responsible for and we will tell you what remediating them looks like — scope, timeline, cost, and what comes back on every file.