File Remediation Approaches

Please use the following decision tree for how you can approach evaluating files on the website that need to be reviewed for accessibility. 

  1. Look at each file in the reports
  2. Does your department own/manage this file?
    1. Yes: Continue to the next question.
    2. No: If you do not own/create/manage/did-not-upload this file, please send a list of these files to law.web@nyu.edu.
  3. Do you need to keep this file (or its contents) on the site?*
    * A reminder that if the document is for a class it should be put on NYUClasses where it is not required to be made accessible. Or if it is meant for a small group perhaps it could be made available in a different way, such as sending via email or via a non-public file sharing location like NYU Box.
    1. Yes: Continue to next question.
    2. Not sure:
      1. Take a look at the Downloads data in the report. The report represents five months of site traffic data from 2020.
      2. If it’s a pretty low number, that means not many visitors are choosing to view this content. If the file is not essential content, consider removing it so that you don’t need to remediate it. Or convert it to a webpage that is easier to remediate.
    3. No: Remove the link AND the file from the site.
      1. Edit the webpage to remove the link to the file.
      2. Fill out the file deletion form to tell the Web Team which file(s) to delete. You can submit a list of files via this form.
  4. Is the file older than 2015?
    1. Yes: the file can be left alone but be sure to check the PDF link syntax rules so that the link to the file is presented correctly.
    2. No: Continue to next question.
  5. Is the PDF available on another (non-NYU) website?
    1. Yes: Consider modifying your link to point to the offsite version. Then you will not need to remediate the PDF.
    2. No: Continue to the next question.
  6. Can you change it to be a webpage?  (it is easier to make webpage content accessible, and your content is more user- and mobile-friendly)
    1. Yes: Convert the file's contents into a webpage. Then do this:
      1. Edit the original linking page (see the report) to change the PDF link to point to your newly created webpage.
      2. When ready send us the list of files that should be deleted from the website
    2. Not sure: Consider our Webpage or PDF?
    3. No: Continue to next step.
  7. The PDF file must be remediated (made accessible)
  8. Is it a simple document? (you can probably remediate it yourself)
    1. Download the file to your desktop
    2. Follow our PDF remediation instructions.
    3. Send the remediated file (with the identical filename as the original file) to the Web Team to update your PDF. (please don’t change it yourself with a new file; this will leave old file in place which can cause problems)
  9. Is it a more complex document? (you might want to have a vendor remediate it)
    1. Download the file to your desktop
    2. Work with one of the NYU vendors to remediate your file
      1. Appligent
      2. AbleDocs
    3. Send the remediated file (with the identical filename as the original file) to the Web Team to update your PDF. (please don’t change it yourself with a new file; this will leave old file in place which can cause problems)