Download

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

How USCIS Simplified Accessibility and Section 508 Compliance with PDFix Desktop

PDFix Logo

1. Overview

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, processes a high volume of documents every day, which must meet Section 508 accessibility requirements under the Rehabilitation Act.

With files originating from a range of sources, USCIS faced the complex challenge of ensuring consistent PDF accessibility. They needed a practical, scalable tool that could automate PDF remediation and support non-technical staff in creating accessible PDFs without requiring extensive expertise and time spent on remediation.

2. Business Challenges

USCIS receives documents created across various departments and platforms – primarily Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign – resulting in inconsistent PDF outputs. Common challenges included:

  • Existing workflows were inefficient and heavily manual, requiring advanced knowledge of accessibility standards
  • Manual remediation processes slowed document distribution and risked non-compliance.
  • Staff involved in preparing documents were not certified in Section 508 compliance or trained remediators, making manual tagging error-prone and time-consuming

There was a urgent need for a user-friendly tool that could automate parts of the tagging and remediation process while still allowing for manual fine-tuning. Additionally, the large-scale environment required a solution that could be easily adopted by a wide group of employees.

3. Solution

USCIS deployed PDFix Desktop Pro — an automated PDF accessibility remediation tool leveraging its advanced capabilities:

  • Auto-Tagging: PDFix’s intelligent layout recognition engine automatically identifies complex layouts and document elements, and applies the appropriate tags. This ensures a logical reading order, which is essential for assistive technologies
  • Built-in Accessibility Checker: Validates compliance with Section 508 standards
  • Auto-Fix: Fix detectable Section 508 errors
  • PDF Validation Report: Exportable reports highlighting remaining accessibility issues
  • Batch Processing: tenths pages/second per core

4. Implementation

The implementation of PDFix Desktop at USCIS was conducted over a period of approximately 4-5 months. Key steps included:

  • Virtual Group Workshops: Online sessions introduced features to all workers.
  • Hands-On Tutorials: Step-by-step guides on remediation workflows.
  • Dedicated Support: PDFix experts addressed queries in real-time during rollout.

5. Results

By using PDFix Desktop, USCIS achieved a major shift in how they handle accessible documents:

  • Reduced dependence on third-party remediation services
  • Enabled non-technical staff to confidently remediate and address Section 508 requirements
  • Efficiency Gains: Auto-tagging reduced manual effort by 60–70%
  • Built-in validation and auto-fix accelerated error resolution
  • Improved consistency and quality across documents from different sources
  • Guaranteed Section 508 Compliance

“What I particularly loved was the idea of eliminating the manual tweaking of tags, layers etc. on a PDF which can potentially take hours. And instead the software will automagically address most of the corrections in a fraction of the time.“

– Staff managing document accessibility, USCIS