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Document Class — General Information Document

informationalWCAG 1.3.1 · Level AAclassification scope
Document Class: CLASS-1 — General Information Document
Remediation: full
Complexity: low
Est. Hours: 1–4

This document is a general information document — such as a policy, press release, meeting minutes, letter, or report. These documents require full accessibility remediation: proper heading structure, reading order, alt text on images, and tagged tables. This is the standard remediation path and most agencies can handle it with Adobe Acrobat Pro or a remediation service.

Who Is Affected

All users who rely on assistive technology to read documents, including screen reader users, users who need text reflow for magnification, and users who benefit from structured navigation.

What This Means

General information documents are the most common type of government PDF. They include policies, press releases, meeting minutes, letters, annual reports, newsletters, and agendas. The good news: these are the most straightforward documents to remediate because they follow standard document structures.

Compliance approach: Full remediation — all standard WCAG PDF Techniques apply. This document type does not qualify for alternative-format exceptions.

Estimated effort: 1–4 hours depending on document length and complexity.

Fix: Document

What Full Remediation Requires

A fully remediated general information document must have:

  1. Document title set in the metadata (not just the file name)
  2. Document language specified (e.g., English)
  3. Complete tag structure: every element tagged as heading, paragraph, list, table, figure, etc.
  4. Heading hierarchy: H1 → H2 → H3 without skipping levels
  5. Reading order that matches the visual layout — especially important for multi-column documents
  6. Alt text on all informational images; decorative images marked as artifacts
  7. Table headers with proper row/column scope on all data tables
  8. List markup on all bulleted or numbered lists
  9. Bookmarks for documents longer than a few pages

Step-by-Step Process

  1. Check if you have the source file (Word, Google Docs, etc.)

    • If yes: fix structure in the source, then re-export as tagged PDF
    • If no: remediate the PDF directly in Adobe Acrobat Pro

  2. Source file remediation (preferred):

    • Use built-in heading styles (Heading 1, 2, 3) — don't just make text bold/large
    • Use built-in list formatting — don't manually type bullets
    • Add alt text to all images (right-click → Edit Alt Text)
    • Use the table feature for tabular data — don't use tabs or spaces to simulate columns
    • Export as PDF with "Document structure tags for accessibility" enabled

  3. Direct PDF remediation:

    • Open in Adobe Acrobat Pro
    • Run Accessibility → Autotag Document
    • Review and correct tags in the Tags panel
    • Fix reading order in the Order panel
    • Set Document Properties: title, language
    • Run Accessibility → Full Check to verify

  4. Verify the result:

    • Run PAC 2024 for PDF/UA conformance check
    • Upload to OctoComply for WCAG compliance verification

Standard Reference

Applicable WCAG 2.1 Criteria:

  • SC 1.1.1 — Non-text Content (alt text on images)
  • SC 1.3.1 — Info and Relationships (tag structure, headings, tables, lists)
  • SC 1.3.2 — Meaningful Sequence (reading order)
  • SC 2.4.2 — Page Titled (document title in metadata)
  • SC 3.1.1 — Language of Page (document language)

Key PDF Techniques:

Helpful Tools

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