PDF accessibility services take a document you already publish and give it the tag tree, reading order, alt text and table headers it needs to be read aloud in the right order. They are usually priced per page or per document, and the quote is almost always for the whole library because nobody has counted which files matter. This page is how to decide what to send: the count, the cost per document, and the test that tells you whether a file should be remediated at all or replaced with a web page. On the worked example twenty-five PDFs carry 75 of the 401 issues and $2,968 of the fix.
Count the library before you price it
Export the list of PDF links from the site and sort by the page that links them. Most libraries divide cleanly: a handful linked from the top navigation and the product pages, and a long tail linked from one archived post each. The first group is what a visitor and a procurement reviewer will open, and it is usually under twenty files even on a site with hundreds of documents.
What the per-document price should reflect
A born-digital text document with simple structure is quick; a scanned form is a recognition job; a report full of nested tables and charts is slow and needs judgement about what each chart says. On the worked example three issues a document at 25 minutes each is about $119 a file, which is the number to hold a per-document quote against before agreeing a library-wide rate.
The test for replacing rather than remediating
If the PDF exists so somebody can read it, publish the content as a web page and keep the PDF as a print version. If it exists to be printed, signed or filed, remediate it. Applying that test first usually halves the library before a supplier quotes on it, which is a bigger saving than any negotiation on the rate.
Questions people ask about pdf accessibility services
Do we have to fix every PDF?
No. Fix what is linked from live pages and unpublish or archive the rest; a document nobody can reach from the site is not the priority a live form is.
Can we do it in-house?
The simple documents, yes, with the authoring tool's own checker and half a day of training. Scanned files and complex tables are where a service earns its fee.
How do we stop it happening again?
Fix the export step: the accessible version is made when the document is authored, not months later by somebody who did not write it.