CivicTag Accessibility Conformance Report
Revised Section 508 & WCAG 2.1 Level AA Edition
(Based on VPAT® Version 2.5)
Report Date: October 2026
Product Name: CivicTag Municipal PDF/UA-1 & HTML5 Document Compliance Engine
Product Version: 1.5 LTS
Vendor: CivicTag Compliance Technologies LLC
Contact: compliance@civictag.com
Evaluation Methods Used: Automated ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA-1) structural verification, Matterhorn Protocol 1.12 checkpoint verification, macOS PDFKit / CoreGraphics character extraction verification, screen reader testing (VoiceOver / NVDA), and W3C HTML5/ARIA DOM validation.
Applicable Standards & Guidelines
| Standard / Guideline | Included in Report |
|---|---|
| Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 | Level A (Yes) — Level AA (Yes) |
| Revised Section 508 Standards (36 CFR Part 1194) | Yes |
| ISO 14289-1:2014 (PDF/UA-1) | Yes (Electronic Document Universal Accessibility) |
| DOJ ADA Title II Final Rule (28 CFR Part 35) | Yes (28 CFR § 35.200 Technical Standard) |
Terms & Conformance Definitions
- Supports: The functionality of the product has at least one method that meets the criterion without known defects or equivalent facilitation is provided.
- Partially Supports: Some functionality of the product does not meet the criterion.
- Does Not Support: The majority of product functionality does not meet the criterion.
- Not Applicable: The criterion is not relevant to the product.
Table 1: WCAG 2.1 Level A & Level AA Success Criteria
| Criteria | Conformance Level | Remarks and Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A) | Supports | Decorative borders, background pagination headers/footers, and layout dividers are marked as /Artifact elements. Informational figures and seals receive /Figure structure tags with programmatic /Alt descriptions. |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) | Supports | Document headings (H1–H6), paragraphs (P), lists (L, LI), and tabular schedules (Table, TR, TH, TD) are explicitly structured inside the PDF /StructTreeRoot and semantic HTML5 landmarks. |
| 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A) | Supports | Logical reading order is bound via sequential /MCID (Marked Content Identifier) entries in the /ParentTree, ensuring assistive technologies read multi-column forms and fee tables in the intended order. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) | Supports | In-place PDF remediation preserves original vector typography and contrast; companion HTML5 views enforce minimum contrast ratios of at least 4.5:1 for body text and 3.0:1 for UI components. |
| 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A) | Supports | The PDF Catalog dictionary is configured with /ViewerPreferences << /DisplayDocTitle true >> and a descriptive human-readable /Title in both the Document Info dictionary and XMP metadata stream. |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A) | Supports | Hyperlinks and document references are tagged within /Link structure elements with explicit URI actions and accessible link text. |
| 3.1.1 Language of Page (Level A) | Supports | The document root specifies /Lang (en-US) in the PDF Catalog and lang="en-US" on the HTML root element so screen readers load the proper pronunciation rules. |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) | Supports | Interactive form fields and checkboxes include programmatic roles and labels. Legacy symbol-font checkboxes (such as unmapped Wingdings glyphs) are mapped via synthesized /ToUnicode CMaps to standard Unicode ballot boxes (U+2610). |
Table 2: Revised Section 508 — Chapter 5 (Software & Electronic Documents)
| Criteria | Conformance Level | Remarks and Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| 502.2.1 User Control of Accessibility Features | Supports | Remediated PDF/UA-1 documents and HTML5 views operate natively with standard operating system accessibility controls, zoom magnifiers, and screen readers. |
| 502.3.1 Object Information | Supports | All structural elements expose standard ISO 32000-1 role mappings in the /RoleMap dictionary. |
| 503.4 User Preferences | Supports | HTML5 views honor system font scaling, high-contrast modes (forced-colors), and reduced motion preferences (prefers-reduced-motion). |
| 504.2 Content Creation or Editing | Supports | CivicTag generates compliant PDF/UA-1 structure trees and metadata streams deterministically during compilation. |