Budgeting for document accessibility

What document accessibility costs

Document accessibility costs come in three shapes: staff hours if you fix files yourself, a per-page charge if you send them to a remediation vendor, or a flat fee if you use a subscription or monthly service. The right comparison is a full year of your real posting volume, not the price of one file.

Per-page rates vary by vendor and by how complex the page is. One vendor, Accessible.org, lists PDFs starting at $4.00 a page with a $250 minimum order. Another, accessibility.build, lists $3, $7 and $12 a page for standard, structured and complex pages, with a $150 minimum. Scanned letters, forms and tables usually sit at the complex end. Some services, including automated conversion services, quote by site rather than by page; our options comparison covers how each model works.

Count your pages first

Counting pages is the step that makes every other number honest. Look at last year’s meetings: how many agendas, packets and minutes you posted, and roughly how many pages each ran. Add notices, forms and reports. Packets usually dominate, because a single packet can outweigh a month of everything else.

A quick way to count:

1. List every public body that meets: council or board, planning commission, other boards.
2. Note how often each met last year and a typical packet length.
3. Add agenda and minutes pages for each meeting.
4. Add the notices, forms and one-off documents posted in a year.
5. Flag very large documents, such as a budget book or a comprehensive plan, separately.

Our free check finds the PDFs on your site and reports what it sees in each, which helps with the count.

A worked budget for a generic town

A worked budget: a hypothetical town holds two council meetings a month. Each meeting has a 4-page agenda, a 70-page packet and 6 pages of minutes, which is 80 pages a meeting and 1,920 pages a year. Add about 10 pages a month of notices and forms, and the town posts roughly 2,040 pages a year.

At the vendor rates above, the same 2,040 pages cost:

• At $3 a page, all standard pages: $6,120 a year.
• At $4 a page, one vendor’s starting rate: $8,160 a year.
• At $12 a page, all complex pages: $24,480 a year.

A real packet mixes simple and complex pages, so the true figure sits somewhere in that range. Staff time for sending files, tracking them and reposting them is extra.

In-house, the cost is hours. Time your clerk on one typical packet, multiply by 24 packets, and multiply by the clerk’s loaded hourly cost. Add software licenses if you need them.

A flat monthly service is the third shape. Readable Town is $1,500 a year for the town, whatever the page count in a normal month, with very large one-off documents quoted first. See pricing.

A simple budget line might read: “Document accessibility services: monthly fixing and checking of posted agendas, packets, minutes and notices, with a dated record.” Put it wherever web or records services already sit in your budget.

When the Colorado budget is built

In Colorado, the budget calendar runs through the fall. The Division of Local Government’s calendar says the budget officer must submit the proposed budget to the governing body by October 15, citing C.R.S. 29-1-105, and the governing body must then publish a notice of budget. That makes early October the practical deadline for a new line.

The same DOLA calendar lists December 15 as the deadline for sending mill levies to the county, and says governments levying property tax must adopt their budgets before that step. Governments that do not levy a property tax must adopt by December 31. A copy of the adopted budget goes to the Division by January 31. Home rule towns should check their charter for their own dates.

If the line did not make the proposed budget, many boards can still amend the budget during the year. DOLA publishes guidance on budget amendments; ask your finance officer or attorney how your town handles them.

Bid thresholds vary locally

Bid thresholds, the dollar amount above which a purchase needs formal bids or quotes, are set locally. A town’s ordinance, charter or purchasing policy decides it, and the numbers vary a great deal between towns. Check your own threshold before choosing an option, because it can decide how quickly you can start.

A per-page contract for a busy town can cross a threshold that a flat fee would not. Our one-page memo for your council is written in board-packet format and leaves a blank for your own threshold, so a clerk or manager can fill it in and put it on an agenda.

The truth about grants

The truth about grants for document accessibility is that they are scarce. As of September 29, 2026, we found no federal grant program dedicated to website or document accessibility for small local governments. The help we did find comes from state bodies and associations, is small, and changes from year to year.

What we could verify in Colorado:

• SIPA accessibility grant, 2024. The Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority announced in March 2024 that it would cover 5,000 one-year licenses for Allyant’s CommonLook PDF and CommonLook Office software, plus training, with eligible governments able to apply for up to 25 licenses. We could not confirm whether it is open now.
• SIPA Micro-Grant. SIPA’s micro-grant program funds up to $10,000 per application and is “designed to connect residents to government by putting more information and services online.” Its page says the 2027 cycle will open next spring. Ask SIPA whether accessibility work qualifies.
• SDA reimbursement grant. The Special District Association of Colorado describes a one-time reimbursement grant for small districts, for costs such as PDF conversions or website accessibility services. The page lists no amount or deadline, so call SDA.

Software licenses help staff who fix files in-house; they do not pay for the hours. Budget the work as an ongoing operating cost, and treat any grant as a bonus.

What we do about it

What we do about it is keep the cost flat and predictable: $1,500 a year per town, county or special district. Each month we find what your office posted, fix the agendas, packets, minutes and notices, have a person check every file, and keep a dated Readable Record. See how it works.

This guide explains the rule in plain language. It is not legal advice. For decisions about your town, talk to your attorney.