A city ADA coordinator asked the Citizens with Disabilities Advisory Board on Nov. 10 for a one-time $6,000 expenditure to buy five licenses of Crawford Technologies' Remediate software to accelerate remediation of PDFs and other documents on the city website.

The staff presentation explained that Remediate reduces manual tagging time in complex documents such as tables and site plans; the vendor demonstration showed a document that took 45 minutes to remediate by hand could be done in roughly 10 minutes with the software. The coordinator said the full Crawford Tech suite would exceed $30,000, and the current $6,000 request covers a minimal, short-term license set to address documents now and reduce risk ahead of a Department of Justice web-accessibility compliance period that staff said begins in April 2026.

Board members raised funding and precedent concerns. Several members said captioning for commission meetings and similar routine compliance costs should be budgeted by the city rather than paid by the board. One board member said the board could consider "seed" funding for a one-time purchase but requested a written commitment from city management that future recurring costs be placed in the city budget. The ADA coordinator said she would seek written confirmation that the board would not be expected to pay annually and that she would ask about reimbursement and budget timing.

The coordinator also noted the practical risk: if documents created after the compliance date remain inaccessible, the city could face enforcement or demand letters. To reduce that risk she described plans to begin manual NVDA testing, pursue WCAG staff training, and rely on an upcoming webmaster position as a long-term governance fix.

Board action and follow-up: the board approved the commission presentation report that contained the request for inclusion; staff said she will return with written commitments regarding one-time funding and potential reimbursement and will present detailed language at the next meeting.

Ending: Board members supported seeding projects that produce visible public benefit but were adamant the city should ultimately carry ongoing compliance costs; staff will pursue written assurances and continue remediation and testing efforts in the interim.